I want to talk through my net worth because there was a stretch that didn\u2019t make sense to me for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Right now I\u2019m sitting at about 360k, but the range that always confused me was how I went from roughly 260\u2013265k to around 315k. I was stuck in that 260 range for what felt like forever, probably close to two years. I would fluctuate between 260 and 270, maybe touch 272, but I couldn\u2019t break out of that range. Then at some point, without it feeling like anything major had changed, I checked again and I was suddenly in the 315 range. It didn\u2019t feel earned in real time, which is what made it confusing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking back, I think I understand what actually happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Around the end of 2022, I bought another property that ended up having more issues than I expected. I paid 285k for it, and at one point it appreciated to around 315k, but then interest rates started climbing aggressively. As rates pushed toward the 8% range, that property dropped back down to around 290k. The same thing happened across my portfolio. One property that was around 315k dropped closer to 300k. Another went from about 230k down to around 200k before recovering slightly to the 215k range. Across the board, everything took a hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During that entire period, my net worth basically stalled. On paper, it looked like I wasn\u2019t making progress, even though I was still doing all the right things. I kept paying down my mortgages, which slowly reduced my liabilities. I was also aggressively paying down my student loans, well above the minimums. On top of that, I continued contributing 17% to my 401k consistently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, my savings rate wasn\u2019t as strong as it should have been because I kept running into issues with that problem property. Money was coming in, but a lot of it was going right back out into repairs and maintenance. On top of that, the little money that I was able save and invest was losing value every time the market dropped. So it felt like I was spinning my wheels financially. Because of that, I started tracking my net worth less consistently. It just felt pointless seeing the same number over and over again no matter how hard I was trying to push forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I think happened next is where the jump came from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While I wasn\u2019t paying as close attention, interest rates started easing and the real estate market began to recover. The properties that had dropped in value started gaining some of that back. At the same time, the stock market recovered as well. I had been consistently contributing to my 401k during the downturn and flat period, so once the market picked back up, all of those contributions started compounding at higher valuations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So one day, after things had settled down a bit, I sat down and recalculated everything. That\u2019s when I saw it. My net worth had jumped 315k range. It felt sudden, but in reality it was the result of two years of slow, consistent progress finally showing up all at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The drop in property values and 401k valuation had been masking the gains I was making elsewhere. Also, My Roth had suffered heavy hits from volatile investments and terrible stock picks that I had to get out of and switch to indexes. Then once those values recovered, combined with loan paydown and the market rebound, everything stacked at the same time. That\u2019s what created that gap from 260 to 315 that I couldn\u2019t explain before. I caught this at 315k, but it kept propelling me into the 340\u2019s and ultimately 350k in networth. It was a quick boost in networth that felt like it happened instantly but was really a result of 2 years of work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of my net worth is still tied to a lot real estate, so those swings matter a lot. When property values dropped, it made it look like I wasn\u2019t progressing. When they recovered, it amplified everything. Add in the stock market coming back and years of steady contributions, and it makes more sense how that jump happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the time, it felt like nothing was working. In reality, the progress was just delayed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I want to talk through my net worth because there was a stretch that didn\u2019t make sense to me for a while. Right now I\u2019m sitting at about 360k, but the range that always confused me was how I went from roughly 260\u2013265k to around 315k. I was stuck in that 260 range for what … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milliondollardiary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milliondollardiary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milliondollardiary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milliondollardiary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milliondollardiary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milliondollardiary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":340,"href":"https:\/\/milliondollardiary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions\/340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milliondollardiary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milliondollardiary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milliondollardiary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}