Annual Wealth Building Review

I’ll start with total growth and then break things down to my various assets. In the past year, I’ve seen 85.48% total growth of my net worth.  That is pretty good considering I paid a 37% effective tax rate this year due to the penalties of making an early withdrawal on my 401K. With that tax burden out of the way, I’m hoping next year delivers a strong performance.

Real estate

My real estate holdings have grown by 20% since first purchase. Now take that with a grain of salt; the values are based on Zillow. I won’t really know the value until I sell a unit. But at least it gives me some sense of their value.

My Florida town home has increased from it’s purchase price by about 12%. This isn’t of much value, because I don’t plan to sell it. But instead, it gives me reassurance that I bought it at a good price. All the other short sales that were going on in the same subdivision are gone, and they have even built a new building in this yet uncompleted neighborhood. These are all signs of the real estate recovery in Florida. It definitely shores up future opportunities in case I need to open a HELOC against it to access any cash.

Mortgage debt on my rental properties has dropped by $7200. That’s only a 1.7% reduction in rental debt, but I just started paying off the smallest mortgage by an extra $1000 this month. So, you’ll have to read next year’s annual report to see how well this feeds my wealth building plan.

I could pencil in the value of my new home I purchased back in March and look at its appreciation, but there is no value in that. Nor is there any benefit in looking at the growth of my previous residence either. Instead, what’s more important is how I used this unplanned opportunity to open a new position in wealth building. Which leads us to…

Stocks

My biggest stock position is Vanguard Natural Resources. But you can’t measure it’s performance by growth in value. That’s because the monthly dividends are being used to pay off my HELOC. The price of the stock doesn’t show a big growth history like Berkshire Hathaway. To best way to illustrate its growth is to take its value and subtract the HELOC balance.  That would show where all the spare dividend cash has been going.

I started with a little over $1000 of VNR a year ago. I have increased that position several times. But back in March, I plunged in by putting the left over cash from the sale of my previous home (made possible by the HELOC used for financing) into more VNR. So far, I have reduce my HELOC balance by -0.82%. It doesn’t sound like much, but I have only been using this cash flow machine for a few months. Next year, the fruits of that should begin to show much better.

My position in Berkshire Hathaway has grown by a modest 6%. My position in Apple has grown by 21%. That is partially because I bought more Apple when it dipped below $400/share. I still believe Apple will continue to grow and innovate, and with the amount of cash they have, it feels like a safe investment to me.

EIUL

My EIUL has done exactly what is was supposed to do. My contributions were increased back in May by 4% to represent cost of living increases. It is slightly ahead due to some small credits being paid. It’s actual value compared to the amount of contributions represents a 5.1% growth factor. This isn’t bad considering I’m paying big values. But the most important thing it is doing right now is locking in its growth. The value of it will not go negative, and when the next market correction appears, it will keep chugging along even as my stock portfolio takes a hit.

401K and Roth IRA

I still have my 401K with my current employer. It’s value has grown by 31%. My Roth IRA, which are refocused on holding stocks and reinvesting by DRIP, has grown by 22%.

If I assume that the real estate holdings are unrealistic, it might suggest that the rest of investment plan is actually doing worse than these plans. But these plans are currently riding the tide of QE from the Fed and other factors. When the next correction hits, they will probably get a hard knock. My Roth IRA might be okay, because I have refocused it on stocks and not mutual funds. But considering I can’t put any more money in it, it’s fine where it is.

Next year

Next year’s report should be more exciting because I have upped the pay off of one rental mortgage by $1000/month. That combined with 100% occupancy is also helping me to increase my rental cash reserves by $1000/month as well. When things get replenished, I can direct that money towards a rental mortgage and knock it out even faster.

Do I expect the same amount of growth? Hardly. 85% growth in one year is actually way above the mean. You should never depend on it or think you can keep it up. A big piece of this is Zillow telling me my rentals are probably worth more than I could actually get for them. In the next five years, when I finally sell one, I’ll get a proper correction to my net worth.

But there is one thing I’m sure of: everything is doing much better now that I have taken an active role in wealth management.