I did some quick analysis of my net worth over the last 3 years. It’s a download of my stats from Net Worth IQ and took some quick looks.
I get discouraged, so sometimes it helps to really think about where I’ve been and how I got where I am now. I am in a better place since starting this blog.
Per Table A, you can see that my retirement account balances have quadrupled since December 2005. That has made my total asset balance rise by nearly 30% in 3 years. However, when you eliminate any increase in home value, it’s more impressive. In Table B, you can see that my asset balance has nearly doubled because I have saved. (Of course, it would be a lot more if the market wasn’t doing so crappy.)
Sadly, on the flipside, my total liabilities are down up by 3%. Somehow, I let me credit card debts climb to triple their balance in 2005! WOW. That’s terrible.
What does this mean now? It means that I’m going to stop my 401k contributions for the rest of the year and put the extra money towards my credit card debts. I’ve already saved enough to meet the corporate match I might get. (I still haven’t figured out what they do for first year employees. If I read the papers right, I will get a lump sum match on my 1st anniversary with the company.) And what I really need to do is lock in the guaranteed benefit of getting rid of debt rather than play the stock market and buy low. It’s really tempting to keep buying in and dollar cost average, but I can do that next year. Things seem like they’ll stay depressed for a few more months.
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Sometimes I find that looking at my overall progress is the best thing I can do to encourage myself. Your retirement increases are awesome!