February 2018 Budget Roundup: The Net Worth and Investments

My net worth plateaued this month. I know exactly why…..

Sherry’s February 2018 Net Worth

$631,367.18
Or an increase of…
+$484.58 or +0.08%

Folks, I’mma take the win, no matter how small here…

Damn.

So this is what happened, guys….

• Went over budget this month because of all the Electronics I bought (Read: February 2018 Income & Expenses)
• Stock market just took a nosedive.. which is both frustrating for your net worth, but also a perfect time to snap up stocks
• I paid my business taxes which as you can see on my new Business line, took a significant hit

Then in the past year, it looks like this as my overall net worth..

I plateaued but the overall trend is UP UP UP…!

Now for everyone’s favourite Little Bun:

Little Bun’s February 2018 Net Worth
$23,558.71
Or an increase of…
+$886.64 or +3.76%

Dang baby!…

He did well, but I should also mention that he DOES get an “income” from the government monthly, and we do give him gifts of cash for his savings.

This is how I invest his money in the stock market.

He will slowly but steadily climb up, and once his RESP caps off at $50,000 for his lifetime.

I plan on then opening a Margin account for him once the cap is reached until he is 18 years old, and then funnel that money each year into his TFSA because that’s the minimum age you need to be to start contributing to it.

Or, honestly, he is going to do all of this himself once he reaches 18 (or earlier). It’s his money. I want to teach him about his money early on and turn over the reins to him once he is legally able to handle the money on his own.

I want him to be more comfortable with money than I have ever been in my life, and to feel strong and secure in the knowledge that investing is not difficult, and money is really just basic math.

FOR BUSINESS OR PLEASURE?

A great question came up on clarifying my business versus personal assets.

For all intents and purposes, my business is completely mine and part of my net worth.

It is only the question of taxes that will then determine what the true net is but as I don’t withdraw all the money yearly, this is guesswork I’m not going to forecast.

For instance, this month my income from my career did absolutely jack squat for my net worth because I paid taxes.

And the stock market dipped.

But mostly taxes. I just put that all under Business as a line in my net worth because the money will ebb and flow but it isn’t “personally mine” yet.

So, the only points I want to clarify for what I am posting here….

I’ve split out my Chequing

Personal is no longer mixed in with business on one line.

I’m splitting out a separate “Personal Chequing” line from my “Business” line in these updates

My business assets include liquid and fixed

Cash, investments and the car are all under one line. I’m not splitting it out nor tracking it here.

My business expenses are under the same single asset line

I’m also not recording what I spend under the business such as insurance, or fees. Those are company expenses and I’m rolling it all under one line:

Assets – Expenses = Final business asset line you see as part of my net worth

The reason for this is because it all nets out to a single amount anyway and whatever is leftover at the end of the day is what my business is worth where assets minus liabilities = leftover retained earnings which I can invest, and upon retirement, slowly withdraw yearly if need be.

The business assets are personally unrealized

This means that my business has had its taxes paid but I am not realizing that income personally by withdrawing it.

So for instance even if I have $1000 in the company, I’m not withdrawing that money so that I put it under my personal assets.

I’m leaving it in the company and investing this $1000 in there and when it becomes $3000 in 30 years, I’m going to sell the investment under the company and THEN take the money as dividends.

But, all that money in the company is still mine. I just haven’t paid personal taxes on it and frankly if I do it right, I won’t be paying much by way of taxes (read: How to earn $50,000 income and only paying $200 in taxes).

DIVIDENDS FOR THE PREVIOUS MONTH

$277.59

My statements are all a month behind (am too lazy to go line by line and calculate it myself transactionally), so I will always be a month behind in this regard.

DIVIDEND EARNINGS

Last month, I earned almost $300 in dividend income.

This month and going forward, I plan on earning more.

DROPPED 10 GS INTO THE MARKET

I have plowed about $10,000 into dividend stock purchases (there IS a silver lining to the stock market dropping, you know…), and have stocked up on dividend stocks I am particularly fond of like any of the big banks (banks… they hold the money but they also make a ton of money, hand over fist)..

Anyway, I plowed about $10,000. I am considering putting even more money, but I actually would feel more comfortable with a solid amount of free flow cash saved in my business account first ($250,000?) before I start investing that business money into buying stocks under the company.

YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN I WILL GET FIRED. I do not want to freak out that I put all my money into the stock market and then to withdraw it to pay myself for expenses, I need to sell the stocks at a loss, bla bla bla.

I want secure, heavy, free flowing cash in my coffers before I start (comfortably) allocating it.

ON MY TO DO LIST…

I plan on this month, reviewing my dividend stocks, and figuring out my capital invested versus dividend yield and overall return.

My other grand plan is to sit down and figure out what my actual average salary has been over the past 10 years.

I did a post on this in 2016 on my stats as a working woman, but I think I need to update it…. what do you think?

My average salary then was $86,410.93 if we assume I “worked” the whole year, even though I was benched for the year.

My average salary based on actual working days, is $157,172.64…

I wonder what my numbers are now? Do any of you care? Am I just a money geek?