My net worth has edged up so very little this month. It grew from 0.16% from $181,501.19 to $181,787.61. Quite frankly, I’m disappointed. Upon further review there were a number of factors at play that made this happen:

1. My Hawaii Trip – Though it was a relatively cheap vacation, it’s still a vacatio. That meant eating all my meals out and other associated costs.
2. My home value dropped – I use Zillow as I feel it’s fairly accurate for my area. The drop this month of $2,000 largely eliminates much of my savings. This is okay, because I’m going to hold the home for years. Some day it will recover and I’ll have a fantastic month.
3. It was a Short Month – Because I get busy, I don’t do my net worth at the same time each month. Last month, with the trip, I didn’t get it done until the 24th.
4. I think I lost money – Poof… gone… I didn’t even get to spend it. When I logged into my bank, it looks like I’m getting the same amount as what I got last pay check. Typically that would be fine. However, I’ve bumped up against the maximum 401k for the year, so only $100 went there instead of the $1,000+. Where did the rest of the money go? I don’t know, but I’ll be looking at my stub later today to find out.

On the bright side:

1. My retirement accounts – With new additions and general market gains, things are moving in the right direction
2. My Prosper account – I was able to increase that account by 22.58% and I’m now lending over $3,000.

I have had a lot of difficulty figuring out what my retirement goal should be. I’m not alone in having this difficulty – after all retirement planning is an industry on it’s own. The biggest problem I’m having is trying to project 35 years in the future.

The more I think about it, the race towards retirement is going to be a journey. That being the case, it makes sense to update the goal along the way. Why not start with today? How much would I need to retire tomorrow? The answer to that question is also the answer to “How much would I need to replace to my income?” I think I’d be very comfortable with a 100K income. Working backwards from that, at 8% interest, I’d need about 1.25 million today. Over time, that 100K income will buy less (thanks a lot, Mr. Inflation), so I’ll be raising the goal even as I chase it.

Can I run faster than inflation? Join me for the journey and we’ll find out together.

Adverstisement may follow below…

It’s a little earlier than I usually do my net worth update. After the late one last month, I figured I’d get this one out now. There’s lots of good news in the Lazy Man’s accounts this month. Last Month I was concerned that my net worth was going in the wrong direction. It’s not that I wasn’t saving, but the stock market downturn was eating up a lot of my gains.

So I’m to where I was in April and making up the 6K that I’ve lost over the last 4 months. I think my experiment in maxing out my 401k has helped the short term bottom line. Instead of having the government take the money in taxes, it fills my 401k and I’ll pay taxes on it years from now. And to make sure that the 401K stays healthy I rebalanced it today focusing a little more on large cap stocks which seem to have better P/E ratios than the smaller stocks recently.