Welcome back to Late Twenties and Broke.com, I’m your host Jonny F Namerson. Today I’m begged to ask the question: Am I still broke?
My last net worth update was August 2022, and here we are about 4 months later. I checked how much BTC I had yesterday for the first time in months, and it was looking pretty juicy. My strat was to set up an automatic purchase every week for $100 worth of BTC while prices were at $40,000/coin or lower, and oh boy, has it been stacking up.
Here are my numbers from August 2022 for reference….
PLTR
$1,580. (200 shares)
KO
$1,930.81 (30.63 shares)
DOW
$610.23 (11.21 shares)
VZ
$129.75 (3 shares)
MO
$1,242.51 (27.06 shares)
TM
$306.93 (2.02 shares)
Bitcoin
$2,592.14 (0.12845 BTC)
BNB coin
$917.01 (3.26 coins)
DOGE
$32.40 (502.46 coins)
Silver Coins&Bars
$2,000 (Haven’t purchased any precious metals in Japan)
Employer 401K
$17,391.66
RRSPs trapped in Canada
$9,562 CAD ($7,335 USD)
Chequing
$1,346.61$1,493.50
Savings
$12,732.83
Savings Certificate
$501.36
Total Assets
$51, 406.35
Credit Card
-7,000.18
August 2022 Total:
$44,406.17
Net worth: More stocks, more crypto, but overall…only up $50 in 3 months.
And now, the December 2022 net worth update….
PLTR
$1,580. $1,388.00(200 shares) My poor baby continues to sink, oh well…See ya at the bottom kid.
KO
$1,930.81(30.63 shares)$1,955 (31.09 shares). The DRIP is working!
$2,000 (Haven’t purchased any precious metals in Japan)
Employer 401K
$17,391.66 $19,144.00 Hell yeah, up 2 Gs. That’s from my monthly contribution right there.
RRSPs trapped in Canada
$9,562 CAD ($7,335 USD) $7,046 CAD ($5159 USD)Frickin down 2 Gs on this one…
Chequing
$1,493.50$2,081.00
Savings
$12,732.83$11,742.00
Savings Certificate
$501.36$502.20. Wow, what a jump!
Total Assets
$51, 406.35 $50,757
Credit Card
-7,000.18-5669.99!! Yes, I finally made some progress on this. Jesus.
Dec 2022 Total:
$44,406.17 $45,087. A whopping change of $681. Yay.
Not a ton of change, but at least it’s moving in the right direction.
4 months, and a change of only $681? I mean, it’s something. Not a lot, but something.
Pros:
-Credit card finally swung in the right direction, by about $1,300. -My drip-drip-drippy drop dividend strategy did net a little piece of a share in quite a few companies. Long term, that’s a good thing.
To be fair, I reduced debt. I added assets to my balance sheet. I contributed to my 401K. I did the right things. My Canadian portfolio dropped 2 grand, while I actually contributed 2 grand to my US 401K. So that was a wash. And I added $1,000 worth of BTC to my holdings. And I paid off about $1300 on my credit card. So, you know what, that’s decent.
Am I still broke? Kind of. Maybe. Not really. But my net worth is still under 50K, and that’s one of the goals on my list.
Kind of an anti-climatic update, but here’s hoping the next update in May is a bit juicier for ya.
Well, it’s been a long process preparing for my move to Japan. I put a lot of stuff in storage, shipped some stuff to Japan, and packed and unpacked my bags quite a few times.
(do I really need this tshirt? how much do these bags weigh??)
But I did it. I made it to all the different hotels, and airports, and terminals, and covid tests. And I did all the paperwork. I mean, there’s still more on my desk to do and more when I go to work in a couple days, but I’ve done everything required for right now.
This post won’t be very polished or concise, I just want to dump all my thoughts right now to keep the habit of blogging. This is my third or fourth website venture, and I’d like one that actually sticks around for once.
Luckily I did my taxes as soon as possible this year, so that is done and something I don’t have to worry about for another year. However, 2022’s taxes will be the first time that I (or many Americans) will pay capital gains on selling their personal vehicle! How crazy is that? For a decade I’ve read in books and articles and heard in podcasts, ad nauseum, that the car you drive is a depreciating liability and not an asset. It takes money out of your pockets. Mr.Money Mustache has beat stables of horses to death on that point.
I bought my car for $8,000 USD back in 2017, and at the start of the umbrella corp disease, it was realistically worth $4,000 to $6,000. However, due to the chip shortage and massive money printing and stimulus cheques and inflation, the US car market went insane. Luckily I had the car for about 4 years, so I will be only be paying long term capital gains and only on the profit. But I ended up selling my (realistically $6,000) car to CarMax for the ridiculous price of $12,500. That’s right, by ripping that car all around California and Nevada putting 30,000 miles on it and that West Coast sunshine abusing the paint and clearcoat, somehow, Iadded value.
I can’t stop using the word ridiculous to describe the situation. Please, do yourself a favour and don’t buy a car in this market. Don’t buy my sun-damaged car from CarMax.
Now that I’ve detailed my surprising cash windfall from CarMax, let’s get into my Net Worth Update for April 2022 from my new HQ in Japan. I’ll lead with my Oct 2021 numbers for reference.
Oct 2021:
PLTR
$5,068 (200 shares)
KO
$1,668 (30 shares)
DOW
$336 (6 shares)
Personal Automobile
$8,000
Silver Coins&Bars
$1,200
Employer 401K
$5,000
RRSPs trapped in Canada
$8,450 CAD ($6,837 USD)
Chequing
$210
Savings
$5,745
Total Assets
$34,064
Credit Card
-$4,187.45
October 2021 Total:
$29,876.55
April 2022:
PLTR
$5,068 (200 shares) (share price plummeted again, market value is $2,760 as of today)
KO
$1,668 (30 shares) $1,895.55 (Also received 0.22 shares as DRIP.)
DOW
$336 (6 shares) $394.47 (also received .14 shares as DRIP)
VZ
$52.04 (1 share)
TM
$360 (2 shares)
Bitcoin
$1792.98
BNB coin
$956.67
Personal Automobile
$8,000. (I don’t have it anymore!)
Silver Coins&Bars
$2,000 (I added $800 to my collection)
Employer 401K
$15,000 (I actually checked the balance, I was way off last update!)
RRSPs trapped in Canada
$8,450 CAD ($6,837 USD)
Chequing
$1,346.61
Savings
$16,838.50 (sold my car, parked the cash in savings for now)
Savings Certificate
$500.53 (new)
Total Assets
$50,734.35 (first time ever over 50K!!!)
Credit Card
-$6,374.19 ($2,186.74 worse)
April 2022 Total:
$29,876.55 $44,360.16
Net worth: ALMOST $50,000 USD. Almost.
So a lot of changes! My PLTR continued to tank, but I added some more dividend stocks like VZ and TM. I also received some DRIP from my initial purchase of Coke and Dow.
Another thing I added was dividend-like crypto, earning 4.5% on my BTC and 8% on my BNB from various exchanges. The math on that is only about $15 so not really worth noting, but the idea is there.
But obviously the big-big numbers were selling my car, and getting a real update on my 401K. I will realistically buy a car when I return to the USA eventually, so I don’t want to put that lump sum anywhere risky. But at the same time, the ROI in the various savings products my bank offers is a joke (0.5% while inflation in the USA is like 3-10%). So that will be on the backburner while I consider my options. If anyone has any ideas for it, go ahead and send me an email! Or reach out on twitch.
While I’m living in Japan, I won’t be buying any precious metals. So my fun investing will just be dividend stocks and crypto. It also lets me focus on paying down my dang credit card!! How it got back up to $6,000 range is so annoying. I hope as I do these updates it will get knocked down lower and lower until I’m debt free. That 50K mark will be a lot sweeter when I have zero debt.