September 2014 – networth and expenses
As this is my first networth and expenses post I will detail a few things how I track our networth and spendings. I track them down to the penny (Euro cent), but will give only rounded numbers here.
What do I not include in the networth?
I do not include our house (but I have the related costs in our expenses). I also do not include our retirement accounts (keep in mind that we live in Europe – the system is different here). And I do not include our car or other hard to sell inventory. So basically it’s (more or less) liquid assets.
- brokerage account 125.7k
- mutual funds 61.4k
- cash 20.8k
- gold coins 9.0k
- total 216.9k
This is an uplift of 10.5k (+5%) against last month and +36.6k (+20%) compared to last year. I’m very pleased with these gains. Our yearly savings are about 20k. Anything above (or below) this are investment gains (or losses). And I’ve had my swings this year! I was almost down 13k in February and needed till May to be above the year end figure. In July we reached 200k for the first time. This coincides with my discovery of the retire early community. So as you can imagine, I’m super pumped up. 🙂
Monthly expenses
To give some context, we are a family of four with two small children. Day care is subsidized by the government, at the moment we pay 200 Euros. This will raise to 270 Euros in summer next year.
Also, I book some yearly expenses as 1/12 to the next 12 months. So the monthly total and some notable sub categories might not add up (and I do not mention everything there). This 1/12 of yearly expenses is currently around 450 Euros.
- January -2.7k
- February -3.1k
- March -3.0k
- April -3.2k
- May -3.8k
- June -2.4k
- July -2.6k
- August -2.8k
- September -2.6k
Notable sub categories
- housing 430 (usually around 600)
- groceries 216 (usually around 400)
- children 407
- transportation 217 (two big trips by car)
- pension 307
This month has at least 250 Euros exceptional expenses, that should not occur next month. It was for a bread maker and an investment software. The bread maker is awesome! I made the resolution to not buy anything at a bakery till New year. Hopefully my wife is on my side. (She agreed to, but I’m not sure if she is really into it.)
I would like to see our expenses constantly below 2.5k and have at least one month below 2.0k. But this will be only possible in a month without driving.
EurFI - European way to Financial Independence 
No More Waffles 15:17 on 2014-10-01 Permalink |
EuFI,
Great job ont he net worth! Having €216k in net worth without considering your house is a major achievement, especially with two small kids!
You said you also didn’t include your retirement account. Sorry if I’ve missed where you are from, but how does retirement work in your country?
In Belgium we basically receive a pension based on years worked and income level. On top of that we can put away another €950 every year with a 30% tax break in a special account.
Good luck keeping your expenses under €2,500 in the following months!
NMW
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eurfi 19:53 on 2014-10-01 Permalink |
Thanks for the compliment. The house is almost worth nothing – the mortgage is about the same amount as the house price was. But the difference will grow every month. So not sure how I will handle that in the future (when the gap gets bigger).
I would rather not reveal where we are from. It’s not Belgium. 🙂
But our pension system is very similar to yours (at least the first part). To top it up you can do private contracts or work pensions. I have both, my wife has just the private stuff. So if we reach normal retirement age (65 – 70), we should be more than covered. Being almost 40 this is just too long (even longer for my wife).
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