January 2016 – net worth and expenses

In January the markets started to tank. I did not expect this – and so my trades went quickly under water. At one point the drawdown was about 20k, but then things got better and I ended at a loss of 6.8k.

  • brokerage accounts 235.9k (-6.8k)
  • ETFs 4.0k (+0.3k)
  • cash 23.2k (-0.4k)
  • alternative investments 44.4k (+0.1k)
  • taxes -22.5k
  • total 285.0k (-6.8k)

The tax liability is from 2015, no gains in 2016 so far.

Monthly expenses

  • January 2.8k

Compared with 2015 (2.5k) January was +300 Euros. Last year we did not pay for child care and January has some car-related expenses so this number is actually quite good.

Last month I mentioned that our yearly expenses were at 35.5k. This number might be wrong. My book keeping shows two numbers: 33.9k and 35.5k. I think 33.9k is the proper number. I do not want to spend hours to verify one number. I assume it has to do with “yearly expenses”. I book some expenses (e. g. car insurance) as yearly, which means the amount is divided by 12 and added to the next 12 months. If I wouldn’t do this, January had expenses of 4.7k and would be incomparable to the other months. But in the end it is the yearly number that counts. (And the 35.5k figure is derived from the monthly numbers, whereas the 33.9k is derived from the yearly numbers.)