What Are Those $100,000+ Gains Exactly?

Posted by Sun on November 2, 2006
Post viewed 286 times, 3 so far today

Last night, when I finished the final calculation of our October net worth, I found that we had a net increase of $106,792 in the first 10 months of this year. That was really a surprise as I never expect we can do this well. So exactly where did those gains come from? Here's a category-by-category breakdown:

As it shows most of the gains are in our taxable and retirement accounts from investments. For the argument of whether to pay off debt first or to start investing as early as possible, I believe these two can co-exist. Though I agree paying off debt should have a higher priority, a person in debt doesn't have to wait till debt free to start investing as the length of the debt is likely to be much shorter than the length before reaching retirment. By starting early, even a small amount of regular contribution in investment will mean big money later on.

Hope the markets in the last two months of 2006 can will work in our favor.

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9 Comments
November 2, 2006

That kind of jump is fantastic! Good work!

The only thing that kind of scares me is that jump in credit card debt. Hopefully it’s on a 0.0% introductory deal so you’re not being eaten alive by interest.

Posted by Trent
November 2, 2006

Yes, the credit card debt is almost all from 0% BT. The same goes to the jump in cash as more than $32K are borrowed with 0% rate. The cash and credit card debe almost cancel out in this case.

Posted by The Sun
November 2, 2006

thats like $10000 a month !! awesome.
Btw, what is the “taxable” ? just curious. if it’s an amount that is taxable, then why isn’t cash taxable? something to do with some tax breaks?

Posted by Golbguru
November 2, 2006

Golbguru: “Taxable” is just a term that I use for non-tax-sheltered accounts, because all the gains from these accounts are taxed every year. Now the “taxable” accounts include investment accounts other than 401(k)s and Roth IRAs. Probably it isn’t a very accurate term, but very convenient, :D.

Posted by The Sun
November 2, 2006

Wow, it looks like you’ve made a lot of progress this year! I’d love for my retirement accounts to be so fat!

Posted by Dimes
November 3, 2006

Sun - help me out, how did your retirment accounts jump $48k in value? Im thinking if you say earned a 20% return on your holding = $24k + $15k contributions = $39k? Im missing something…… unless its a 401(k), roth + spouse retirment accounts? or a sep or indiviudal 401(k)?

Posted by 2million
November 3, 2006

Hi 2million:

Indeed the retirement accounts is the combination of 401(k)s and Roth IRA and a large piece of that $48K increase is due to regular contributions. So far this year, my wife has put nearly $13K in her 401(k) and I have put more than $11K, plus we already maxed out our 2006 IRA contributions of $8K. Thus, roughly about $15K are from asset appreciation.

Posted by The Sun
November 3, 2006

Interesting - ok thanks! Hopefully I too can take advantage of the benefit of additional retirement contributions when I get married.

Posted by 2million
November 3, 2006

Well, having two incomes (and 401(k)s and IRAs) may not double the net worth, but it does make the number look impressive. Call it anohter benefit of marriage :D?

Posted by The Sun
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