Layout:
Home > Blogoversary: 11 years on SA

Blogoversary: 11 years on SA

June 22nd, 2017 at 10:36 pm

With a hat-tip to CeeJay, I'll do a similar entry, comparing where I was then to where I am now.

June 22, 2006:

Assets: 241,761 (about 48% home value & rest retirement)
Liabilities: (92,669) (mostly mortgage w/ a bit of CC debt)
Net worth 149,092

My life at that point: Working full-time as a college psychology professor, but as a sabbatical replacement (year-to-year contract), living with my basset hound Henry and cats Teddy & Phoebe. Also, in a relationship. I was taking accounting classes evenings and summers in preparation for a career change. Having landed on the yearly-contract track, I couldn't do the research necessary to land another tenure-track job because I was constantly job-hunting.

June 22, 2017:

Assets: 585,603 (about 20% home value & 80% retirement)
Liabilities: (90,248) (70% mortgage, 30% loans & CCs)
Net Worth: 495,396

My Life at this point: Workng in a full-time (hopefully permanent) job as a Financial Planner, having attained my CPA in the interim and currently working on the CFP), living with kitties Buffy & Bridget. Not currently in a relationship.

Dollar value change:

Assets: up 343,842 or 231%. Mostly this is a change in retirement assets. My home 11 years ago was within 1,000 of its value today, but went down during the crisis and now is very close to its value when I bought it 12 years ago.

Liabilities: down 2,421 or -2.6%. However, the mortgage is down to 62,900 and the non-mortgage debt is up a lot due to the exigencies of lower income while changing careers combined with less time working while my mother was dying and final medical expenses for 3 pets. So whereas my debt at the beginning of the journey was pretty much all "good" debt, now I have a significant amount of "bad" debt due largely to circumstances beyound my control.

Net Worth: up 346,304 or 332%. About half of the increase is from an inheritance from my mother and the rest due to retirement savings and portfolio gains.

Income change: I currently make about $4,000 more than I did 11 years ago. This fairly nominal change from beginning to end masks a lot of variability. Average income was a bit under 40K, but it has varied from 12K (110% of the poverty limit that year) to nearly 80K.

All in all, it's been a hell of an 11 years, but in the end, I feel blessed to have survived it and I feel positive about my ability to handle what my personal life throws at me. If this site still exists in a decade, I'll be just about at my Full Retirement Age for Social Security, and I still expect to be working (although hopefully for 25-30 hours per week rather than 40-55), and the work at that point will be solely to satisfy my need for a sense of meaning and purpose and won't be financially necessary. Also hopefully there will be another basset hound at that point :^) along with two kitties--and even another relationship.

12 Responses to “Blogoversary: 11 years on SA”

  1. ThriftoRama Says:
    1498170348

    It does sound like a rough 11 years, but I'm glad you've soldiered through and are on the right track. Hugs and prayers on losing your mom. Frown

  2. ceejay74 Says:
    1498177650

    Nice net worth change, considering all your challenges and that home values have stagnated!

  3. LuckyRobin Says:
    1498178057

    You've really persevered. Congrats on your Blogoversary. You started shortly after I did (April 2006). I can't remember you not being here.

  4. My English Castle Says:
    1498185649

    Considering what 2008 did to many of us, and the challenges of the career switch, you've done well. And it's always a pleasure to read your comments and posts.

  5. MonkeyMama Says:
    1498186439

    Happy Blogoversary!

  6. Laura S. Says:
    1498214704

    Happy Blogoversary Smile

  7. PatientSaver Says:
    1498218467

    How interesting, and what great progress. I'll have to do the same.

  8. LivingAlmostLarge Says:
    1498229527

    Congratulations!

  9. kashi Says:
    1498239534

    Congrats on 11 years!!

  10. Dido Says:
    1498239588

    Thank you all for the comments, much appreciated!

  11. rob62521 Says:
    1498426179

    Well done! Pretty exciting to see your net work go up so much!

  12. VS_ozgirl Says:
    1498463134

    Happy blogaversary! You've certainly done well despite your setbacks - hoping that the future is even bigger and better!

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]