| I bought a house in North County San Diego! Pretty exciting stuff.
I'm a bit nervous to see what the short term and long term impacts of home ownership will have on my net worth. One of the pros of owning a home includes diversifying my assets away from just stocks and bonds. But, of course, owning a home is expensive in its own right -- due to taxes, insurance, repairs, private mortgage insurance and utilities. I'm doing my best not to view this change as an financial investment, but more of a long-term move that will likely improve my quality of life.
Taxable account dividends received in May of 2012:
01May, VZ, $15.61
15May, ABT, $11.64
15May, HAS, $19.44
15May, PG, $4.48
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May 2012 taxable dividend receipt total: $51.17
I continued with my 401(k) contribution of 5% -- plus a 4% match -- which will allow me to sock away about $5,500 a year to my tax-sheltered account and I'm also contributing $5,000 a year to the Roth IRA.
I believe I'm still on track to reach my goal of obtaining a net worth of $150,000 by the age of 30. I'll be 31 in February of 2014 and I believe I can make this goal. Home ownership may momentarily bring my net worth down, but hopefully over the next few years housing will recover and slowly increase my net worth. Guess we'll have to wait and see.
It should be noted that the drop in net worth from this month was not solely due to purchasing a home, as the stock market dropped to yearly lows as well. The combination of the costs from closing on my home and the market pullback were likely similar in effect with regards to the reduction in net worth. |