Now that the last of the paychecks have come in, the reality of not working has hit. Holiday excess added up as well (I was “off the wagon” with food and money over the holidays). I was up to 172 lbs, and am now back on a more controlled diet (pistachios and gingerbread men got the better of me). I also dropped a fair bit networth wise (although the market is as much to blame as I am 🙂 ).
Mortgage: $91,951.09
E-Trade: $20,232.88
Cash: $5,015.93
Condo: $143,500.00
Building: $12,553.50
Networth: $89,351.22
This is a cash drop of a little over $1K, and a networth drop of a little over $5K. As Kurt Vonnegut would say “so it goes”.
All the applications are in for PhD work, so now it’s just a waiting game. I’m cautiously optimistic, and expect to be starting in either May or September.
If I had cash to spare right now, I’d still be looking at US and Canadian banks (probably BAC in the US, any of the big 5 here in Canada). Real estate wise, I’m always impressed when I look at what Windsor multiplexes are selling for (an 18% vacancy rates leads to good deals on property).
My passive income is up a bit at $319.96. This isn’t even close to enough to live off of, but it should “cushion the blow” in the coming months when there won’t be a lot of cash coming in. This will drop once Washington Mutual “officially” cuts their dividend (those dirty rats).
8 replies on “January Networth”
Don’t sweat it Cheap….good luck with your PhD!
Good luck with your grad school admission!
Where do you earn the passive income from?
SD: Its from my condo (which I rent out) and my dividend stocks.
Condo: $269.52 / month
Canadian Dividends: $45.35 / month
US Dividends: $5.09 / month
(all net)
They tend to go up each month as I pay off the debt I used to purchase them (the mortgage in the case of the condo, the margin loan in the case of the stocks)
Congrats on getting the aps done.
It’s tough to diet when you are travelling.
Mike
Though I agree that there are good deals to be had in Windsor, I wonder, does the 18% vacancy rate scare you at all?
There’s a phenomena (ok, maybe you can’t really call it that ;)) that exists in rental real estate: either your expectations for profit are of the capital appreciation kind or cash flow. It’s not much different from the idea of investing for growth vs investing for dividends in stocks.
Right now, RE in Windsor is depressed. People aren’t investing for growth, but rather for cash flow (which imo, is the safer bet) but oddly, people are investing for growth in RE markets that have already seen double digit gains over the past few years. To me, it’s similar to tech stocks in 2000.
If you invest for cash flow (dividends) and see some gains (which are more likely if you’re buying low) then it’s win-win. DD is a little tougher with RE imo but if you can be sure that the cash flow is there, a buy and hold strategy can become more lucrative someday.
The 18% doesn’t scare me. I totally agree with your view on it, but additionally, many landlords are loath to reduce their rent. People need to live somewhere, so I’d have no problem reducing my rent to whatever market rate was in order to get people in my building.
Just because there’s a vacancy rate of 18%, doesn’t mean they need to be in your buildings.
I realize that this would severely hurt cashflow, but not as much as having a bunch of unit sitting vacant.
So when should I come down to Windsor and we can buy some property together? 😉
[…] Cheap (and he IS, proudly!) over at FourPillars blogs mostly about money but with a dose of his weight goals thrown into the mix.? I’m not […]
I like your thinking Cheap, and I think you would (do!) make a very good property owner / landlord. It can definitely be a lucrative investment if you do your homework (which it sounds like you do well).
Admittedly, we didn’t really do our homework with our RE investments but it worked out well sort of accidentally!
I don’t think the husband and I are interested in getting into any more RE investments (we haven’t learned the hands off approach well enough yet! 🙁 ) but if you plan to visit Windsor to scope out some places, we’d be happy to meet up with you to pick each other’s brains over a beer. 🙂