What a month! Vietnam's strict lock-down is in full effect. Fortunately living under a lock-down has drastically decreased my expenses because it's hard to spend money when you're facing fines for leaving your apartment without a valid reason.
My Net-worth has increased to $9,578, which is up +$2,959 from last month. Any month that my Net-worth increases is a good month, but this is the largest change since I've been keeping track.
Keep reading if you happen to care about the nitty gritty details.
Assets
Investments
My investments are exceeding a passive investor's dream. Most people in the world are running for the hills, but my Roth IRA is climbing like a hipster on Machu Piccu.
I'm blessed to end August with an investment balance of $13,885, up +$1,024 from July!
The American economy is complete shit right now, but the stock market continues to reach new highs. The market is higher than a hippy in a hot air balloon.
How is this happening? Lets dig into it.
The bulk of my investments are vested in one ETF: VTI. VTI's top 10 holdings consist of famous companies like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook. & Alphabet (Google), Johnson & Johnson, and P&G.
They're all huge tech , or consumer good, companies that benefit from consumers using technology to work from home and panic buy.
What's not in this fund is my local gym that can't take customers, or my local event center that can't book any shows, or the company that runs security at sporting events. Small businesses are hurting the most, not huge publicly traded companies that my index fund (VTI) purchases.
Cash
I mentioned before that my expenses drastically decreased because of this lock-down. I've been forced to eat at home and no longer pay for transportation or entertainment. This left a ton of cash available that would have gone to those expenses.
My cash balance is $5,905. That's an increase of +$1,935 over last month.
Increasing my available cash has been the goal since the World fell apart. I believe that I'm on my way to accomplishing that goal.
Debt
Student Loans
No movement, in either direction, in the debt category. The U.S. government just extended student loan forbearance until December 31st, 2020. Therefore, I've stopped paying my student loans to save as much cash as possible.
Credit Cards
My credit cards are all paid in full. The only reason I use credit cards is to earn reward points, so I run as many expenses as I can through my credit cards. To 'win' with this strategy I need to ensure I never pay a dime in interest, because the minute I do, my effort will all be in vain. My goal for 2020 is to not pay a dime in credit card interest and I've been on track so far.
Net-Worth
My net-worth has seen some drastic growth, reaching an all time high of $9,578. The increases in the stock market and my increased cash pushed my over the top!a my If things keep going the way they are I'll be in the 10K club in no time.
In the comments below: Do you track your net-worth? If so, how has it changed overtime?
