Year End asset report

[iris lilies]

Our net worth went up 10% in 2025.

From this, I conclude

1. we are more or less spending within our income and not dipping into assets. I’m saying this without doing the tedious work of totaling up how much we actually spent this year. Why do that if I don’t have to?

2. the money we allocated for charitable giving last year, those funds coming from invested assets, barely made a dent in assets.

3. Someone making a low income ( DH) but investing early and regularly and spending conservatively can easily become a millionaire. I’m not kidding when I say DH’s highest income was $40,000 a year, and that was only a few years of good years. Sure, he had a working spouse, but his IRA is all from his own income.

4. DH is richer than I am in IRA money for the simple reason that he kept investing dividends and had investments in normal investments. Meanwhile, me for about seven years, kept money in a CD. In the year 2015 we started out he and I at having about the same amount of money. In 10 years his has doubled. mine has not

[bae]

My non-real-estate assets roughly doubled in 2025. Real estate up ~10%.

My daughter's assets, which I manage for her, went up ~50% in 2025, but I invest hers far more conservatively for "reasons".

That said, "millionaire" isn't what it once was.

[catherine]

So inspirational, IL.

I think of all of the ways I could have strayed from my values, I really blew it with saving and investing properly. There are many reasons for this (many of them you guys either know or can guess at), but I have tried to make up for it by trying to teach my kids about the value of compound interest over time. Only one has actually picked up on that lesson. He makes a very, very modest salary as a student advisor for a community college, but the school offers a good 401k matching program, and he has taken full advantage. He is amazed at how his money has grown.

In terms of late-in-life regrets, my big regret is not making my money work for me from a young age. I started out on the right track. My first paycheck out of college was $77 a week, and I would religiously save 50%. Until I didn't.

My year-end asset report has not increased--it perhaps has held steady because of the reduction in income I've experienced. However, the investments in the stock market I made when we sold our NJ house have really paid off--I increased my Vanguard index fund and also made investments in tech and energy and I've gotten fantastic returns on those. But too little too late.

[iris lilies]

My non-real-estate assets roughly doubled in 2025. Real estate up ~10%.

My daughter's assets, which I manage for her, went up ~50% in 2025, but I invest hers far more conservatively for "reasons".

That said, "millionaire" isn't what it once was.

oh I know, millionaire doesn’t mean a whole lot of especially one if counting principal residence in assets. But 1 million liquid bucks in fly over country is a nice little chunk of change. And that’s not DH’s only assets, that’s just his IRA. he has joint financial investments with me. He has a stupid farm. That other stuff adds up to quite a lot too, again, for flyover country.

Sure, it’s not all that much for West Coast tech bro money but hey, we don’t need that lifestyle.

[Rogar]

I just went through my equity returns for the year and they averaged around 15%, mostly index funds. My home value has probably gone down over the year, but has seen significant appreciation before. Fixed income investments kept up a bit higher than inflation. It's been a long time since stocks actually went down or crashed and the same goes for real estate, but I can remember, and to a degree it's just paper until it's not. At one time I considered my small early retirement pension as an asset. It doesn't adjust for inflation and I recently had Alexa calculate it's relative present purchasing value based on inflation. It has shrunk considerably.

One of my instructors used to say, risk and return will always be intrinsically related. That probably holds a lot of the time.

[iris lilies]

As part of our asset evaluation, DH always looks up the book price of our automobiles.

Here’s a shocker: his old truck has gone up $2000 in value in a year! It is a 2010 Ford Ranger. The new Rangers are stupid.

[sweetana3]

IL: A lot of complaints are being made about recently built cars and trucks. Several friends have trucks in the garage often even when brand new. Rvs are the same. The older ones can be more reliable. There is an online expert that puts out buying guides to check which brand years are reliable over time. Older trucks with decent mileage are holding their value.

Just watched a Consumer Guide analysis about new model SUVs and it was amazing which ones were not recommended and why. Even Mercedes made the list. GMC is caught with new cars needing warranty work and cannot get the parts. Corvette was caught up in this with one dealer having two of the same model sitting with no ETA on the parts needed to fix the warranty work.

[sweetana3]

Hubby said our net worth went up around 12% this year. Our real estate is about 5% of our net worth. Would have made more but a chunk is always in cash due to age.

[iris lilies]

Hubby said our net worth went up around 12% this year. Our real estate is about 5% of our net worth. Would have made more but a chunk is always in cash due to age.

see, sometimes I feel stupid about keeping so much of my own IRA money in a CD. But then I hear from you. I read lhamo over on the Mr. money mustache website who also keeps a ton of cash around. And then I don’t feel so stupid.

But with our joint assets we have a fair amount in cash and CD’s.

[Rogar]

As part of our asset evaluation, DH always looks up the book price of our automobiles.

Here’s a shocker: his old truck has gone up $2000 in value in a year! It is a 2010 Ford Ranger. The new Rangers are stupid.

I recently traded in my 13 year old Tacoma and got a very decent trade-in value. I never once had it in the shop for any repairs, but the new truck is zippy, notably smaller, and really all I need for the city anymore and will still haul a sheet of plywood. It was Motor Trend's truck of the year, and seemed to have above average reliability rating from CR. And a hybrid. I suspect in spite of it all, they don't make them like they used to. It was just time.

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