mid-year networth check

I've been so busy I've had little time to formally update our net worth, but here's a very quick measure:

It's approximately $740,000. For the entire year it has more or less been fluctuating from $730,000 to $771,000. Fluctuations have been heavily driven by overall market performance.

I have reduce my market exposure substantially, by:

a. selling most of our non-retirement diversified market index funds and using them to pay down HELOC on our primary house.
b. selling off most of our ETFs held in non-retirement accounts to provide cash liquidity.
c. I have already made my 401k contribution for the year, maxing out at $15,500.
d. I expect my wife will do the same between August and December.

Otherwise, we have not saved nearly as much as we have in the past.

This is most significantly limited by the economic burden of our unsold house in NC.

We will try renting it, which will staunch the monthly red-ink, but we'll still be negative cashflow on the house, just not our overall monthly budget.

Big company, in it's generosity, has given me a small (very small) second bonus, which I'll receive in July. My wife is scheduled for a raise in August, which will help.

By august, we should be mildly cash flow positive, but not enough to offset the economic damage we would face if Big Company laid me off.

I would love to be in a situation, where we could live off of only one of our incomes and save the other.

Getting rid of house #2, will help alot, but not cover enough of my pay.

In the end, I need to be earning more - perhaps as much as $100k more, plus selling the house. At that point we would have substantial cash savings.

Ahh the good old days, living in a less expensive local, but we should never forget the other challenges it entailed:

1. limited, but expensive shopping
2. over priced and limited professional services
3. very limited income for me unless I travelled 80%+
4. insufficient commericial and retail entertainment
5. challenges of integrating into a small town social network
6. very high fuel expenses
7. limited education options

In the end, we had to move to be true to our values, however, there are moments when I wish we kept renting instead of bought the house. i predict we'll be able to sell it in about 3 more years. How disappointing!

Regards,

makingourway