2015 Wrap-up

I didn't start keeping detailed records until the latter half of the year, and when I began keeping better track, I had to go back through my accounts to search for deposit transactions so I could enter everything into my spreadsheet. Still, there might be stuff missing, but I'm pretty confident that those things are expenses, which I'm not too concerned about here. I want to focus on what my net worth was at the beginning of the year, and where it ended up by the end. So, here we go...

Here are the highlights of 2015:

I started the year off with $4,300 in my Roth IRA at Vanguard and $17,411 in an American Express HYSA. This is my emergency fund.

My net worth was $21,711 to begin the year.

I made catch-up 2014 contributions to my IRA prior to April since I hadn't contributed much during the previous year. After April, I made a few contributions until I reached the max for 2015. By year's end, my Roth IRA was at $12,800 (not including any gains/losses--this is just what I contributed).

Also, in April, I began contributing to my employer's 401k. My first contribution settings were measly. By year's end I had a whopping balance of $5,212.

In August, I opened a taxable account with Betterment with $3,000. By year's end, the balance was $6,000 (not including any gains/losses, although there really wasn't much movement, which frustrated me and in 2016 I closed this account and moved everything to Vanguard).

I opened another HYSA in October with Ally. At the end of December, I had a balance of $1,500 (excluding the little bit of interest it gained).

My emergency fund's balance (Am Ex HYSA) at year's end was at $15,612. I transferred funds out of it sporadically to cover unexpected expenses.

My net worth at the end of the year (including interest and capital gains/losses) was $41,160. A difference of $19,449. Not too shabby. According to my spreadsheet, my savings rate was 33%

I was surprised to see that it was that high. After all, it was the first time I'd calculated it. Since then, I've added calculations to my spreadsheet to track monthly savings rates as well as my annual savings rate, because SR is key to reaching FI and ER quickly. I am shooting for something north of 50% for 2016. Also, I have a spreadsheet for making projections (albeit, slightly conservative projections. I don't want to get too carried away with it). According to my projection spreadsheet, if I can stick to my strategy, I should increase my net worth to $77,000 by the end of 2016. That requires putting away $2,100 each month from here on out. Hopefully, no major financial catastrophes arise.

We'll have to wait until the end of 2016 to see where I stand.