Drumroll please… As of Oct 17, 2019 I currently have a whopping net worth of ZERO dollars!

And if you thought I’d be depressed over it, well you’re wrong. I’m damn proud of my $0 net worth!

I guess a backstory is needed here. Why am I happy with my $0 net worth? Because for the first time since I became an adult, I have positive net worth. 

I started undergrad at 18 by borrowing the first of many student loans to come. I started borrowing with $5,000 and before I knew it, 7 years later I find myself with two degrees and $200,000 in debt.

These past two and a half years have been a crazy whirlwind of job hunting, settling down in a new city, getting into the groove of become a full time worker rather than a student all while trying to pay my student loans down.

And it hasn’t been easy. But hell has it been worth it.

There were so many times I questioned my decision to aggressively pay down my loans. When I see my friends going on amazing vacations, buying new cars, settling down in a new house, I can’t help but think, what am I doing still living at home in my late 20s?

There were countless days I think, “Why are you working so hard just to give all your money away? Shouldn’t you reap the benefits of your hard work? Shouldn’t you finally enjoy yourself after over 20 years of school?”

But I regret nothing. Because I know that as long as this debt keeps looming around, I’ll always have this unsettling feeling.

Looking Into the Future

I can sigh in relief now that I finally have more in assets than debt. I can start looking into the future now rather than questioning my past choices.

Maybe, just maybe, I can stop checking my Personal Capital and Mint accounts on a daily (yes, daily) basis, but I think that has just become a habit now.

And finally I have more options. Not quite the quit-your-job-on-a-whim kind of option yet. But I am definitely now able to reconsider refinancing my loans to a private loan.

Now that I have less total debt, if I refinance, I will have a lower monthly payment than I would have had I refinanced when I still had over $100k in debt. 

This gives me way less anxiety if I were let go or in between jobs unable to make the monthly payment because at least my emergency fund can cover for a couple of months.

Had I tried refinancing when I still had $171,000 student loans, my emergency fund would hardly cover more than a month or two monthly minimum payments which was actually the exact reason I decided not to refinance.

So yes, I’m definitely checking out my options now.

I’m still quite a bit of way from fully paying off my loans. I still have $64,000 in federal student loans and a couple thousand dollars in personal loans to my parents. So the hustle continues…

One thing I agree with is the saying the first $100k is a b****. While I’m still far from a $100k net worth, I have shifted my net worth by $171k from the negative side to cross over to the positive so I’d like to think that I’ve jumped over the biggest hurdle.

So here’s hoping for a smoother cruise onto debt freedom and financial independence.

Net Worth Goals

How can I end a post without goals? I usually write goals on my student loans on my monthly debt progress so I’ll save that for next month’s report. As for net worth goals, I still like to take things in baby steps.

My first goal is to get into $100k assets (not to be mistaken with net worth) hopefully by the second quarter of 2020. For privacy reasons, I won’t write my exact assets but if you’ve followed the blog and done the math, it’s out there to figure out so I’m sure some readers will know.

My stretch goal which would be a total dream is to get to $100k net worth by the end of 2020. I won’t be able to do it just on my salary but I do have the power of investments on my side. So if the market is really kind to me in 2020, I may just make it. 

If I don’t reach the moon and instead only land amongst the stars, my goal is to have $75k net worth by the end of 2020.

Crossing my fingers for success!