Ahh! I can barely contain my excitement! Out of all the posts I’ve written or plan on writing, this was the post I was most looking forward to writing, with possibly the exception of being debt free. As of Oct 9, 2020, I currently have a six figure net worth! 

For a while now, I’ve known that based on how much I was saving vs how much I was putting to pay off my debt that I’d hit the $100k net worth mark before I became debt free so this was the big landmark that I’d been waiting for on my path to debt freedom.

And boy have I been waiting for it for a while. I made it my 2020 goal that I wrote about in my 2019 end of year review so I’ve known for a while that this goal was within reachable limits.

When the stock market tanked this year around March, I had my doubts that I would reach it. I I thought it would be quite a reach to get to $100k net worth by the end of the year, but the recovery has just taken me on a wild ride. 

With still 3 months until the end of the year, I’ve hit my $100k mark! I know there’s no telling if this number will stay, but being able to at least reach it once gives me the confidence that yes, I can go from $200,000 debt to $100,000 net worth.

It’s been a journey to say the least but I figured I’d make a little road map on how I got to this point. Obviously everyone has their own journey and we are all at different places in our lives. This is just a reflection of mine so take it as you wish.

I love when other bloggers show their numbers in a timeline because let’s face it, as much as we like to say personal finance is personal, we’re all humans and as humans most of us (me included) like to do a little comparison here and there.

It definitely helped me get an idea of what to expect for my own timeline by seeing other people’s timelines so I hope that this can serve as a guideline for other people too.

I certainly don’t want to come across as insensitive at a time when some people are facing unemployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic but I also consider this a personal blog and I felt that it was important to celebrate what I consider a big landmark in my life.

Plus, as my timeline will show, I too hit some roadblocks along the way so this will be a reflection of my ups and downs in my journey of going from negative $171,324 net worth to $100k net worth.

The Numbers

Before I dive into the nitty gritty details, I’ll start with just the numbers of some of my net worth over the last 3 years.

Since I’ve only started tracking my net worth from mid-2018 on and pretty much only had student loans and no assets prior to that time frame, I will use my student loan amount as a proxy for my net worth from 2017 till mid-2018. 

Aug 2017 Net Worth: – $171,324

Dec 2017 Net Worth: – $129,149

Jul 2018 Net Worth: – $ 98,004

Dec 2018 Net Worth: – $ 68,287

Mar 2019 Net Worth: – $ 45,982

Jun 2019 Net Worth: – $ 25,269

Oct 2019 Net Worth:  $ 0     

Dec 2019 Net Worth: $ 22,465

Mar 2020 Net Worth: $ 33,685

Jun 2020 Net Worth: $ 70,738

Oct 2020 Net Worth: $100,152

The Details

August 2017

Graduated from pharmacy school with $171,324 in federal student loans. Additionally, my parents were generous enough to help loan me $41,450 throughout my school years that I am paying back to them every month. In total, I started my professional life at $212,000 in debt. 

Thoughts of regrets and what-ifs were floating around my brain as it finally dawned on me how dire my financial situation was, but I realized there was nothing else to do but to start chipping away at the debt.

As I started building an Excel sheet to keep track of my debt, I created this blog as I wanted to write a reflection on my thoughts each month, what strategy worked well, what didn’t, and to document it along the way.

I soon passed my pharmacy exams and became a licensed pharmacist, finally able to earn the six-figure salary I had always dreamed of although I had to do it by working at a job I hated.

October 2017

Things were looking up as I was offered a job in a different pharmacy field that I much preferred than my current job. I even willingly took a paycut because I was dealing with so much stress at my current job.

December 2017

Ended the year with $129,149 in debt increasing my net worth by $42,175. 

My parents did give me some additional loans to offload my high interest rate debt. In 2017, they gave me an additional $24,000 loan.

I was still working on the kinks of how to track my debt most effectively, and since I had been tracking my federal loans separately from my personal loan to my parents, I decided to separate the two. 

From this point on, I viewed my personal loans to my parents as a monthly expense (that continues to be on my budget as a monthly payment) rather than debt as it was easier to only track my federal loans for the sake of simplicity.

So while my federal loan did decrease by $42,175, I overall paid only $18,175 to my federal student loans in 2017. 

I was disappointed to learn that I had barely made a dent on my student loans even with the help of my parents, but figured things could only go up from now since I was only able to work for less than half the year since graduating.

January 2018

I was fired up and ready to tackle my debt this year. I set my mind to focus only on debt repayments. I didn’t even care about net worth at this point so I didn’t start tracking my net worth or sign up for Personal Capital till mid-2018. In hindsight I do regret it since I missed out on having a nice chart of me paying off my debt like crazy.

March 2018

What goes up must come down. Just as I’d been making consistent loan payments, putting almost everything from my paycheck to repaying my student loans, I was unceremoniously laid off from my job. 

I was in shock and I was at loss at what to do. I had no savings at this point! Thank goodness I held off on refinancing my student loans and was able to take advantage of the deferment option on my federal student loans to stop any payments for the time being.

April 2018

Luckily, I was able to find a new job about a month later but I was so scarred by the experience that I realized I had to start an emergency fund before I would go back to making loan payments.

July 2018

Finally dug myself out of the 6-figure debt territory, landing in – $98,004 debt. I had received $10k in additional loan from my parents which made this possible. But this would also mark the last time I received any additional loans from them. 

I figured I was now in a better financial situation and had gotten rid of the majority of my high interest rate loans. Plus, I didn’t want to keep fooling myself by thinking I had made a huge contribution to my debt pay-down, when really I have only been transferring one kind of loan to another. At the end of the day, it was still money I had to pay back to my parents.

August 2018

Debated whether I should continue aggressively paying down my debt or start saving up a bit more. Decided to start focusing on saving a bit more and created Personal Capital to start tracking my net worth while still continuing the student loan payments.

December 2018

Ended 2018 with -$68,287 net worth. In total I increased my net worth by $60,862 this year. I maxed out my Roth IRA, but not my 401k. In total, I made a $42,354 payment to my federal student loans ($10k loan from my parents, $32,354 my contribution) in 2018.

March 2019

Went on my first ever international trip that was paid for by my own money. It was also my first vacation since I started my career so it was definitely the biggest spending of 2019 for me. Ended the first quarter of 2019 with – $45,982 net worth.

July 2019

Officially paid off $100,000 worth of student loans 2 years since starting my debt repayment journey.

October 2019

Finally crossed over to positive net worth territory! I was so proud of having $0 net worth and climbing out of the six-figure negative net worth predicament I found myself in 2 years ago. Looking back on that post, it was the first time I dared dream that having $100k net worth would also be a possibility in the future.

December 2019

2019 was the first year I worked full time the entire year with no gaps in employment. I ended the year with $54,369 student debt and a positive net worth of $22,465. Overall, I had a net worth increase of a whooping $90,725!

The market gave a stunning 20% return on my investment in 2019 and although I knew the power of compound interest, it was truly the first time I saw the power of investing for my future.

February 2020

Refinanced most of my federal student loan to private loan for a lower interest rate. Instantly regretted it as COVID-19 hit and federal loans currently offer a 0% interest rate deferment. 

March 2020

Stock market tanked due to COVID-19 pandemic and I saw all my gains from the past year disappear. Thankfully I didn’t pull out of the market and instead continued investing into my 401k and Roth IRA and was able to enjoy the recovery.

April 2020

Boy did the stock market recover… despite still having a huge amount of student loans, I hit $100k in assets from investments and savings and went from $33,685 net worth in the beginning of April to $50k net worth by the end of April. Yes, that’s right, a $16k net worth increase in the span of a month thanks to a market recovery!

August 2020

Finally made it to under $50,000 student loan debt. The student loan progress is now a slow burn as I focus more on saving up to buy a home.

September 2020

Officially maxed out my 401k, Roth IRA, and HSA for the year since I’m switching jobs! Yes, the cat is out of the bag now. I will definitely have to do a life update on that as soon as I get all the details sorted out.

October 2020

$100k net worth! I’m definitely sensing a new chapter in my life. I’m cautiously optimistic that things are looking up for the future. At the end of 2019, I made 4 goals total. My two big audacious goals were to get to $100k net worth and to purchase my first home. My two smaller goals were to change jobs to the field I’m currently in and to refinance my student loans with First Republic Bank.

I am currently 3 out of 4 on my goals. Fittingly enough, the year is also 3/4th over. Will I meet my last goal of purchasing my home? Most likely not. I do not have an agent or have secured financing as of yet. But am I more prepared that I have ever been? Certainly.

I’m hoping to use the rest of the year to get settled into my new job and to keep working on my last goal.

They say the first $100k is the hardest so I am hoping that the next $100k will come faster the next time around.