Some bloggers might be embarrassed to give this month’s update. I’m proud of it.
Kevin – $25,140.66 (-$5,347.18)
The Hoff – $53,536.00 (-$3,776.00)
Difference – $28,395.34 (-$1,571.18)
I lost a lot of money last month. Well, to say I lost it isn’t really a good description; I know exactly where all of it went
Vacations and the Stock Market Killed Me
I spent a lot of money on vacations that I will be taking over the next few months, and I also lost quite a bit on money in the stock market. Also, some of it was a short term loan that I will almost certainly see come back in July, so I’m already expect to gain a lot of ground on The Hoff in two months.
Let’s talk about the money I spent on vacations. You might remember a post I wrote about two weeks ago about how your dreams deserve better than tomorrow. That’s not just advice; I’m living that as we speak. A vacation can cost a lot of money, but I say ignoring your dreams and hoarding money instead of getting experiences is much more dangerous than spending money on what you want.
As for the stock market, I lost money in all of my investments. The market had a horrible month and everything from stocks and ETFs to mutual funds and call options is down. I lost almost $4,000 because of a bad month in the market.
Do I wish I had sold before taking a $k loss? Sure. But I’m not going to pretend that I’m smart enough to time the market. All of my investments are medium to long term (even my options) and I’m holding for the long run. One month of bad returns doesn’t change the fact that I’ve made a lot of money in the market over the last three years or that the market is historically the best place to grow wealth.
The Hoff is Losing Money Too
If I had any saving grace this month, it was The Hoff losing a substantial amount of money. He and I have similar investments, and he’s also planning a trip to the Las Vegas/Grand Canyon area. It’s a big, expensive trip for him and his girlfriend. I’m encouraging him to see all the sights, buy tickets to all the shows, and gamble as much as he can. He’s gotta live it up, right?!
From what he tells me, he’s gonna keep pouring money into this vacation for the next few months, so this is my time to make a comeback.
I’m Not Doing So Bad This Year
When you look at results from one month, it sucks. But consider that my net worth was $18,847 in January. That means my net worth has risen over $6k in five months. It could be better, but overall I’m heading in the right direction and having life changing experiences along the way.
I still believe I can reach my goal of pulling within $20k of The Hoff by the end of 2011. I’m already prepping for a fantastic July, and if I can cut some frivolous spending and start pulling in more money from this website, I expect to hit that goal pretty easily.
Plus I may have changed The Hoff’s round trip Vegas plane tickets to one-way Zimbabwe tickets. Good luck getting home big guy!
Kevin McKee is an entrepreneur, IT guru, and personal finance leader. In addition to his writing, Kevin is the head of IT at Buildingstars, Co-Founder of Padmission, and organizer of Laravel STL. He is also the creator of www.contributetoopensource.com. When he’s not working, Kevin enjoys podcasting about movies and spending time with his wife and four children.
The is a great post. How did you get Hoff’s net worth? I think it is a great idea to race to $1 million. Nice to see that you are thinking longer term with your investments. This might be a bummer of a summer.
The Hoff is a friend of mine who blogs here with a stock pick on most Mondays. He updates his net worth monthly, just like I do, and we share the numbers and I post the update. I’m glad you like it 🙂
I get it now. I will look for those stock picks. My money is on you.
Haha, I hope he likes those one-way tickets to Zimbabwe, where hyper-inflation causes people to drag suitcases full of cash to the grocery store. I know you were joking about sending him there, but the financial nerd within me REALLY wants to get down there to see how a country responds to that type of inflation.