April 19′ Personal Net Worth Report and More

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personal net worth

 

This is my monthly report of our personal net worth progress for April 2019.

I’m sharing this to show how important it is to track your net worth and seeing the progress. This is what I also expect and advise my clients.

From tracking your personal net worth and see how much you are worth, you can learn what works and what you should change in your finances.

It’s the first step to eliminate money as a source of stress and gain confidence in your future finances.

If you’d like to also see how much you are worth the way I do, I created a version of it, especially for my readers. You can get it here.

Also, if you’d like to read the previous report to get the flow of things you can check it here – March 2019 personal net worth report. This is the page with all previous reports is here.

If you don’t know what the net worth definition is, check it here.

Let’s jump in!

OVERVIEW

So, this month our net worth is up by 2.23% (+1% from our monthly average of 1.23%) and our savings rate is 55.02% .

Also, In a nutshell, we are back in Israel after our 3-month workation in Sri Lanka and I’m already now on my next trip. But more on that later.

Envestio:

Envestio had a few projects this month. One of them was funded in around 5-7 minutes. Super fast! I’m really waiting for them to add the auto investing at some point, to prevent cash drag.

Their investments still keep adding a nice steady income every month. It’s not growing though because the EUR/ILS rate kept going down.

If you do decide to join Envestio through my link, I’ll get some bonus from them to invest more in my portfolio and you’ll get an extra 5 € bonus + 0.5% cash back for the next 270 days after you invest

Crowdestor:

Crowdestor is my new investment. This month I started getting dividends in from the two investments I have. The only problem is that the minimum amount per investment is 50 EUR. In a few days, I’m supposed to hit that target and will be able to reinvest the money in more projects. Envestio is much more friendly with a minimum investment amount of 1 EUR.

Anyway, Crowdestor is a good alternative to Envestio to diversify from. Also projects are slower to be fully funded in Crowdestor .

UK property: 

The negotiation about the property keeps going. The seller refused our offer of 60% lower than the sale price. After reconsidering, we are about to offer a 15% lower than the sale price with a quick down payment. let’s see if this will work. I’m waiting for their reply.

Let’s dive into the details of our personal net worth.

OUR PERSONAL NET WORTH ANALYSIS:

Loans: This month I had to pay one of our loans. It was a balloon loan. Which basically means that you only pay the interest and not the principle every month. The bank didn’t want to renew it for another year, so we had to repay it. I’m still hoping to get a new offer from them for a partial amount. The interest is really low on those loans, therefore worth to keep.

I also tried to lower our interest rate through a special loan that the government gives to state employees. I asked a relative if she agrees that we will take the loan on her behalf and repay the loan to her. Then i went on and check the terms of the loan and what’s required.

The conclusion was that the loan can be given only for specific reasons and even then, only with a proper receipt of that reason. As an example, if you redecorate your house you are eligible for the loan but you have to show receipts from the constructor doing that redecoration. So, we are not in any of those criteria nor the relative. So, we had to skip this. It’s a shame because that would cut the interest payments we pay to about half.

US & Israeli Stock portfolio: We got really nice dividends this month from our portfolio. It’s been significantly higher than in other months.

Also, their value kept going up. Keep going!

US Real estate investment: Nothing new on this one. I’m waiting to get an update of either the sale of the rest of the properties or additional check of the rent collected. It’s usually happening around late summer time.

Bitcoin: Bitcoin’s value went a bit up this month. My Hashflare Mining is not profitable anymore by the way. I wonder if they will ever resume. They are selling now other crypto contracts on their website, but not Bitcoin.

PERSONAL LIFESTYLE AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE UPDATE:

Travel: As I mentioned briefly. Our wonderful 3-month trip is Sri Lanka ended. We left there on a Thursday. The Terrible bombing were the Sunday afterwards. That was terrible. We made good friends while we were there. So, of course we wanted to know they are all ok.  All are fine.

When you travel for a longer time in a place, it’s different than when you are just passing by. I really appreciate it when we get to know a place and the people in that place thanks to that time we spent there.

On the last 2.5 weeks of our trip, we drove down to Trincomalee. This is a beach town which we didn’t really know what to expect from. We found that to be one of our most favorite places along with Kandy in Sri Lanka.

It was really special for us. We managed to go and do snorkeling and dolphin watching.

Here is a tip by the way. If you travel in Sri Lanka on other parts of the island the Dolphin and Whale watching are two different tours usually. They are also much more expensive.

In Trincomalee, on the other hand, these are offered as a single tour.

Now, it’s not for sure you’ll see both (we only saw Dolphins) but you get the chance. The price is reasonable.

After Trincomalee, we went to Kandy again. Our friends invited us to spend the Sri Lankan new year with them. We had wonderful time there. It was really special spending the time with a local family and see their tradition and rituals. I’m thankful for that.

Here is a glimpse:

 

And some more others:

Interview: I was interviewed to The Becoming Superhuman Podcast by Jonathan Levi. It was a cool interview. We spoke about our lifestyle and about money. Also about how to align your life and lifestyle goals with your finances. Here it is.

 

Related: Check out all Jonathan Levi’s courses on Udemy and specifically the course about speed reading I took.

An additional interview I did was with Marc Guberti on his Breakthrough Success Podcast where listeners learn how to achieve their breakthroughs.

We spoke about our workstations and aligning finances and lifestyle.

Related: Interested to align your life and lifestyle goals with your financial goals? Interested in eliminating money as a source of stress and gaining confidence in your future finances?

I invite you for a free financial fitness call with me. Just click the link and book a time on my calendar.

Reading: I recently finished an old book about a visit one of the formal official of the state of Israel did in Asian countries and the Jewish communities on those countries. It was a very interesting read. It gave me a perspective of how it was at the end of the 50’s on those places.

Also, because I was about to go to Budapest, I decided to read A Brief Travel History of Hungary by Melvin Cole. To be frank, I think this one is poorly made and you can probably find better options to learn Hungarian history out there.

I also started to read a book about blockchain. Quality varies and I can only fully comment on it when finished. Here it is (It’s quite long) Ultimate Blockchain Technology by Lee Sebastian.

On a different note, I decided to cancel our Kindle Unlimited subscription. The Books that I found there were not the best quality and my wife also complained about this. I found that there are other many ways to get books at a low cost or even free through different promotion.

What I’m missing though, is a tool that will take my “To read” list from Goodreads and then search when these books are free or at a really low cost in all the platforms out there. I’m seriously considering building such a tool as I haven’t found one yet. Should I?

2019 Reading Challenge widget

I invite you to follow my Goodreads profile and read along with me. I’d love to share ideas.

2019 Reading Challenge

2019 Reading Challenge
Shlomo has
read 6 books toward
their goal of
18 books.
hide

 

I invite you to follow my Goodreads profile and read along with me. I’d love to share ideas.

Shlomo’s bookshelf: read

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On ItCatch the MoonAnne Frank: The Biographyמסע אל אחים נידחיםUltimate Blockchain Technology: Mega Edition – Six Books – Best Deal For Beginners in Blockchain, Blockchain Applications, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Mining and InvestingA Brief Travel History of Hungary1984The Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed and OverworkedScaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don'tFreakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of EverythingA People's History of the United StatesThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal ChangeYour Money or Your LifeEarly Retirement Extreme: A Philosophical and Practical Guide to Financial IndependenceContent Inc.: How Entrepreneurs Use Content to Build Massive Audiences and Create Radically Successful BusinessesVirtual Freedom: How to Work with Virtual Staff to Buy More Time, Become More Productive, and Build Your Dream Businessגן עדן בפתח הבית80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making MoreExpert Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Finding Your Message, Building a Tribe, and Changing the WorldSimple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable LifestyleGive Your Child the World: Raising Globally Minded Kids One Book at a TimeCrusade in EuropeMoonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering EverythingThe Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big DifferenceThe Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful BusinessesThe Trusted Advisor

 

Lifestyle (& Exercise): I’m going to check the Yoga classes in our town. It’s time to get movin’

FIWE 2019: After spending 2 weeks in Israel (and not too much of those at home), I flew to Budapest for a FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire early) conference. It’s organised by Mr. and Mrs. White from What Life Could Be who also created Firehub

It’s a small conference called Financial Independence Week Europe 2019 (FIWE 2019 in short).  It’s now the last day of the conference when I typing this post (Hence being late publishing it). It started with two days of presentations, workshops, and discussions made by other members of the FIRE community, including myself. then the next days were basically hanging out together and doing different activities together. It’s a good time to get to know people on a deeper level. I really enjoyed it and I hope to come back next time.

Here is a bit of Budapest:

NOW OVER TO YOU

Do you track your personal net worth? What insights did you get this month? Add it in the comments.

 

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