My Addiction: Increasing Net Worth

I am loving watching my net worth grow. I loved it before saving money was my main goal. That’s one of the reasons I love Mint.com. I can go back and see my money grow from $5,000 when I left college (from hoarding $20 bills in high school and not spending basically anything in college) to a new milestone: $60,000 as of today. Not only is this intoxicating to watch and the reason I now look forward to pay days with a childlike glee, but the mere fact that I achieved $50,000 net worth in November and have increased my net worth 20% in 3 months is insane. And so exciting. It gives me a high I can’t describe. Maybe this is what shopaholics feel right after a purchase. I have no idea, but it’s a fantastic feeling.

I now have over $40,000 hard at work in investments and the remaining $20,000 being used as an emergency buffer for when I voluntarily become funemployed, a final expensive vacation hurrah (Fiji) and to cover monthly expenses. Next milestone: $50,000 in investments which should happen in another 3 months and $70,000 net worth which should happen in about 6 months if I get a job quickly after moving. I’m so excited I can’t stand it.

It’s fascinating that I’ve been able to grow my net worth 20% in 3 months without changing anything: same job, same apartment, same level of happiness (if not higher). Just think if I’d been doing all this my past four years!

A little history:
I left college with $5,000 and moved to New York City. I immediately started contributing to my 401K plan despite giving large loans to a few friends (which they paid back quickly). For a time contributed the maximum to my 401K (around 30% of my entry level salary) just to see what would happen. I had no idea that money would soon grow into the relative behemoth it is today.

Year 0 (Mid-2011)