2017...how well did you do?

[rennigade]

With 2017 coming to an end I figured this would be a good thread to start. How well did your accounts do this year? Feel free to list AA, percentage increase/decrease, dollar amounts, how much you've increased from 2016 to 2017, etc etc.

Ill wait until this weekend to post but as of now a lot of us should be pretty pleased with our finances for 2017.

[corn18]

Retirement savings

$473k Start
$720k End

$130k of contributions:

$18,000 401k
$6,000 401k catch up
$19,000 401k after tax (mega backdoor Roth)
$6,500 my Roth IRA
$5,500 wife's Roth IRA
$75,000 taxable

$117,000 Gains

$15,000 401k match
$102,000 gains from portfolio

Not sure how to compute the % gain as I was adding to the portfolio all year. Probably around 15% overall if you don't count the 401k match, 18% with the match.

Have another $100k cash for EF and college.

[Thrif-t]

My 401k balance with Schwab is up 9.9%, and our IRA Balance at Vanguard is up 22.2% but only as of Nov 30th, mmm can't figure out how to get the month of December in that?

I suspect my Schwab return isn't as good because I changed my allocations to buy into the cash fund this year as I was over my allocation in stocks.

[disneysteve]

I don't know yet but I know investment return was quite good. I'll pull the closing numbers this weekend and update my portfolio spreadsheet and report back when I do.

[bjl584]

I made more in the markets in 2017 than I did working at my job.

[bennkar]

I made more in the markets in 2017 than I did working at my job.

You can add me to that group. 2016 was about 85% of my salary. This year should come in around 110%. I'll know more when I get my final numbers.

[Singuy]

401k Retirement savings

Mine
Roth: $2500
401k: $18500
401k: Match: $6000

Wife's
401k: $18000
401k Match: $18000

Tax Efficient savings total: 63,000

Taxable Savings Account: ~$145,000
+Interest: ~8,000

Total saved: ~$216,000

[Jluke]

2017 Summary

401k, Roth IRA and Taxable investment accounts:
115k higher from Dec 31, 2016.

I added 33k across the accounts in 2017.

Cash:
30k higher. driven by a cash gift and sale of home. otherwise it would have been closer to $0 higher.


BUT...
Debt:
New car loan in July 2017: 14k down to 12k
New mortgage on Nov 30: 200k down to 197k.
Existing car loan: 10k down to 4300.

We'll see what 2018 has in store for investments...

[Nutria]

We did very well.

• NW up 17% to $725K
• Retirement up 21%
• Debt down from $11K to $16.49.
• Cash+equivalents up 26%.
• Liquidity Ratio: 407%
• Debt-Asset Ratio: 0.00232%
• Liabilities Ratio: 1.1%

All that's after buying a car, repairing it twice (kids!!! ), going to Europe, etc.

[disneysteve]

Portfolio value 12/31/16: $837,202.58

Portfolio value 12/31/17: $1,001,359.64

We made it to the $1 million mark!

That's an increase of about 19.6% for the year. I'm good with that. We had 2 large expenses this year. We paid back a 15K student loan and paid 15K for tuition this year. Add in a couple of costly car repairs and a couple of costlier-than-usual vacations and I know exactly why the return wasn't higher.

[kork13]

2017 was once again a very good year for us financially. Notable financial/related accomplishments:
- Paid off DW's small-ish ($12k) car loan
- DS2 born & started a 529 for him
- Topped off our recently expanded 6mo EF (expenses are much higher now that we live in Alaska), from $24k in Oklahoma up to $35k now
- Rental stayed rented
- Maxed out 2x Roth IRAs & 2x TSP accounts
- Rebuilt our taxable investments (which were wiped out after buying a home up here in AK in Sep'16)

EOY Balances by the numbers:
- EF: $35k (up $5k/15%)
- Other cash savings: $21k (down $19k, most of which was transferred to the EF and taxable investments)
- Non-retirement investments: $88k (up $65k/280%, 10.7% returns)
- Retirement accounts: $366k (up 99k/37%, 15% returns)
- Mortgages: $395k (down $28k/6.7%, including both our current home & the rental)
- Home values: $611k (both homes' values were basically unchanged from last year... )

Total in cash/investments: $511k (up $150k/41.4%)
Total Net Worth: $722,182.63 (up $190,120.48/35.4%)

An interesting comparison made by bjl584 -- we earned about $240k this year, and our net worth went up by $190k. So that's pretty encouraging!

Once again, we can only be very grateful for how well we've done this year. Investment returns have definitely helped alot, but much of our gains have also been realized through aggressive saving, and paying off/down the few debts that we've had over the last year.

In the coming year, we're going to de-emphasize retirement accounts somewhat (reducing our TSP contributions to only ~$12k/yr each vs. both of us maxing), and use that money to bump up our non-retirement investments & cash savings available. We're looking ahead some major life/career decisions for DW & I (32/31 y/o) in the next 1-2 years, so we're going to build up some financial flexibility for ourselves leading up to those decisions. Do one/both of us leave active duty military service? New or old military retirement plans? Does DW stay home or get a part time job? More kids? Move somewhere in 2019? Alot of tough choices ahead, so we want to be well prepared for whatever may happen.

[Drake3287]

Like others, my one year gain for 2017 is the highest I've ever had. What I find funny is that half my friends on Face Book (and in real life) spent all year long trashing Trump but have no problem in making money off the red hot economy that most people credit Trump for.

[scfr]

Financial assets increased 8.7%.
Non-financial assets (house & car) increased 1.9%.
Net worth overall increased 7.8%. Unlike most here, that is a lower increase than 2016 (due to estimated tax swings and variable income). But there's nothing to complain about.

The crazy thing to contemplate is that there's a chance we might hit our "retirement number" on paper in 2018, well ahead of plan. We're not counting on it though ... too many things could happen between now and the end of 2018.

[tripods68]

Net Worth End of 2016
$486K

End of 2017
$653K

Net Worth increased $167K

We continue to grow our investment portfolio from $483k to $593K.

zero credit debt

Mortgage Principal reduction down from $460K to 445K!

Home Equity increased $45K!

[Gailete]

I managed to scrape together the basic numbers for 2017 for us tonight. And Oh My Goodness I'm not a millionaire! Wasn't expecting to be either and I'm so happy for those of you that have made that benchmark and those hovering close.

Cautionary Tale for those that think $25-50 doesn't matter much:

I can't remember when we started them, within the first year or two we were married, we started IRA's for each of us. Deposited $3000 and any subsequent amount was identical and made on the same day. At one point I got an email from the company that said if I agreed to them not sending me updates by mail they would wave the $25 maintenance fee on our IRA's. Sounded good to me and I agreed to it. Several years later as I was checking out account, I noticed hubby's account was lower than mine, which was odd since as the older one here, my accounts got the money first since we could tap it sooner without penalty but I hadn't been able to deposit anything for awhile, so there shouldn't have been a difference. Turns out that I had thought I had agreed to no snail mail for his account either, but I hadn't. So somewhere along the line he had maintenance fees take out and I think I tried to recover the difference by depositing $50. Long time ago so I don't remember all the details for sure. All that to say, that my IRA with only that little bit of difference, about $50, my account is worth $921.94 MORE than his! Do not despise the days of small beginnings!

Those IRAs in total are up 30.09% for the year (American Century Growth Fund) and are up $5706 since last year! About half of the increase came as long and short term capital gains etc. and the other half just the increase in price due to the wonderful stock year.

My Roth IRA at Capital One 360 is up $1721 for the year. Some growth of investments as well as long and short term gains again. My stock account is down -$102. The account itself over the life of it is up 23.46%.

Early last year I had a lightening bolt hit my head and I realized, I must have been doing taxes when it hit, that by continuing to invest into my stock account I was having to pay taxes on dividends each year. Duh, I'm sure most of you knew that all along, so this year as I have had some money to invest and save, I have put it into my Roth IRA so that any dividends would grow without being taxed. I'll still be paying on the dividends in my stock account, but I don't want to sell them just to move them into the Roth account. One of them is Hershey which I bought some of my shares at $48/share. It ended on Friday at $113. I believe in putting my money where my mouth is LOL - love Hershey Milk Chocolate Nuggets with almonds.

Our total invested amount of money is currently at $36,595, up $7325 from last year. I have never had that much money invested in my life! Considering the financial difficulties we live with daily, I'm very excited about how things are working out for us. With just my SS the amount we have set aside would last us around 4 years as extra income if needed.

We paid off our car this year, way early. Our rental property should be paid off by March or April assuming the renters pay their rent when they are supposed to. Working hard to get the mortgage paid off as well credit cards paid off.

Hoping to have even better news to report at the end of 2018