In this post I will go into more details behind my income and expenses to show one of the contributing factors to the growth of my net worth every month. Hint: it’s not ONLY because of how the stock market performs!

To start, I make a pretty high salary (about $115,000 / year) which means after taxes I net about $6620 per month. Here’s my expense breakdown:

Category	Amount	Remaining
Starting Amount		$6,620
Discretionary Expenses	$1,100	$5,520
House Mortgage, Taxes, Insurance & Maintenance	$1,400	$4,120

As you can see, on an average month after all my basic expenses, insurance, lifestyle costs, etc. I have about $4,100 remaining. Everything from this point adds to net worth because the remaining money either goes to bank accounts or gets invested. (Note: when I say I “net” $6,620 I’m not including 401K contributions, even though technically I never see the money hit the bank account.)

Here’s the breakdown of where the money gets invested:

Category	Amount
Roth 401(k)	$582
Roth IRA	$500
Taxable Brokerage	$3,000

If the stock market was flat for an entire month, my net worth would grow about $4,100 because my expenses are less than half of my net income (about 40%).

This is one of the reasons attention should be paid to not spending everything you make, since the remainder adds to your net worth, and ultimately your financial freedom.