When the percentage increases drop

I made a change to our Net Worth Google Sheet by removing the tab on graphical illustration of the changes in our Cash, Investments, Retirement & Medical funds, Total Assets and Net Worth. It wasn’t useful for me because I was referring more to the actual figures for tracking purposes. The graphs gave me a big picture of where we were heading but when you are still in the detailed work phase of building your wealth, it really doesn’t offer much.

Instead, I added in columns on $ and % changes to the tab on our actual numbers for Cash, Investments, Retirement & Medical funds, Total Assets and Net Worth. I didn’t see this before but the monthly rate of change results are illuminating when you line them up next to each other. The figures used to be bigger and fluctuated a lot more when I first started tracking a few years ago. Now, they are more range bound and patterns are starting to emerge.

The percentage increases in Cash, Investments, Retirement & Medical funds, Total Assets and Net Worth are starting to drop. Which makes sense mathematically when you think about how the same $ change divided by a bigger denominator base results in a smaller number. On one hand, it’s a good thing because it means our asset portfolio is growing i.e. this is not a bad problem to have.

But when I look at it from another perspective, it’s suggesting doing the same thing will lose its effectiveness over time. How am I supposed to accelerate my rate of wealth build-up if I don’t attempt to do anything new? If anything, it feels like I will be slowing down with time at the rate this is going when I should be more aggressive instead.

Anyway, it’s a Sunday and I was out the whole day yesterday. Just sitting down now and musing about stuff while resting. Recovery takes longer as you get older and I still have to head to the gym later for my weekly exercise appointment with my wife. Feeling lazy and unmotivated but I hope this changes in a few hours.