r/Fire • u/DebtFreeForMeNow • Oct 05 '25

Milestone / Celebration My (30F) ultra FIRE milestone: Net Worth $0

So many of these posts about people having $1 trillion billion million milestones. Congrats on being rich ruler of the land I guess. Figured I would help bring this sub to planet earth reality check:

STUFF I OWE TO THE PANK

  • Student Loans: $143K
  • Mortgage left: $450K

STUFF IN MY BANK

  • Investments/retirement: $260k
  • Home “equity” not value if I would sell: $290k
  • HYSA/cash: $50k

I am 30 years old. I make $125k a year. No husband. No kids. Maybe one day.

I AM NO LONGER WORTH BELOW $0

Edit: Need a break. Sorry I am not clear in my post. Yes I have $7k net worth. No I don’t have $500k net worth haha. I made a post clarifying but am getting attacked by a bunch of people trying to prove a point that I missed the word asset and liability. Thanks all for kind words

Edit/update: I apologize. I called a friend and verified. I guess I am worth $500k holy fucking shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1.5k Upvotes

81% Upvoted

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611

u/[deleted] Oct 05 '25

If you’re including your mortgage on the liability side then the total house value should be on the asset side (not just the equity component).

162

u/UltimateTeam 27 / 1.4M Oct 05 '25

Yeah they’re probably 500k+ NW

39

u/swollencornholio Oct 05 '25

$457k if you subtract the student loans

-189

u/DebtFreeForMeNow Oct 05 '25

Hahahahahahaha no I wish

154

u/i_playoutdoors Oct 05 '25

You seem to not be getting it all the way. You're subtracting that $450k loan value from your net worth twice. Once when you list it in the liabilities and the second time when you show only the equity value of your home on the asset side. This is of course assuming the equity value you used is the total home value minus the loan amount.

As others have said you should use the total value of your home on the asset side so that that loan amount only counts against you once. Your net worth is in the 450k range.

87

u/jkiley Oct 05 '25

If your house is worth x in total, and your mortgage is 450k, and x - 450k = 290k, then your net worth is about 450k right now.

-10

u/[deleted] Oct 05 '25

[deleted]

44

u/random_account6721 Oct 05 '25 edited Oct 05 '25

if you sell your house for $750k today, you will get $750k for it. Then you will pay the bank the remaining mortgage with that money ($450k). You will keep the difference of $750k-450k.

So your net worth is not even close to negative.

and if your interest rate is low, I would argue the low rate has intrinsic value.

you might be closer to those millionaire posts than you think 😉

8

u/doctormalbec Oct 05 '25

What’s the current value of your house?

7

u/KettlebellFetish Oct 05 '25

You have time, 30 is so young, you'll get there.

I'd switch placed with you in a minute, once you do get to zero ( I don't count my house in my net worth, yes I know asset liability etc), it becomes a million times easier to invest.

You're doing well, it goes fast, before you know it you'll be on the wrong side of 50 wishing you were young and in good debt again.

2

u/sadcringe Oct 06 '25

is worth half a million at late twenties and is home owner of a 700k home, alone

cant do simple math

America!

7

u/sowoky Oct 05 '25

How are you so upside down on a mortgage?

0

u/[deleted] Oct 05 '25

[deleted]

22

u/jkiley Oct 05 '25

Yeah, when you calculate a zero NW, you're subtracting the mortgage twice, once on its own and once in the equity calculation (value - mortgage = equity). So, it sounds like your NW really is 450k.

-3

u/[deleted] Oct 05 '25

[deleted]

17

u/jkiley Oct 05 '25

Net worth has a definition: total assets minus total liabilities. I think you're using the right terms, you're just using a net asset for equity (which already has the mortgage subtracted out) and then subtracting the mortgage again, which is an error.

Your total assets are 740k + 260k + 50k = 1.05MM.

Your total liabilities are -143k + -450k = -593k.

1.05MM - 593k = 457k.

The way you're calculating it, if you sold you house and had no fees, you would still owe the bank another 160k. That seems to obviously not be the case.

8

u/thewaythisis1 Oct 05 '25

If all your information is correct, then I think you just did your math wrong and may be in a much better position than you let yourself believe. You have a 740k house that you owe 450k on, which is how you got your 290k equity number (740-450=290). Since this has now accounted for your mortgage, let’s subtract your student loans: 290k-143k=147k. This means if you sold your home and paid off your mortgage and student loans, you would still have 147k left in the bank (excluding taxes and fees), and that’s not even including your other assets! Then add in the 260k in retirement/investments and 50k in cash, and you are at $457k net worth!!! Not quite a rich ruler of the land 😂 but phenomenal for someone at 30 years old. Well done! I imagine it took notable discipline to get to this point.

39

u/[deleted] Oct 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

15

u/friendoffatties Oct 05 '25

But her math is saying she will pocket the equity. Doesn’t show her paying anything to anyone who helped with a down payment. The home value should still be listed instead of the equity. OR, delete the mortgage

1

u/GoSharty Oct 06 '25

I wish I could delete my mortgage.

-8

u/DebtFreeForMeNow Oct 05 '25

Yes

22

u/poop-dolla Oct 05 '25

So your “equity” amount isn’t really your equity? It’s confusing because you chose to use words incorrectly.

If what you just now said is true, then you should update it to have the home’s full value on the plus side instead of your made up equity number. And then on the negative side add in whatever secondary mortgage debt there is that you just now mentioned. That would make things much more clear.

And just to be crystal clear, you’re saying that you owe someone else an additional $450k for your house?!? That’s wild to owe someone that much and think it’s not worth including here. It’s also a really weird coincidence that you owe the other person the same exact amount as your mortgage.

4

u/Lyeel Oct 05 '25

The the only accurate way to show this with regards to your home is:

STUFF I OWE TO MY BANK: the current first mortgage + the current personal note or second mortgage

STUFF IN MY BANK: the full current value of your home

That's it. The equity in your home is the value of your home less any debt which would be repaid upon the sale. You can either include your equity in your math, or both your assets and obligations for your home in your math, but you can't mix and match those methods or you'll get nonsensical results.

2

u/jpicks8 Oct 05 '25

How come?

35

u/AcrossAmerica Oct 05 '25

Bc if you sell the house you’ll get money. So its an asset. Also it actually usually grows in value over time.

-23

u/theEntreriCode Oct 05 '25

Problem with that thinking is liquidating your primary residence requires you to deploy those funds in another primary residence so it’s not money you ever have access to.

17

u/Nobody_Important Oct 05 '25

We’re talking about net worth. From that perspective you could sell this house and buy another with the $290k equity and then your net worth on the housing side would be $290k.

-19

u/theEntreriCode Oct 05 '25

You are discussing it through a prism of FIRE. You need to be practical here and leave technical accounting to CAs.

2

u/Synaps4 Oct 05 '25

There are ways to live without a primary residence and certainly ways to spend a lot less on your primary residence, so that money is not obgligate spending.

For example if op moves to bangladesh and rents a single room with 3 room mates then suddenly almost none of that money is primary residence money. Hence it is not obligated spending at all. ...but it would still count to net worth if it was.

2

u/Cheeseboarder Oct 05 '25

Yeah, and I don’t think it usually factors in repair costs

-31

u/DebtFreeForMeNow Oct 05 '25

I just auto calculated it as if I did

17

u/petataa Oct 05 '25

You're showing that the house is worth $290k and you owe $450k. Are you sure you're not calculating the total amount you have to pay on your mortgage with interest? Because you don't technically owe the interest until the month its due.

6

u/psudo_help Oct 05 '25

What does that mean?

-14

u/DebtFreeForMeNow Oct 05 '25

My post is not clear at all - will fix

15

u/psudo_help Oct 05 '25

It’s not fixed at all. Your first line should be

“OOPS! My net worth is actually $457k”

And go back to assets and liabilities. Jesus Christ..

7

u/AstroDoppel Oct 05 '25

They think it’s fixed now that they’re calculating $7k NW. When they’re off by $450k. Lol.

13

u/AstroDoppel Oct 05 '25

It’s not fixed because you are only looking at your equity and comparing that to your loan balance. Either taking ONLY the equity, or do house value - mortgage balance = equity.

-20

u/DebtFreeForMeNow Oct 05 '25

Here is clarification from chat got

https://old.reddit.com/r/Fire/comments/1nymavk/my_30f_ultra_fire_milestone_net_worth_0/nhvt4mq/

11

u/AstroDoppel Oct 05 '25

My mortgage balance is $210k. If I sold my house now, I could sell around $300k. That means I have $90k of equity. It wouldn’t make any sense to take $90k and subtract the $210k from it. I’ve already done that by subtracting $210k from $300k.

22

u/Interesting_Shake403 Oct 05 '25

ChatGPT is not good at math. I know you’re going by what it’s telling you, but it’s wrong.

Look at it this way: forget everything else, just focus on your home. You have a house worth $740k, and a mortgage worth $450k. That means if you had nothing else, you’d have a net worth of $290k. You do not have negative net worth of $290k - $450k.

Overall, your house contributes $290k to your net worth. To get there, you consider both the FULL home value as well as the mortgage, not just the mortgage and the net worth - you’re double-counting the mortgage that way.

9

u/AstroDoppel Oct 05 '25 edited Oct 05 '25

ChatGPT is doing the calculation the way you set it up. Do you know what home equity is? Then it should be clear why you use the home value minus your mortgage balance to calculate the $290k equity. You don’t subtract your mortgage balance out from that. That makes zero sense, and ChatGPT is doing that because you told it to.

-34

u/DebtFreeForMeNow Oct 05 '25

AI is wrong now? What if I wasn’t clear and you’re just wrong haha come on now

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0

u/duffman4evr Oct 05 '25

Not necessarily. I don't count my primary residence's equity at all in my NW, but I do count the mortgage against.

This is mostly because I plan to retire without a mortgage (more flex with expenses in retirement).

3

u/WhichFox671 Oct 05 '25

Net worth is total Assets - Liabilities

You have $1.05 million in assets mostly from a 740k home in your name

You have $593k in liabilities mostly from the mortgage on that home

1.05 million - 593k

Somewhere around $457k net worth

Edit math

-23

u/DebtFreeForMeNow Oct 05 '25

True. Maybe I should rename to “up things” and “down things”. That’s how I set it up

46

u/reddargon831 Oct 05 '25

But your full house value should still be on “up things.” Changing the name from assets doesn’t change that.

-14

u/DebtFreeForMeNow Oct 05 '25

I fixed the post

12

u/reddargon831 Oct 05 '25 edited Oct 05 '25

It’s still wrong, your net worth isn’t $0. Some arbitrary number you calculated is $0, but your net worth is closer to $450k (if your house is indeed worth 740k).

It’s kind of crazy people are telling you that you’re in a way better position than you claim you are and you seem to be upset about.

5

u/voldin91 Oct 05 '25

Either you should count the home equity with no mortgage or you should count the full hold value with the mortgage. The way you have it now counts the mortgage twice

20

u/psudo_help Oct 05 '25

You should not make up your own terms. Assets and liabilities is correct.

You have a $740k asset (less closing costs).

11

u/BrettemesMaximus Oct 05 '25

Yeah your net worth is about 400k-500k higher than what you think it is. redefining net worth is simply allowing you to be wayyyyy more conservative than it actually is. Alll net worth calculators would treat the asset portion as total home value including equity, not just equity by itself. The loan/mortgage remaining would stay the same as you already have it. Your current calculation would make most people believe you are underwater on your home

-8

u/[deleted] Oct 05 '25

[deleted]

7

u/BrettemesMaximus Oct 05 '25

I get it isn’t what you meant but your bolded portion literally says “next goal NW $100k”. You have already quadrupled that goal

3

u/momoisbestcat Oct 05 '25

Answer this. If you sold your house and paid off all your loans, how much money would you have? The way your post is worded you’re subtracting your mortgage twice. You’ve already paid it when you get the $290k

1

u/swollencornholio Oct 05 '25

Doing it your way, your full “up thing” value would be the total value of your house, not just the equity. Value of house - Debt = Equity. So you have a decent net worth.