$1.71 Million Net Worth: Our 2025 Money Update
01 Feb, 2026
At the start of every year, I open one spreadsheet that tells the story of a decade of choices. Updating our net worth spreadsheet helps me see where we’ve been, and where we might be heading.
These annual check-ins matter, and I genuinely enjoy this process.
2025 was a good financial year for us, driven primarily by consistent investing in the share market through our ETF and, to a lesser extent, our KiwiSaver. Once again, we prioritised investing, never missing a month, and it paid off.
The Big Picture
At the beginning of each year, I check in with PocketSmith and update our net worth spreadsheet to see where we’re at.
On 1 January 2025, our net worth was $1,593,000.
By 31 December 2025, it had grown to $1,710,000.
Here’s the whole picture:
| Asset | Jan 2025 | Dec 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| KiwiSaver (combined) | $242,000 | $288,000 |
| Smart Total World Fund ETF | $352,000 | $418,000 |
| Cash | $29,000 | $34,000 |
| House | $970,000 | $970,000 |
| Total Net Worth | $1,593,000 | $1,710,000 |
That’s an increase of $117,000, or 7.4%, over the year.
The big story of 2025 is simple: consistent investing did the heavy lifting.
Over the course of 2025, we invested approximately:
$33,000 of after-tax income
plus $3,000 in reinvested ETF distributions (dividends)
Our invested assets (KiwiSaver + ETF) grew from $594,000 to $706,000 - an increase of $112,000, or 18.8%.
If you remove the $33,000 that we contributed, the underlying growth was still around 13.3%.
Passive Income Potential
Using a 5% drawdown guideline, our investments had the potential to provide:
$570 per week at the start of the year
$680 per week by the end of the year (around $35,000 per year)
This isn’t what we receive in dividends. It’s simply a way to estimate what our portfolio could support if we ever needed to draw on it. The aim is to have it fully replace our income.
Most of our net worth growth came from invested assets doing precisely what they’re meant to do: grow.
And had we not sold $10,000 during the year to cover repairs and maintain a higher cash buffer, it would have been even higher.
We’re heading in the right direction, and now I just have to do what I encourage others to do: KEEP GOING!
Net Worth Items of Note
Each year, I estimate our house's value (a friend is a mortgage broker, and I ask him on the 1st January for his best guess). We became mortgage-free in 2007. In 2016, our current house was valued at $450,000. On January 1st, 2026, he estimated its value at around $970,000 - a 115% increase over 10 years.
However, over that same period, our investments increased in value by around 315%. That growth came from a combination of consistent contributions over many years, reinvested dividends, and a capital gain (or growth) in the value of each share, rather than any single standout year.
We’ve poured money into our house to keep it running and well-maintained, and we’ve drawn a small amount out of our investments to fund our lifestyle. Tracking the growth of both home and investments has been interesting. Seeing the two side by side has been a very hands-on lesson in the difference between an asset that costs you money and one that produces it.
I’ll mention it, because I know you are thinking about asking the question, “Ruth, is your house even an asset?” To me, at this moment in time, it is. For FIRE purposes, our home is an asset only if we’re willing to unlock its equity, and that’s the decision for 2026.
Income
In 2025, our total after-tax income was $121,000, up from $114,000 in 2024. This came from a mix of sources:
Jonny’s part-time PAYE job and some freelance graphic design work
My part-time self-employed income from The Happy Saver
Casual PAYE work from my former job
And both of us saying yes to enjoyable, one-off ways to earn extra money.
Having left my part-time job in 2024, the biggest surprise was how fully The Happy Saver grew to replace that income, eventually becoming our largest income source. I never set out to run a business, so it's come as a pleasant surprise how much I’m enjoying it.
In addition to our earned income, we also sold $10,000 from our ETF investments during the year, mainly to cover house and car repairs and to maintain a slightly higher cash buffer. This sometimes raises eyebrows (why invest AND sell?). While this sale wasn’t strictly necessary (we could have cut expenses elsewhere and saved up cash over many months), it was a simple, low-stress solution, and even after withdrawing this lump sum, our investment still grew strongly overall.
Importantly, we both worked very part-time throughout 2025. We have NAILED ‘work-life balance’, and we can’t wait to continue this lifestyle choice into 2026.
2025 Spending + Lifestyle
2025 felt like a spendy year. We spent $80,000 - but the key takeaway is that we still spent $41,000 less than we earned, and invested most of that difference.
Our biggest spending categories were:
Health - $11,000
This was a mix of planned and unplanned spending. On the planned side, I paid off my dental work, we both updated our glasses (using Zenni Optical), had regular health screening, bought fitness gear, and Jonny invested in a few personal training sessions. On the unplanned side, both of us required surgery during the year, which, despite having health insurance, still came with out-of-pocket costs. While this was more than we expected to spend, it was covered by our Health Sinking Fund and Emergency Fund, making it inconvenient, not stressful. I love using sinking funds because they are so effective.
House & Car Repairs - $13,000
When the hot water cylinder and the car fail at roughly the same time, you deal with it. The car repairs needed an urgent fix, while the HWC could wait, so both costs were unexpected but manageable.
Food - $13,000
In 2024, I noticed that our grocery spend had crept up to $15,000 per year. In 2025, we pulled this back to $13,000 by shopping from a list, meal planning, and going to the supermarket less often. Although 2026 has gotten off to an expensive start with many visitors passing through for kai, with just the two of us at home from mid-February, this should drop. I’m going to monitor it.
Electricity + Diesel - No change!
We heat our home using electricity and a diesel boiler for central heating. Since mid 2025, our solar hot water system has been kaput. Electricity was more expensive in 2025, but diesel was cheaper. When combined, our total energy spend increased by just $37! This should reduce in 2026 with just two of us at home.
No two years of spending are ever the same. Outside of health and repairs, our day-to-day spending stayed relatively steady, with no major blowouts in the categories I track using PocketSmith. Our goal isn’t to minimise spending at all costs, but to spend intentionally. I hate the idea of wasting money, but I love spending it on things that genuinely improve our health, comfort, or enjoyment of life. In 2025, despite some surprises, our spending largely reflected that.
Investing + Wealth-Building Decisions
Although we have a lot of autonomy over our time now, we’re not fully financially independent YET. With a net worth of $1,710,000, we have ‘enough’, BUT too much of it is still tied up in our home. Unless we are willing to sell our house, invest the full amount, and rent, we still need to work a little. While we decide on what to do, consistent investing has been a key focus.
In 2025, our goal was to balance living well in the present with investing consistently for the future. Goal achieved!
Practically, this meant a very hands-off approach. Every week, without fail, I moved a portion of our income into a separate bank account, which was then invested monthly (on the 20th) into the Smart Total World Fund ETF. Jonny continued contributing 3% to his KiwiSaver, with his employer matching it. I only contribute to my KiwiSaver if I fill in at my old PAYE job. Otherwise, as a self-employed person, I make no contributions since the government removed most of the incentive to do so (they now only contribute $260 per year if I contribute $1,042). Both of our KiwiSavers are invested in the InvestNow Foundation Series Total World Fund.
As a result, all of our investments are fully exposed to global share markets. Markets ended 2025 higher than they began. 2025 was politically interesting; 2026 is shaping up to be no different, and I’m comfortable with the volatility. It’s annoying. But normal. We decided to invest regardless of headlines - and then largely ignore the noise. Easier said than done some days.
Vanguard Total World Stock ETF performance over the last decade. 2025 ended higher than it began. Source www.investor.vanguard.com
Because I ignore all fear-based investing headlines, our decision to dollar-cost-average our money into the share markets has paid off. Our investments grew over the year, and just as importantly, the process required very little ongoing attention. If there’s one thing I will repeat exactly in 2026, it’s this: automated, boring investing with minimal intervention.
What we didn’t do: we didn’t try to pick individual stocks, sell out of fear, time the market, react to headlines, or chase “better” opportunities touted by others - we simply kept investing consistently and let the process do its job.
Looking Ahead to 2026
Every year, our spending reflects the season of life we’re in. In 2024, we prioritised travel. In 2025, it was house and human maintenance and letting our daughter finish her schooling. In 2026, it’s likely to be a mix of supporting our daughter through university and making space for travel for Jonny and I. We already have a trip to Australia booked for March and plan to book a month-long trip to Vietnam in July/August. Plus, we have many mini Kiwi-based adventures in our calendar.
From an income perspective, 2026 feels flexible. We could double down and intentionally grow our income, or we could lean into the fact that our investments now give us options. In theory, we could draw an income from them. In theory, we could stop all contributions to them and still reach Coast FI. Realistically, we’ll do a mix of both: work when it’s enjoyable, invest a portion of our income, and take time off when it suits. If needed, we’re comfortable selling $10,000 - $20,000 from our investments to support our daughter or fund experiences we value.
We have options, all of them good!
The hardest decision to make
The biggest question that we are struggling to answer is what to do with our house. For a long time, I was convinced we’d downsize to free up at least $200,000 in equity and invest it. After finally getting Jonny on board, I found myself cooling on the idea. Our investments have reached a point where they grow meaningfully without much contribution from us, and we’ve effectively reached Coast FI. If we never invested another cent, we’d still retire comfortably at 65. But we are both just 52 and 53, and neither wants to wait much longer to retire.
We are dithering about what to do, but not staying stuck; we are seeking advice and opinions from our community. Importantly, we are also looking at options by researching property options, researching renting for a period, and running the math on investing the full proceeds from selling our house. If we did that, we would be fully FI. So tempting!
While we decide, we are preparing our home for sale, continuing to invest monthly, but less aggressively (around $2,000 per month), and allowing ourselves to enjoy more of the income we earn along the way, financially supporting our daughter as she studies at university - all while still working part-time.
Ultimately, 2026 isn’t about maximising numbers. It’s about using the flexibility we’ve earned. We’ve created options for ourselves - all of them good. Honestly, I feel so darn fortunate to say that, and it’s only because we started down this path over a decade ago now. Consistently good financial habits have put us in a genuinely comfortable place heading into the year.
Our guiding principle for 2026: KEEP GOING!
Finally, there will be people reading this who are earlier in their financial independence journey than we are, or much further ahead. This update isn’t meant as a blueprint to follow, but as one example of what steady progress can look like over time. After almost ten years of blogging, with data to back up our journey, I hope you walk away feeling confident that, no matter where you’re starting from, if you stick with it, you’ll end up in a better position than you are today.
If you’re starting with $5,000 instead of $500,000, the process is the same. Automate, contribute, repeat. And, keep going!
