Good news in my financial universe:
- My net worth has officially more than doubled since I started tracking, even though I haven’t been saving much of my aftertax income lately; we’ll discuss why that is, the behavioral side and how I got here
- I have already made more petsitting income halfway through 2026 than I did last year in full—I’m endlessly grateful to have such a fun side gig that allows me give back to my friends and circle of clients 😻
- My portfolio is up 13.67% year to date as of the close on July 2, 2026, beating the Morningstar Global Markets Sustainability index I’ve been using as a performance benchmark; I won’t be making changes, but there is a holding I’ll be watching 👀
- I requested a credit line increase with my Discover account up to $13,000; do this whenever you get a raise to ensure you’re using a lower percentage of your overall credit, one of the factors that boosts your credit score!
Net worth: Go with it, it will hold you
When I began tracking my net worth on a quarterly basis in October 2022, I was already pretty impressed with what I had. At that point, I had been working full-time for over five years, paid off my (thankfully) measly student loans and I was ready and eager to save more in my new high-yield savings accounts and employee retirement account.
Less than four years later, I have increased my net worth by 110.91% on a cumulative basis, with an average quarterly increase of 5.04%. In April, I was nervous to track my net worth because I knew I had been spending too much, not saving anything from my paychecks and I truly thought my process was going to fall apart. Instead, when I crunched the numbers, I found I had increased my net worth by nearly 8% since the end of 2025 🤯.
How could this be possible?! I looked at all my different savings vehicles and realized: This was the foundation making me more money. I have two retirement accounts that are increasing with the market, and my current employee retirement account is automatically investing amounts from each biweekly paycheck. My portfolio is healthy and sustainable, and my high-yield savings account with Happen Bank (formerly LendingClub) has been steadily making me money every month with a current interest rate of 3.30%.
The process held, even though my mechanical short-term saving slipped. I was reminded of a phrase I heard in summer 2010, when I attended the Lake Forest Writing and Thinking Workshop (camp for writing nerds 🤓). My writing instructor’s way of telling us to trust the process came from a poem: “Go with it, it will hold you.”
The journey of saving up to even have a net worth has not been a straight line. Out of the 15 quarters I tracked so far, there were three when my net worth decreased by 2% to 8%. If I put those quarters together, that’s almost an entire year of declines—yikes! However, all these time periods were when I knew I would be spending more on moving, concerts and travel. These are all valid reasons for my net worth to drop, as my spending eclipsed my saving. Each time my net worth decreased, the following quarter rebounded and I was right back on track.
Breakdown of my net worth:
- 16% in personal investments
- 25% in high-yield savings
- 50% in retirement savings
The rest is in my checking and emergency savings bank accounts. I can’t believe I made it here, sustaining myself as a woman living alone in a city, and the first person in my lineage to do such a thing! Still, the most thrilling part of making more money for me is that I can donate more to people who need it and give back to causes I care about.
Hitting some portfolio high notes
My portfolio has remained in the green this year, up 13.67% year to date, 19.81% over the last 12 months and 19.78% over the last three years. When I first did research to find a benchmark to compare my performance against, the Morningstar Global Markets Sustainability index was beating my returns. Now, the Morningstar index is only up 6.70% year to date. My portfolio has consistently beat this index over all three periods, something I didn’t know was possible! 
During my last portfolio review, I mentioned there were some new grades with no data in As You Sow’s sustainable investment database: diversity disclosures, racial justice and LGBTQ+ equity. The one sustainable exchange-traded fund (ETF) in my portfolio that’s being watched for these grades is the Stance Sustainable Beta ETF (CHGX), with grades of D for diversity disclosures and gender equality. This means the holding is no longer on probation (military weapons grade improved from D to A) and will remain in my portfolio.
You’ll notice that Stance Sustainable Beta is labeled with a “sustainability mandate.” According to As You Sow, this mandate applies to “funds that are members of US-SIF, the sustainable investing industry group, and to funds identified by Morningstar as having ‘a sustainable investing focus as a central feature of their strategy.’”
Here’s what the sustainability mandate means for my portfolio:
- In theory, increases the likelihood that a holding will improve its grades over time, signaling that the fund manager is either waiting for more data or more time for these grades to improve
- Still not adding an ETF with any C, D or F grades; once a holding is in my portfolio, the grades are allowed to shift as low as D based on the work being done in the background to make these ETFs more sustainable
- People problems within companies and industries are going to take much longer to solve than the increasingly dire climate-related issues on the grades list
Read more about how I’ve been saving:
To Think or Not to Think: The Financial Question
Setting Goals With an Uncertain Budget
My Payday Routine
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