This is the time of year I love, when I get to fiddle around with my income and expenditures for the past year and see how I did.

While I haven't gotten to my micro spending analysis yet, I did create a new chart tracking the growth in my net worth for the 5-year period from January 2009 through January 2014 (I'm actually using my Dec. 1 2013 figure for now to represent January 2014.)

Sorry I can't show you the chart, which I made using Word. It's very interesting to read but can't seem to transfer it here intact.

But here are my net worth figures for each year:

Jan 2009: $315,226
Jan 2010: $434,872
Jan 2011: $486,302
Jan 2012: $461,436
Jan 2013: $519,228
Jan 2014: $582,124

Assuming the December figure I used doesn't change much between now and Dec. 31, I will have increased my net worth by 84% in 5 years. This amazes me.

I started this analysis in 2009 because September 2009 was when I lost my job, and I wanted to see how badly I was hurt by both a substantial loss of income as well as the nosediving stock market. Remember, during this entire period, I was not contributing to long-term savings at all.

In fact, I withdrew from savings at a few key junctures in the past 5 years. All for good reasons, I think, but these all worked to reduce my nest egg and presumably slow its growth:

2009: Sunroom/garage windows: $6,176
2011: Vinyl siding: $14,000, Mortgage prepayment: $17,000.
2013: Sewer loan payoff: $2900, New car, $20,000, new roof: $5800

So in addition to all my normal bills, I also withdrew from savings a whopping $65,876 in big, non-recurring expenses for either home improvements or loan prepayments.

This excites me. It's spurred me to put in writing a new savings plan, fueled largely by optimism while working a full-time 10-month contract job. More to come on that in a bit....