I track my finances the same way I track my career: with detailed numbers and trailing metrics. I try to grow from both years where I saw visible growth (professionally and financially) and years that taught me plenty of lessons. The data below covers my 5 years of financial data after college and captures things that matter more than any single “hot” investing year. I will provide context to what I did over these years and then the data & results.
- Income Growth in Public Accounting: base income and total income trends
- Net Worth Growth Over 5 years: year-over-year and trailing growth rates
- Full Portfolio Allocation Over 5 years: cash, debt, public equity, and alternative investments
- Portfolio Performance Over 5 years: time-weighted and money-weighted returns
- Benchmark Context: S&P 500, bonds, 60/40, and income growth benchmarks
- Financial Health: Debt, Cost of Debt, Savings Rate
This is not investment, career, or financial advice. It is a transparent case study of my first 5 years of financial data out of college.
The Data Set: 5 Years of Financial Data (2021 – 2025)
I track financial progress the way professionals track operating performance: across multiple periods, with trailing metrics to show trends. The goal is to understand:
- What changed year to year
- What trends persisted over several years
- Which outcomes were driven by markets versus behavior (saving, debt reduction, allocation)
The result is a clean five-year window of financial data that captures both my career arc and my investing arc.
1) Income Growth: Five Years in Public Accounting
For most people early in their careers, income growth is the primary wealth-building engine. Markets matter, but contributions matter more when your early in life.
YoY base income growth (2021–2025)
- 2021: +102.00%
- 2022: +12.72%
- 2023: +17.15%
- 2024: +22.79%
- 2025: +4.22%
This reflects a classic early-career pattern: a large step change early, followed by promotion-and-merit driven increases. At the end of 2020, I worked in fast food and was finishing my senior year of college. My first job out of college was in public accounting and my base salary has grown fairly over the years. I did not get my CPA license until the end of 2025, and it has not yet impacted my income.
Trailing base income growth (annualized):
- Trailing 5-year base income growth: 27.83%
YoY total income growth (Includes Bonuses)
- 2021: +102.00%
- 2022: +20.94%
- 2023: +18.10%
- 2024: +24.15%
- 2025: -3.64%
Total income is often lumpier because it includes variable compensation and timing effects. A down year in total income does not necessarily mean my career trajectory reversed; my bonus in 2024 exceeded my raise and bonus in 2025 so my total income declined. This was just how it played out as the company I work for did not perform well in 2025, even when I did really well with my responsibilities at work.
Trailing total income growth (annualized):
- Trailing 5-year total income growth: 28.12%
YoY income growth Benchmark
Based on data for the social security administration, my income has grown pretty well compared to the average. Of course, there is always other data points for those who change jobs more frequently to see higher rates of change.
- 2021: +8.89%
- 2022: +5.32%
- 2023: +4.43%
- 2024: +4.84%
- 2025: Not Available as of Now
Once 2025 data is available from the social security administration, I will update it here.
2) Net Worth Growth Over 5 Years
YoY net worth growth (2021–2025):
- 2021: +188.93%
- 2022: +107.67%
- 2023: +89.52%
- 2024: +41.43%
- 2025: +26.23%
I graduated college in 2021, and like many people I have student loan debt. Thankfully it is not a significant outstanding amount, and I have a low interest rate on it. My net worth shot up drastically from my low starting point, this was due to my savings rate and my investment performance. It would be awesome for these growth rates to persist when I have a more meaningful net worth than what I had when graduating college.
Trailing net worth growth (annualized):
- Trailing 5-year net worth growth: 82.60%
3) Portfolio Allocation Over 5 Years
This is the section most people skip, but it matters. Portfolio allocation is your real-world expression of risk tolerance, liquidity needs, and conviction.
Portfolio allocation by year (2021–2025):
Cash & Equivalents
- 37.91% → 46.81% → 34.39% → 54.93% → 37.25%
Debt Investments
- 29.57% → 34.09% → 38.81% → 0.00% → 1.87%
Public Equity
- 32.52% → 18.54% → 23.77% → 41.11% → 45.89%
Alternatives
- 0.00% → 0.56% → 3.03% → 3.96% → 14.99%
Context on these allocation trends:
- 2021–2023: high liquidity + meaningful debt allocation, with equity exposure growing more gradually. This was primarily because cash had a great yield and I was saving for a home. My 2022 allocation seems to be silly given my age; however, I inadvertently timed the market pretty well. 2022 was a bad year for both bonds and equities, but I was heavily allocated with cash, I bonds, and short duration treasuries.
- 2024: a sharp shift (debt investments to 0%, cash spiking above 50%) I was repositioning for liquidity, there were a few offers I had made for real estate that did not pan out. As yields fell, debt and cash were less appealing, but I was still looking to buy a home.
- 2025: a more growth-oriented mix (equity approaching 46%) with a large decline in cash and a shift to alternatives (14.99%). This was due continued investments in my 401(k), IRA, and taxable brokerage while also buying a car, paying for 5th year of college in cash for my CPA license, and investing in Fundrise to capture exposure to private credit and real estate.
4) Portfolio Performance Over 5 Years: Time-Weighted vs Money-Weighted Returns
I clearly like to nerd out about finances and data, so I have tracked my Time-Weighted and Money-Weighted returns. This is based on all of my assets (this includes my high allocation to cash), not just my investment portfolio that I dissected recently.
- Time-weighted return (TWR): measures strategy performance independent of cash flows
- Money-weighted return (MWR/IRR): reflects the investor’s lived experience, including contribution timing
Time-weighted portfolio returns by year:
- 2021: -28.23%
- 2022: -3.52%
- 2023: +22.75%
- 2024: +20.25%
- 2025: +16.36%
Cumulative time-weighted return over 5 years: +18.93%
This five-year sequence shows early drawdown followed by three strong positive years. Early on as an investor, I was really stupid. I would buy ETFs that would just lose value. I would like to believe I am much smarter, but I am still learning to be better.
Money-weighted returns (annualized, trailing):
As of the end of 2025:
- MW 2Y Portfolio % Return: 7.53%
- MW 3Y Portfolio % Return: 11.04%
- MW 4Y Portfolio % Return: 12.77%
- MW 5Y Portfolio % Return: 11.56%
Money-weighted return being strong over the longer window often suggests that more capital was deployed during or after drawdowns. I would say in this instance it’s because there is more capital and returns get harder when the base is bigger. Also, I have a lot of cash earning 3% which is not ideal if the goal is high returns. My money weighted return here is technically net of taxes; however, it is not a perfect calculation.
I want to call out some data points from 2023. I had a time weighted return of 22.75% in 2023 but that came after 2 down years. However, if we look at my money weighted, 3 year returns after the end of 2023, I had a money weighted return of 6.36%. My increase in salary and portfolio performance that year reversed the damages of poor investment decisions from 2 years prior.
Key lesson: if you are consistently contributing, your personal return can be materially different from the strategy’s pure time-weighted return.
5) Benchmark: What Markets did Over the Years
This is where 5 years of financial data becomes more informative than a single-year scoreboard.
Annual benchmark returns (2021–2025):
S&P 500
- 28.71%, -18.11%, 26.29%, 25.02%, 17.48%
Bloomberg US Bond Index
- -1.50%, -13.00%, 5.50%, 1.70%, 7.30%
Russell 2000
- 13.69%, -21.56%, 15.09%, 10.02%, 11.30%
60/40 Index (60% S&P 500/40% Bloomberg Bond Index)
- 16.63%, -16.07%, 17.97%, 15.69%, 13.65%
The key point is not whether my portfolio beat the S&P 500 in any given year. The key point is that my allocation had large cash and debt exposure for much of the period, which changes expected returns relative to equity-first benchmarks.
6) Financial Health: Debt, Cost of Debt, Savings Rate
This is the unglamorous part of 5 years of financial data, but it is often the most important.
Debt to Assets:
- 41.80% → 24.93% → 12.75% → 7.86% → 13.58%
This shows strong growth in assets through 2024, followed by a moderate rise in 2025. This is because I bought a car with cost effective debt and had more expenses than before in 2025.
Weighted cost of debt:
- 4.41% (2021–2024) → 4.15% (2025)
Savings rate:
- 28.18% → 41.66% → 47.80% → 22.70% → 16.28%
Savings rate is one of the cleanest predictors of early net worth growth. A high savings rate paired with income growth is a compounding machine. As the savings rate declines, net worth growth becomes increasingly dependent on market returns. I had a lower savings rate in 2025 due to larger expenses like a car and a 5th year of college for my CPA license.
What my first 5 years of financial data out of college taught me
- Income growth drives early net worth. Investing matters, but the ability to consistently contribute matters more when you’re building from zero.
- Net worth growth rates will fall over time, even if you’re doing everything right. That’s the base effect of compounding. As long as you have positive returns and/or grow your income, your portfolio will continue to grow.
- Allocation strategy should be reviewed and assessed properly. High liquidity reduces downside risk but creates opportunity cost in strong equity markets. Allocating to short term bonds and I Bonds in 2022 was an excellent decision.
- Money-weighted return is important. Time weighted return is the portfolio’s performance; money weighted return is how the investor actually did.
- Financial health metrics are going to tell the full story. Debt-to-assets and savings rate often matter more than picking the perfect index. One could have just said their assets go up and up but not told you that they are drowning in growing debt.
As we go through 2026, I will continue to track my financial data and put out a 2026 update or a 6-year version of this analysis. Feel free to check out my current portfolio until then.