At the end of the year, my net worth only increased $2K since July. However, since July my son (age 13) was diagnosed with cancer, and I have gone on unpaid leave to care for him. So, our income went down by a big margin. Then we were a 1 car family and his illness required we buy another car. We chose not to finance and liquidated some of our assets to buy a reliable used car. We have had an increase in many expenses - medical bills, gas, parking at the hospital, etc which has been helped a little by the fact we cannot go on vacations or go out to eat regularly. Savings for FIRE is the category of spending that was reduced the most.
My son is most likely going to survive and his prognosis is good. $2K is peanuts for this group, but I am pretty proud given our situation. I most likely will return to work in April and we will probably be able to save more aggressively then.