Day 4: What Are You Worth?

Round up the horses! Today we are taking inventory of all you’ve got, also known as your net worth.

Net Worth is a fancy financial term for what you are worth (well, not you per say — you’re priceless! — but what you own.) It basically takes what you own (assets) and factors in what you owe (liabilities) and whatever the difference is, that is your net worth. To figure out your net worth, you need to start gathering your bank statements, credit card balances, and take inventory of everything you own and owe.

Here are a few examples:

Assets:

• Bank accounts – savings, checking, money markets, CDs
• Investing accounts – stocks, bonds, retirement
• Real estate – houses, land, property
• Cars

Liabilities:

• Credit card balance
• Student loans
• Mortgage loans
• Car loans

Once you list the balance of each item, add up the assets and subtract out the liabilities, and that’s your net worth! You could also use a website called Networth IQ to determine your net worth.

When I first started tracking my net worth, it was pathetic. I was in the negative by thousands and each month it only increased slightly. But over time as I continued to track it and managed to stay within budget, I slowly started to see a slight incline. Each month it was a little bit more than the last month, (except for those annoying months when I would have a car repair and it decreased again). But after a year of tracking it, I was truly amazed at all I had accomplished and it was cool to see the slight increase.

I am going to share more of my personal story next week — but for now, do you keep track of your net worth? How often do you track it?

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This is post #4 of a 31-day series on Financial Freedom. Click here to see all of the other posts. And thanks for reading!

(photo credit)