As I have been gathering my paperwork for my 2017 taxes, I decided it was time to update my Net Worth Spreadsheet. Every few months, I like to sit down and list all of my assets and liabilities and see how my numbers are doing. I typically do this every three months, but I’ve fallen off track recently, but decided to start the year strong with an update. It’s been six months since I last updated my net worth, so I was really hoping for some good numbers.
Calculating My Net Worth
To put together my net worth, I first list my assets:
- bank accounts
- investment accounts
- retirement accounts
- car value (Kelley Blue Book trade-in)
- house value (Zillow estimate)
Clearly, there are some items missing there. I don’t include personal property aside from the car, and I don’t include the value of my life insurance policy. Why? Mainly because it’s very hard to value all of that.
Then I list my liabilities:
- mortgage
- car loan
- credit cards
I do pay my credit cards off every month, but at any given time, there is an outstanding balance, so that needs to be balanced against the cash I have on hand.
My Current Net Worth
Comparing my net worth to my most recent valuation was a really great moment. My net worth increased almost 8.5%! That’s a huge amount of growth, and much more than I expected, considering that many of my annual bills come due right around the beginning of the year, so my cash accounts always take a hit.
So where did this growth come from?
Well my liabilities are definitely shrinking. I’m continuing to pay down my car loan and my mortgage. I would like to get my entire car loan paid off this year, but I’m not sure it’s going to happen. I pay extra on the bill every month, so I’m making a solid dent in it. I’m just paying the minimum payment on my mortgage for now, but saving up to do some home improvements.
My investments have also been doing quite well this year. I continue to contribute to my retirement accounts, and I’m planning to increase that this year. My cash accounts are doing pretty well. I’ve been able to reign in my spending, and I’m hoping to continue that trend. It’s too easy to drop too much money on things I don’t really need.
My home value and car value both dropped over the past six months. That is, of course, expected for the car value. It will only continue to depreciate. And the home value just has to do with neighborhood fluctuations, and I know that it’s a very rough estimate.
So all in all, I’m feeling really good about my numbers. I’m making smart choices. I’m watching my numbers increase, but not letting things get out of hand. I definitely don’t feel deprived, but I’m also not going overboard.
Calculating your net worth can be a really fun experiment. And depending on your debt (particularly school debt), you might find that your net worth is in the negatives. That’s okay! Don’t let it get you down. Just work on increasing that number. Your net worth will grow too.
Megan is a 30-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
amazing, i like it