Here we are already entering the 2nd month of the new year. With the holidays over, it's a great time to focus on our finances.
Sometime over the last few weeks you should have received statements on all your savings, investment and retirement accounts. This is a great opportunity to work up your Personal Balance Sheet (PBS).
A PBS is an important document for all of us. It's effectively our financial scorecard. A PBS lists all of our assets at their current value and all of our liabilities (i.e. debts). Total all of your assets. Then total all of your debts.
Hopefully the assets are worth more than your debts. Your "Net Worth" is the amount that your assets exceed your debts. Your goal is to increase your financial net worth as you get older. Not surprisingly, the more debt you have the harder that is to do.
For more information about how to calculate your net worth visit here.
BTW, just for the record I recognize (and I hope that you do, too) that your value as a human being is not equal to your financial net worth. It probably should be called your 'financial' net worth, but in common practice it's not.
Finally, a suggestion. This is the type of thing that we're working on in our daily enewsletter "Financial Independence". Not only are we learning about financial tools like PBS, but we're also discovering the Money Tapes that often rule our financial lives. If you'd like to take control of your finances just send an email to: join-fi @ hub.thedollarstretcher.com
Keep on Stretching those Dollars!
Gary
