Net worth watch.

als1982 · July 2015

A fun side benefit of aggressively paying off our student loans has been to watch our net worth rise significantly over the past year. Right now, we're sitting right at $50K and hope to hit six figures by year end. Is your net worth something you track? Do you have goals tied to it?

formerlyGDaisy09 · July 2015

At this point, I don't track it, I think we're making progress, but I think looking at that number right now would probably do more negative that positive for how we feel about our progress. I do pride ourselves in the amount of debt we've eliminated in the last 5 years. We paid off nearly $30K in CC debt, have made about $20K in progress towards paying off student loans, we've paid off one car and are making progress on the second. H and I both got slow starts in our careers and are still fighting a stalled employment system in our area, so while we feel we've made amazing progress, we're earning below average wages for positions in our fields in a relatively HCOL area.

My employer made no cost of living wage increase this year and H just got turned down for a position at his employer because the first thing they did to shrink the applicant pool was eliminate any applications from people currently hired part-time. the one thing we're fortunate in is that I have finally found myself in a position where my boss will actually work to make my position grow (ie. he'll fight with HR for me), but it's a bit of a Catch 22 because it seems like the only way H will land something full-time is by relocating.

CuriousKiddosMama · July 2015

I don't really pay attention to our net worth. The one thing that I do pay attention to is our retirement account balances. I'm not working out of the house so it bothers me that I'm not really contributing, but we are on track. So it's ok.

Mustard76 · July 2015

It is something I track, but only since we sold our last house. I've enjoyed watching it increase over the last 14 months. I'm not so excited to see it plummet in the next few months when we buy our next house. I guess that means our only goal tied to it is to no longer have a negative net worth once that happens.

simplyelise · July 2015

I just want it to be positive lol! We are in small numbers since we don't own a home yet, so I'm looking forward to getting rid of current debts and getting on track with savings and retirement before we add a mortgage in the mix.

We don't track it really right now, but I do occasionally total it up as another peek into how we're doing. Our only assets are a 2010 Elantra (~$8000 value), a 2000 Malibu (~$1500 value), ~$3000 in retirement accounts, and $3700 in savings for a grand total of ~$16,200. We really don't have any jewelry or other tangibles that are worth anything and I don't count our term life insurance in it either (it's not included, right?). Our only debt is the federal student loans sitting at $32,147 today. So we're at around -16,000.

We'll be debt free for 2 years of renting as we save our efund ($15k goal) and our 20% down payment ($35k goal for $150k home) and fund our roth iras/get retirement in gear. So I think we'll be on a good track with net worth even when we buy a home in 3 years.

brij2006 · July 2015

We track our net worth monthly. It's very important to us, and is our financial planning tool. We also have to watch ourselves with how much our net worth is, because we're close to a threshold of needing to set up our estate planning a bit differently when we hit that mark.

Also, @simplyelise for estate planning purposes, the life insurance does count.

vlagrl29 · July 2015

I really don't track it. I know we are in the positive, but not sure how much because what exactly contributes to net worth?

jessica490 · July 2015

We don't track it either. As long as I can live my life, pay the bills and contribute to retirement I'm happy.

als1982 · July 2015

vlagrl29 said:
I really don't track it. I know we are in the positive, but not sure how much because what exactly contributes to net worth?

It's your assets subtract your liabilities.

For us, assets:

$175,000 home
$5,000 cars
$65,000 retirement
$7,500 savings

Liabilities:

$150,000 mortgage
$53,000 student loan

KatieCutie05 · July 2015

I just want to be positive too!

quick estimate....

21k in student loans (in my name) (theres another 64k in my moms name that legally speaking don't count)

about 10k in equity on my car

2k in equity on H's car

and 5k in equity on the house

oh and 1k in an emergency fund

so oh yay we're "legally" only 3k short.

HA yea right - if you ask me we're still negative 100k cus thats what it feels like.

Xstatic3333 · July 2015

Team just want to be positive! But also Team want to enjoy life a bit so I'm not super stressed about it.

Every once in a while I do a vague mental calculation to see how we're doing on net worth. Our big assets are our home and my Roth IRA, but we've got the mortgage and SLs holding us down. I probably follow the house most closely. If Zillow is to be believed at all, we've already got a good chunk of equity despite doing a smallish DP, especially taking into account the major heating system upgrade we did. We'll be in this house for a while, but it's still fun to keep track of. The city we live in *feels* like it could be on the edge of a big increase in real estate values (we've starting making those silly "trendy" lists in magazines) but as long as things stay as good as they are now I'm happy here.

cbee817 · July 2015

Borrowing @als1982 format:

Assets:

$200,000 home

$28,200 cars

$145,300 retirement

$58,400 savings/CD

$11,600 girls' 529 plans

$4,000 girls' savings accounts
$3,000 checking

Liabilities:

$96,800 mortgage

$23,700 car loan

$3,500 sewer repair balance

I didn't count life insurance, but DH is $500,000 and I am $800,000 (we both have work and personal policies)

Doing well- luckily I don't have to count day care payments in this calculation!

brij2006 · July 2015

cbee817 said:

Borrowing @als1982 format:

Assets:

$200,000 home
$28,200 cars
$145,300 retirement
$58,400 savings
$11,600 girls' 529 plans
$4,000 girls' savings accounts
$3,000 checking

Liabilities:

$96,800 mortgage
$23,700 car loan
$3,500 sewer repair balance

Doing well- luckily I don't have to count day care payments in this calculation!

This, or health insurance each month. That's insane for us!

Keep in mind that we have already received an inheritance that I've posted about.

Assets:

House - $105,000

Cars - $30,000
Retirement - $23,000

Cash - $200,000 (15,000 in E-fund) Letting it sit for a while before investing, giving, and spending.

Farm Land - $750,000

Life Insurance (paid to our trust) - $1,000,000

Liabilities: $0

hoffse · July 2015

We're pretty negative, but we should be positive at some point in 2016.

Liabilities:

School loans: $217,424

Mortgage: $281,173

Car: $9,537

Assets:

House: $330,000

Cars: $24,845

Cash Savings: $15,265 (unfortunately, our contractor cashed the check yesterday...)

HSA: $4,845

Retirement: $76,354

Negative: -$56,825

Between what we typically save and how much we pay off in debt each month, we usually see $5,000 or so added to our net worth each month. I do track it. So that looks like a pretty big hole, but we're about 11 months away before we are finally positive. We don't have any more plans for very expensive home improvements over the next couple of years that will slow it down.

I don't count what's in our checking account because that number ebbs and flows with bills. I also don't count life insurance, but H and I each have about $250K provided by our employers and separate $500K policies on each of us.

dragonstarjk · July 2015

It's not something I track and I don't really care, as long as we are meeting our goals for savings, retirement, investments, etc.

It certainly looks better to have a positive net worth if/when you are applying for new credit, and that's the only time I ever think about it. This is fun though! It really illustrates all of our different viewpoints on debts and savings.

Assets:

Home $130,000

Vehicles $28,000

Retirement $90,000

Savings $6,500

Checking $1,700

Liabilities:

Mortgage $79,000

H's student loan $12,000

Truck loan $2,000

Car loan $3,800

Emergency vet bill $2,000

Amazon card $2,500 (H just bought a new wall tent and accessories using their 0% financing)

So currently we are at approximately $154,900 net worth but that will be going down when we finance our front porch (-$4000 from savings and +$18,000 to liabilities)

hoffse · July 2015

Edit: I also don't count tangible assets. We would be pretty close to positive if I counted our musical instruments, jewelry (I inherited some nice pieces from my grandmother), silver, china, crystal, etc. For us though, we would rather sell the house than sell those items because they have sentimental value to us.

formerlyGDaisy09 · July 2015

I'll play the game....and then try to forget if it stresses me out

some of the numbers are estimates, but they're pretty close sincer we just had all this pulled a month ago for our refinance

Assets:

House (appraisal from 2 weeks ago including planned renovations): $250K

Cars: $25,000

Retirement: $25,000

Savings: $9,000

Liabilities:

Student Loans $52K

Mortgage (as of our closing today...this is an estimate based on rounded-up worst-case senario renovation costs) $222,000

Car Loan: $16K

Care Credit (0% interest until January, currently paying $200/month) $823

So hey! we're actually at +$18,177!

I also have a $250K life insurance policy through work. the most H could get through work was $25K (enough for me to pay off the car and pay for a funeral...the majority of that SL Debt is H's) We're shopping for more life insurance for him after we've closed on this renovation loan today.

als1982 · July 2015

Love seeing these big retirement savings numbers!! Great job - I am inspired!

AprilZ81 · July 2015

Rough estimates for us:

House: $280,000 (we bought at $272,000 and have done a lot of projects which should push the value up more than that but I want to stay conservative. We could probably list at $295,000 and get close to that price if we needed to sell).

Cars: $9,5000 (based on "good" Kelly Blue Book value for dealer trade in)

Mutual Fund: $8,000

Retirement Accounts: $130,000

Individual Stocks: $10,000

Cash Savings: $13,000

Debt:

House: $250,000

HELOC: $8,500

MissChanandlerBong · July 2015

I do track it, but also exclude assets such as jewelry, furniture, and housewares. I only include vehicles and update the values every so often.

Assets:

2 Cars - $15,000

Stock & Savings Bonds - $17,000

Retirement - $118,000

Cash savings - $1,000

Kids' college funds - $1,000 (sad I know)

Total - $152,000

Liabilities:

Student loans - ($93,000)

Car - ($5,400)

Furniture - ($1,000)

Net Worth: $52,600

short+sassy · July 2015

Assets:

$280,000 home

$110,000 rental property

$14,500 car

$5,000 retirement accounts

$3,600 HSA

$3,500 Savings

Liabilities:

$61,000 home mortgage

$33,000 HELOC

$53,000 rental property mortgage

$5,600 car loan

Total Net Worth: $264,000

Caveat: I'm including a rental property I should be closing on this week.

I've always had a slightly higher net worth than my liabilities, though usually by only $10K-$20K. I'd like to say the big jump came with my cleverness, but it was much more a heavy dose of luck, lol. My house appraises for over three times more than what I bought it for four years ago, due to the NOLA housing market becoming insanely hot over the last couple years.

vlagrl29 · July 2015

how do you know how much cars are worth if they are paid off. Both of ours are 12 years old

simplyelise · July 2015

vlagrl29 said:

how do you know how much cars are worth if they are paid off. Both of ours are 12 years old

I use the kelly blue book online tool. You put in all your car information and your zip code and they give you an estimated value based on your car's condition. There is a different price for dealer trade-in versus private sale.

vlagrl29 · July 2015

Assets

$195,000 home
$8,000 cars
$207,000 retirement
$12,000 in checking and savings various accounts

$7,000 in DH's Business Checking

Liabilities:
$34,000 student loan

$600 my personal cc

Net worth of - $394,000

vlagrl29 · July 2015

hoffse said:

Edit: I also don't count tangible assets. We would be pretty close to positive if I counted our musical instruments, jewelry (I inherited some nice pieces from my grandmother), silver, china, crystal, etc. For us though, we would rather sell the house than sell those items because they have sentimental value to us.

same here if we could include my musical instruments and DH's photog equipment it would be even more of a net worth for us.

smerka · July 2015

Assests House $275,000 Cars $10,000 Bank accounts $10,000 Retirement $240,000 + whatever is vested in DH pension Debt Mortgage $135,000 Net worth: $400,000ish

MommyLiberty5013 · July 2015

Assets:

Home: $375,000

Cars (2): $25,000

Cash on Hand: $12,000

Silver: $9,000

Retirement: $100,000

Liabilities:

Mortgage: $215,000

Net Worth: $306,000 (not included, home contents, jewelry)

bmo88 · July 2015

We don't really track our net worth closely. It's something we will track more closely when we eliminate all our debt.

Current Net Worth:

Assets:

Home $285,000

Car 1: $8,000

Car 2: $22,000

Retirement (combined): $55,000

Savings: $15,000

Liabilities:

Mortgage: $237,000

Car 1: $0

Car 2:$15,000

Student Loans: $20,000

Net Worth: $113,000 (not included items in home, jewelry or other items of value)

abrewer5 · July 2015

Assets:

House- $200,000 (this is a guess, it hasn't been appraised since we purchased and we've updated a lot of stuff)

Car- $8,000

Truck- $12,000

Boat- $30,000

Retirement (combined for H &I)- $29,500

Savings- $4,500

Total- $284,000

Liabilities:

Mortgage- $179,000

Truck Loan- $9,500

Student Loan- $9,500

Total- $198000

Net Worth: $86,000

Wow this was eye opening! I didn't think we'd have a positive net worth, but this makes me feel good. And our life insurance is not included, which is around $300,000 for me not sure about H.

(Edited for formatting)

jtmh2012 · July 2015

Sorta, but not really. We keep most of our financial stuff in Quicken, but not all of it. We definitely don't worry about trying to track the value of things like cars, jewelry, etc. There's also a rollover IRA from a 401k that we don't track because they don't support the Quicken downloads (I watch it, but it isn't in the networth calculations.

andkatiesays · July 2015

I don't count cars in net worth, but do count equity. Our current net worth is close to $70k. Our goal is to at least triple that in the next 2.5-3 years.

Net worth watch.

Re: Net worth watch.

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