Author Topic: Do you calculate your net worth?  (Read 8916 times)

Zola.

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Do you calculate your net worth?
« on: January 03, 2018, 01:51:47 AM »
As title, do you calculate your net worth regularly? DO you feel it helps you to focus, or what is the reason for doing so?

How does one do calculate it accurately and keep it updated? How do you take into account depreciating assets like cars etc?

If I have more debt via mortgage than I do via saving and investments, am I in negative numbers?
« Last Edit: January 03, 2018, 01:55:52 AM by Zola. »

marty998

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2018, 03:09:58 AM »
As title, do you calculate your net worth regularly?
Is the Pope Catholic?
DO you feel it helps you to focus, or what is the reason for doing so?
No, I was always focused. I do it out of habit and for general record keeping.
How does one do calculate it accurately and keep it updated?
Everything you have minus everything you owe (financial assets and liabilities only).
How do you take into account depreciating assets like cars etc?
You don't. You ignore shit like that. Track appreciating assets only, consider cars to be burned money
If I have more debt via mortgage than I do via saving and investments, am I in negative numbers?
No because your house is an asset that should be worth more than a mortgage against it. You are only in negative if you have lots of credit card or student loan debt


boarder42

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2018, 04:36:50 AM »
Exactly what Marty said.

I use personal capital to track so I can just check it daily

Miss Piggy

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2018, 04:50:36 AM »
Yes. Exactly what Marty said.

i designed a spreadsheet, and I update the numbers every month or two. Amazing to see the progress.

I'm a red panda

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #4 on: January 03, 2018, 04:57:26 AM »
As title, do you calculate your net worth regularly? DO you feel it helps you to focus, or what is the reason for doing so?

Not really, but monthly we update a spreadsheet with all investable assets. It let's us see that nothing has gone with our accounts, and also incentivizes low spending because I want that number to grow! We also jeep track of our liabilities (only a mortgage). We have a yearly goal, though it depends on the stock market.

How does one do calculate it accurately and keep it updated? How do you take into account depreciating assets like cars etc?

I don't calculate my net worth because I have no idea the value of my house, until trying to sell it is an unknown. Similarly, I don't consider the value of my things.

If I have more debt via mortgage than I do via saving and investments, am I in negative numbers?
In MY tracking system, you would be. But not in an actual net worth. Your house has value. In theory, so do your socks...but no one ever seems to account for those. That's why I don't understand the focus on net worth.

middo

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #5 on: January 03, 2018, 05:46:22 AM »
Yes I do.

I don't include cars because they will be thrown away eventually, so are not assets.

I do it monthly.

I really track superannuation and investments vs debts.  Other "assets" will never be realised for gain.

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #6 on: January 03, 2018, 06:38:44 AM »
As title, do you calculate your net worth regularly?
yes this is the first thing I do at the office every Monday

DO you feel it helps you to focus, or what is the reason for doing so?
yea it helps me focus, my wife and I got into some financial trouble in our early/mid 20's and it's taken us a while to even get our stuff together.  Tracking it weekly helps me understand where every dollar is going to...maybe once we are on better footing then I may only calc once a month.

How does one do calculate it accurately and keep it updated?
assets minus liabilities.  Put your spending into buckets, track your debt levels and your investments

How do you take into account depreciating assets like cars etc?
others don't track this but I do.  We spend money on the cars and while most are correct that cars are just a money hole, if you are making payments to a car loan you need to account the liability being lowered while also noting there is an asset on the other side of the ledger.  Take the KBB value of your vehicles every year and just use that

If I have more debt via mortgage than I do via saving and investments, am I in negative numbers?
As others have said, no your home is an asset and should be more than what you have on your mortgage


stashgrower

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #7 on: January 03, 2018, 06:40:00 AM »
Another +1 marty.

iris lily

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #8 on: January 03, 2018, 07:14:23 AM »
All assets including cars should be included in a true calculation of net worth.

We include cars (and all assets, including household goods) because it is easy to do. We only update our net worth statement once a year, so we look up the book value of these vehicles annually.

The value of household goods such as tools, appliances, etc are only estimates of course! But once you put a value on them, that doesnt change from year to year.

We are now in the sweet spot of life, retirement, where we count on income producing assets to provide for us. Our actual income stream is modest,  we spend much more, and our nearly-complete-for-2017 net worth valuation shows we are up a nice amount. That stock market is cray cray!
« Last Edit: January 03, 2018, 08:01:38 AM by iris lily »

NeonPegasus

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #9 on: January 03, 2018, 07:27:23 AM »
As title, do you calculate your net worth regularly? DO you feel it helps you to focus, or what is the reason for doing so?

How does one do calculate it accurately and keep it updated? How do you take into account depreciating assets like cars etc?

If I have more debt via mortgage than I do via saving and investments, am I in negative numbers?

Yes, I calculate it regularly because mint.com makes it so easy to do. I wouldn't say it helps me focus but it does provide positive feedback to keep me on track.

As others said, net worth is assets minus expenses. I do list track my cars in mint (it updates the values based on kbb), so they get included in the net worth calcs, but I do it only so I can keep an eye on how much it'd be worth in case of an accident in which they're totaled.

You should show the value of your house if you sold it. In most cases, your house will be worth more than you owe on it. The difference between what your house is worth and what you owe is your equity. If you got your home with no down payment at the height of a housing bubble, you could owe more on your house than it's worth, in which case you'd be in negative numbers. Otherwise, if it's worth more than you owe, you'll be in positive numbers.

I use mint to calculate my net worth but I track it every week in a spreadsheet so I can see how it changes over time. I track the value of my investments and my overall net worth because my investments will be the main driver of my spending money in retirement.

Brother Esau

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #10 on: January 03, 2018, 08:34:58 AM »
Yes. I use Quicken to track my finances. Update it almost everyday.

Retire-Canada

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #11 on: January 03, 2018, 08:44:21 AM »
I have a spreadsheet that automatically updates my NW as I enter current investment data. I do that roughly once a month to rebalance as I add new funds or invest dividends. At the moment I'm checking my NW more frequently because I am about to roll over my first $M. After that happens I won't care about my NW a whole lot until I am about to hit $2M which I assume will be many many years down the road if ever.

What I do care about a lot is invested assets since that will determine when I can FIRE. The other portion of my NW is home equity and that's just theoretical value since I am not planning on selling my home.

netskyblue

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #12 on: January 03, 2018, 08:49:17 AM »
The only net worth I bother to track is cash net worth, liquid net worth, whatever you call it.  I don't own any property, and I don't keep track of the value of my car, possessions, etc.  Just bank account (at least weekly) and retirement accounts (2-4 times a year).  I did note down in my spreadsheet what my net worth was on the first day of the year, and an estimate of what I think it should be at the end of the year, if I stick to my budget. 

SeaEhm

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #13 on: January 03, 2018, 09:09:20 AM »
I calculate my NW frequently.  Sometimes when I have a slight opening in my constant pondering of thoughts, I am able to slip in some net worth calculations.   

It's a rough calculation, but it works. 

zinnie

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #14 on: January 03, 2018, 09:13:55 AM »
I also use Mint, so I see both liquid net worth and net worth including house every time I log in. I don't count things like cars.

For me, net worth= (liquid assets + home value) - mortgage balance

foghorn

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #15 on: January 03, 2018, 09:16:33 AM »
Tracking my Net Worth is something I do every month - on the first Saturday after the close of the business month.  I have been doing this since 2005.

I update all of my investment and cash accounts and also enter the estimated value of my home (which is paid for). For the home value, I use Zillow to provide the estimate.  Of course Zillow is not perfect, but it is more accurate than any SWAG I might try to provide on my own.  Also, when homes in my neighborhood have sold, the Zillow number seems pretty close to their actual sale price.

I do NOT include items such as the value if the car, jewelry, stereo system, furniture, etc.  In the scheme of things, these items are meaningless to me as to their value and would be little more than a guess on my part.

I enter the final numbers into an Excel spreadsheet I created and then use this information to populate a line chart that I created as well.  It is a nice exercise that I look forward to doing once a month (esp. when the markets are going up).  It helps keep me on track to better understand the long run impact of my decisions.

 

Bird In Hand

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #16 on: January 03, 2018, 09:25:06 AM »
I'm using a free version of Yodlee (via my TIAA retirement account) which automatically tracks and updates the values from all my accounts.

However, typically I only care about and look at our "investable assets" accounts: retirement + after-tax savings.  During strong periods in the market (like 2017) I look at the balances very frequently, at least a few times a week.  During down markets I don't look at all.

Separately I keep tabs on our mortgage just because it's fun to watch the balance go down, and to imagine a not-to-distant future where the payment will be gone and our expenses drop significantly.  But I don't typically lump home equity with investable assets when considering net worth.  I'll make periodic exceptions when the combined amounts cross certain milestones, but that's just for giggles and/or vanity.

frugaliknowit

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #17 on: January 03, 2018, 01:12:50 PM »
As title, do you calculate your net worth regularly?
Is the Pope Catholic?
DO you feel it helps you to focus, or what is the reason for doing so?
No, I was always focused. I do it out of habit and for general record keeping.
How does one do calculate it accurately and keep it updated?
Everything you have minus everything you owe (financial assets and liabilities only).
How do you take into account depreciating assets like cars etc?
You don't. You ignore shit like that. Track appreciating assets only, consider cars to be burned money
If I have more debt via mortgage than I do via saving and investments, am I in negative numbers?
No because your house is an asset that should be worth more than a mortgage against it. You are only in negative if you have lots of credit card or student loan debt

+1 (more).  I leave the condo (my "home") out of the calculation.  If I had a car, I would leave it out as they are disposable (like a bic lighter) so quickly...

Llewellyn2006

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #18 on: January 03, 2018, 02:45:34 PM »
I keep a weekly summary of our cash/liquid assets out of curiousity and as inspiration to keep at it. I don't include our house or the rentals in the figures because we can't live off of those after FIRE unless we sell them. 
« Last Edit: January 03, 2018, 02:47:28 PM by Llewellyn2006 »

Michael in ABQ

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #19 on: January 03, 2018, 02:52:22 PM »
I started tracking it first as just debt but then added net worth once that started to become positive. I try to go through and update things about once a month but for our two vehicles I just check the blue book value every six months or so. I don't include any personal goods as realistically an entire house full of clothes, furniture, dishes, etc. would bring almost nothing if sold used unless you have some very nice and relatively new furniture or electronics (which we don't).

Right now it's broken down into cash (actual cash on hand plus checking accounts and emergency fund), retirement accounts, non-retirement accounts, and cars. No more liabilities to subtract, at least until we take out a mortgage in a few years to buy a house.

I also graph it and as nice as it was to watch that debt number get close to zero it's even nicer having to change the scale on the graph as our net worth increases.

Optimiser

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #20 on: January 03, 2018, 04:20:49 PM »
As title, do you calculate your net worth regularly? DO you feel it helps you to focus, or what is the reason for doing so?
Yes, every month. I like the frequent reminders that I am moving in the right direction. It is nice to look back a few months or years and see how far I've come.
How does one do calculate it accurately and keep it updated? How do you take into account depreciating assets like cars etc?
I keep a spreadsheet for each year with a separate tab for each month. On the last day of every month, I make a copy of the prior month's tab and update all the numbers. Almost all of them can be pulled from personal capital, but there are a few that I have to find elsewhere. I like to keep track of my cars because seeing the numbers go down each month is a good reminder that they are a depreciating asset. I also like that it prevents big net worth drops in the months/years they were purchased and spreads the loss out over their life. If my net worth gets to the point where their values are immaterial I may stop tracking them.
If I have more debt via mortgage than I do via saving and investments, am I in negative numbers?
Nope. Your house is an asset. Assets - Liabilities = Net Worth

SwordGuy

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #21 on: January 03, 2018, 05:23:00 PM »

As title, do you calculate your net worth regularly?

You bet.   Track it regularly.

DO you feel it helps you to focus, or what is the reason for doing so?

It doesn't help me focus, but it does let me know how much progress I'm making.

How does one do calculate it accurately and keep it updated?

I include all assets other than cars and household goods.

Technically, those should be included also.  The reality is that household goods don't bring an appreciable fraction of what I paid for them.   In other words, if I truly need to know what my old pants will fetch in dollars, or how much I can get for that couch the cats shredded with their claws, I have much bigger problems than knowing my net worth accurately. 

How do you take into account depreciating assets like cars etc?

As for the cars, I consider expense them as I pay for them and consider them worthless.   I don't buy cars I don't need, so selling a car I own isn't an option unless I buy another one.   Since I drive cars until they are worthless, the odds are 50-50 that acrylic painting I did in 5th grade is worth about as much as my car.  It's such a trivial part of my net worth it's just not worth looking up what it's worth.


MrThatsDifferent

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #22 on: January 03, 2018, 05:27:08 PM »
Tracking my net worth changed everything for me. I keep a very simple excel spereadsheet.  I have my cash, retirement account and investment account, minus liabilities for each month. I like to project the upcoming month and try to aim for my projection. Prior to last year, I had never done that before and the most I had saved was 20k, since tracking I’ve saved 100k.  I only wish I had done it sooner in life.

Blackeagle

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #23 on: January 03, 2018, 07:28:20 PM »
Every time I get a quarterly statement from my retirement and investment accounts I enter it in a spreadsheet.  When I do that I'll usually glance at YNAB and see what my cash and savings totals look like and figure my total net worth. 

I don't own a house and don't count any of my other possessions as assets.  No mortgage or other debt either, so my net worth is basically the total of all my accounts.

Sarah Saverdink

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #24 on: January 03, 2018, 07:39:50 PM »
We track our net worth, income and expenses real-time with Personal Capital. I have a spreadsheet with each account listed and update once per year. Just inputted 2017 year-end data and it was a really good year :)

Indexer

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #25 on: January 03, 2018, 08:10:34 PM »
As title, do you calculate your net worth regularly? DO you feel it helps you to focus, or what is the reason for doing so?

Yes. I do it because it makes sense to me. Why wouldn't you? How can you budget without doing a NW statement? I'm not criticizing people who don't, but the way my brain works I can't fathom not doing it.


Quote
How does one do calculate it accurately and keep it updated? How do you take into account depreciating assets like cars etc?

I have a spreadsheet updated monthly, another spreadsheet for comparing years(Dec 31 balances for each year), and I do a statement of cash flows each year. The way I treat my car is that I check NADA.com once a month.  Tracking your car is a huge monthly reminder to spend very little on a car. Newer car = faster depreciation. More expensive car = more depreciation.

If you wanted to get REALLY detailed you could track everything you own. Some books, like Your Money or Your Life, recommend doing this. I think it's overkill. Plus in my case, the 'other' for household items is probably <$5,000 so it will barely move my net worth. Of course... my car is also worth less than $5,000 so I'm probably wasting my time with that as well.

Quote
If I have more debt via mortgage than I do via saving and investments, am I in negative numbers?

Yes, if your liabilities are bigger than your assets then you have a negative net worth. However, don't forget to add the value of your house. That should offset the mortgage.

JLee

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #26 on: January 03, 2018, 11:47:12 PM »
I calculate net worth (in my case, investments/cash and home equity) monthly. It encourages me to continue investing vs spending money on stuff.

Altons Bobs

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #27 on: January 04, 2018, 01:50:17 AM »
I don't at all, I have no reason to, I don't need to borrow money.

ixtap

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #28 on: January 04, 2018, 10:21:46 AM »
We calculate investments + cash - debts when we had them. The boat, cars and miscellany are sometimes estimated out of curiosity, but our FIRE number is 25x + boat/home replacement. That is, not only do we not count its value as an asset, we expect to have to replace it someday, albeit possibly with an RV or house. The cars are currently worth a few thousand each; we expect to spend that keeping them running over the next few years.

As an aside, how is the average annual running cost of a sedan $9k? Our two cars together come to that, adding in the price of the vehicles themselves over 10 years.

life_travel

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #29 on: January 04, 2018, 09:11:27 PM »
I don't because part of it in real estate which is known until we sell it . In my head I know rough NW ( to the nearest 20-30k)

davisgang90

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #30 on: January 05, 2018, 05:24:51 AM »
I've got a spreadsheet where I track a bunch of stuff to include NW.  I'm 5 months from FIRE, so the spreadsheet keeps growing with more tabs of stuff. 

soccerluvof4

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #31 on: January 05, 2018, 06:07:27 AM »
As title, do you calculate your net worth regularly?
Is the Pope Catholic?
DO you feel it helps you to focus, or what is the reason for doing so?
No, I was always focused. I do it out of habit and for general record keeping.
How does one do calculate it accurately and keep it updated?
Everything you have minus everything you owe (financial assets and liabilities only).
How do you take into account depreciating assets like cars etc?
You don't. You ignore shit like that. Track appreciating assets only, consider cars to be burned money
If I have more debt via mortgage than I do via saving and investments, am I in negative numbers?
No because your house is an asset that should be worth more than a mortgage against it. You are only in negative if you have lots of credit card or student loan debt

+1 (more).  I leave the condo (my "home") out of the calculation.  If I had a car, I would leave it out as they are disposable (like a bic lighter) so quickly...




+2...Pretty much every morning I take a look. It takes less then 5 minutes to go through a ritual of things I chart and finances is just one of them

Laura33

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #32 on: January 05, 2018, 06:50:41 AM »
Why do you ask?  Real question, not snarky -- I think for many people who are good with money, the detailed tracking and calculating and all that comes naturally -- the attention to detail and the frugality are both just different parts of the same personality type.  I am not a detail person, so I just don't get the same innate joy over that kind of focus.  I'm going to assume you are more like me, because, duh, if you loved-loved-loved that kind of thing, you'd already be doing it, right?  So the real question is whether it would be worth it to you.  From that perspective, I see two related benefits:

1.  Control.  Many times, the journey to FI begins when you feel out of control -- you feel like there are a million moving parts, and somehow you always end up tight/short every month, and you just don't know why.  Paying attention and writing everything down tells you what is coming and going and identifies the gazillion little leaks, so you can then make changes -- it begins to put you in control of your finances instead of the other way around.  Of course, that's largely focused on tracking, not net worth.  Which brings me to . . .

2.  Progress!  When you start the journey, it can feel like very slow progress, because most of the early days involve paying down debt, whether it's CC debt, a mortgage, student loans, a car loan, etc.  So you may be looking at your investments, and maybe you only put in $1K this whole year -- but maybe over that same year you paid down $10K of debt.  That's a big win, even though it doesn't show in your bank account.  Tracking your net worth helps you see that you are making progress in a way that focusing only on the amounts in your savings/investments does not. 

So the tl;dr is that tracking provides the most practical benefits, but net worth can provide an emotional boost when it feels like you aren't making progress.  Of course, it can also provide a false sense of security if all of your gains are attributable to a raging market and not your own efforts, so take that with a grain of salt, too.  :-)

charis

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #33 on: January 05, 2018, 08:07:59 AM »
I have Mint so it calculates NW for me.  Initially it was good to see it grow from negative to positive but in recent years I recognize that it isn't that reliable and pretty much ignore it unless there is a big jump or fall, which would indicate an issue or problem somewhere in my finances. I focus on my investment amount and debt balance instead (mortgage and student loans).

rubybeth

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #34 on: January 05, 2018, 08:28:59 AM »
I also use Mint, so I see both liquid net worth and net worth including house every time I log in. I don't count things like cars.

For me, net worth= (liquid assets + home value) - mortgage balance

Another Mint user here, so I see net worth pretty much daily. I probably just wouldn't include assets that depreciate, if it matters.

Mint can calculate car value, if you enter and update mileage, if you want to include them. It's not a big deal to me since our cars are worth almost nothing.

More valuable to me is the "goal" I set up annually in Mint that just includes our retirement accounts. It's fun to see that goal get met ahead of schedule each year.

Acastus

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #35 on: January 09, 2018, 11:23:18 AM »
Try a money management app or use your investment company to do it for you. Mint, Quicken, YNAB, Personal Capital all will collect data daily from all your accounts and give you a summary. I plugged my handful of non Vanguard funds into Vanguard, and it keeps a running tally for me. The dedicated software can also track real estate, cars, mortgage, loans, and any other financial entities you have.

aspiringnomad

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #36 on: January 09, 2018, 10:35:04 PM »
I check my NW in Personal Capital at least once a day when the market’s up, but admittedly less so when it’s down.

I also have a spreadsheet with lots of fancy equations, trend lines, and graphs that I’ve updated after the last trading day of every month for the past 3+ years. Some of the ideas for tracking/representing the data have come from this forum. I thought about updating it weekly but didn’t want it to become a chore.

Duke_of_Kent

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #37 on: January 25, 2018, 02:18:22 PM »
I track my net worth about monthly using a very simple spreadsheet listing my assets, their values, and the date that they were last updated.

I've signed up for a monthly email from Zillow with their estimate of my home's value.  I paste in the values of each savings and investment account, including my 401(k) and Roth IRA.  I do not include my earned pension benefit in this calculation, though, even though my financial advisor does.

Doing this doesn't really keep me focused or provide any tangible benefit, but it is a fun bit of trivia that I find to be a bit inspirational.

Bourbon

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #38 on: January 25, 2018, 02:27:04 PM »
I have it all in Mint, so I can see it on demand.

I do wish I tracked it more manually, just to keep point in time measurements to track progress.  Sometimes the electronic sources get convoluted and trends get lost.  Just recently got my mortgage servicer back in.

DS

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #39 on: January 25, 2018, 03:01:14 PM »
I have it all in Mint, so I can see it on demand.

I do wish I tracked it more manually, just to keep point in time measurements to track progress.  Sometimes the electronic sources get convoluted and trends get lost.  Just recently got my mortgage servicer back in.

Personal Capital is great for tracking over time!

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #40 on: January 25, 2018, 03:35:41 PM »
Track is pretty much daily through Personal Capital.

I will have to hide my password from myself when the next market downturn happens though.

oldladystache

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #41 on: January 25, 2018, 03:51:52 PM »
twice a year, just to make sure everything's on track. My records go back to 2004 and there's a steady trend upward so I can relax. If it started trending down I'd have to start calculating expenses vs lifespan.

It just takes 15 minutes or so twice a year to log into all my accounts and add that to a quick and dirty estimate of other property.

But I'm retired. Things would probably be a little different if I were still working.

Zikoris

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #42 on: January 25, 2018, 05:06:28 PM »
We calculate it every payday, twice a month. No real reason to. It's interesting to see our progress. I stick it on our blog every so often, and my Mad FIentist Tracker monthly. I don't bother trying to calculate the value of random shit I own, so it's strictly numbers from my investment accounts.

ender

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #43 on: January 25, 2018, 06:17:13 PM »
I have it all in Mint, so I can see it on demand.

I do wish I tracked it more manually, just to keep point in time measurements to track progress.  Sometimes the electronic sources get convoluted and trends get lost.  Just recently got my mortgage servicer back in.

+1

I have a sheet in the budget-google-doc-to-rule-them-all doc that I add it monthly too.

Our house has been fixed at 94% of assessed value for nearly two years though, so it might be a bit off but meh. We're not planning on selling the house anytime soon.

formerlydivorcedmom

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #44 on: January 26, 2018, 08:59:31 AM »
I update my net worth spreadsheet on the evening of the last day of every month.

My spreadsheet lists every investment or cash account that we have, as well as any debts that we have.  For the house value, I use the county-assessed tax value.  I do not include any other physical items, like cars (although I included the car loan, when we had one).

I sum up all the liquid assets targeted towards retirement, and show under that total what percent that value is of our FIRE goal.
I also sum up the kids' college funds, and show what percent that value is of our overall college savings goal.

I also have graphs that show a visual representation of how our liquid assets have grown, how the college funds have grown, and how our overall net worth has changed.

I started tracking at the end of 2013 when I got serious about improving our finances, and it has been very eye-opening.  We have interim goals (X% of FIRE goal by age 40, Y% y age 45, etc), and this helps us track progress towards this.  It is also useful, when we start feeling like we aren't saving enough and/or have cut back too much, to look back and see the value of what we've already done.  It keeps us moving forward.

Dicey

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Re: Do you calculate your net worth?
« Reply #45 on: January 26, 2018, 09:32:58 AM »
I'm in camp Marty & Laura for the most part.

Pre-FIRE, I tracked monthly.

Post-FIRE is different for several reasons. DH is still working. We continue to save, but now it's mostly to reduce taxes. We don't need to keep adding to our 'stache and we live easily on what he earns.

The more we have, the fewer items I track, and I only do it occasionally. Primary house value, checking, savings, investment account and DH's 401k is all I check, because that number is more than Enough. I don't track cars, household possessions or the value of our rental properties. I don't even count the value of DH's Defined Benefit Pension, because it's too far in the future. We have three mortgages on our rentals that we're letting the tenants pay off as scheduled, but beyond that, zero debt.

Tl;Dr - Track whatever you want, whenever you want and you'll get there eventually. Just get going.