Assignment #2: Create a Net Worth Statement

You can't very well get to where you're going if you don't know where you are. Before you really start to move ahead financially, it’s important to get a clear understanding of your current financial picture. This financial picture serves as a benchmark for evaluating progress towards your goals, and it can help shed light on areas you may want to improve.

The best way to do this is to calculate your net worth. Creating a net worth statement is much easier than you might think. In simple terms, it’s what you own less what you owe.

Before you begin, you’ll need to gather all your current financial records: loan statements, credit card bills, bank balances, and so forth. The more up-to-date and complete the records are, the more accurate your net worth statement will be.

First, list all of your assets – the things of value that you own. Examples are:
• Your home (current market value)
• Your vehicles (blue book value)
• Current value of investments: stocks, bonds, CDs, etc.
• Retirement account balances: 401(k) and 403(b) accounts, IRAs, etc.
• Bank balances: checking, savings, money market accounts, etc.
• Cash on hand

Next, list all of your liabilities – money that owe. Examples are:
• Remaining amount of your mortgage
• Home equity loans
• Credit card balances
• Auto loans
• School loans

Once you’ve listed all your assets, total them up. Do the same with liabilities. Next, subtract the total in the liability column from the total in the asset column to get your net worth.

Assignment: Create Your Net Worth Statement

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Not nearly as high as I was hoping, subtracting out the balance still owed on our mortgage was awful haha

I estimate our net worth to be around 90k

At least it's a positive number, not a negative one!

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We work on ours when we pay the bills each month. Time for the market to pick up speed in the right direction!!!

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-Wow-I was NOT expecting my number to be so horrible. Now, in 6 months when we have no debt besides school loans and our house, I hope the number is better.

We really are in transition where we will be spending huge amounts of our net worth this next month. We loose alot of it to Excise Taxes and realestate fees. Also since we have a house that is pretty much sold we know the exact selling price. I also don't know what the Value is of the place we are buying. I know that it was under priced to sell by about 30K so do I count that or just figure no equity yet.

So Net worth before the move 45K and after 27K Yes we will loose some in the transaction we will also be able to pay off all consumer debt with the profit from our sell.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006 &

Organizer of the Coupon Clippers of Tacoma

Ours is way low due to being upside down on the house...

We were doing pretty good since the house appraised significantly higher than we paid for it at the time. But the last two years have been pretty hard on house values. If we had to sell tomorrow, we'd have to find money to take to closing.

But wow - that's hard basically seeing our entire life reduced to a single number. Especially since it's so low!!

Wow this was eye-opening! I had never done this before. We are debt free except for the house - but our net worth is $87,674.00 That's pretty exciting. We owe *only* $52,000 more on the house.

Not too bad, since our house is payed off due to a windfall, and we have pretty good retirement plans. We do have more debt than I would like, and we're working hard to pay it off.

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Rebekah, Mom of fun but chaotic preteens

Ours is alot better this time around. But we still need to work on it and we are doing that.

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