Honest, serious question

Happymom · **Honest, serious question**

Why do you guys keep track of your net worth? What good does it do to know these things off hand? I really never have seen any reason to keep such close track. I am not a young kid either, I am definitely in the middle age bracket. We live realitively comfortably, have a mental idea of our finances, but have never kept that close of track. Some one tell me why should it be

allgirls · 01-31-2007, 04:30 PM

I don't but it is my understanding that you should to track your money to know where it is going. you should not be doing this alone. It should be inconjunction with knowing how much debt you have also.

allgirls

Daisymum · 01-31-2007, 05:40 PM

I think a lot of people are obsessed with money. And not what is TRULY important. Just people in general. I try not to be this way, but can fall into that way of thinking sometimes. I am happy as long as I know I am giving my children a good life, and we are financially stable. But there ARE more important things in the world, I believe.

BUT... net worth is a good thing to know about, too!

Kathryn · 01-31-2007, 05:56 PM

For me it's like stepping on the scale. I want to know the exact number to know where I'm at in terms of my weight loss goal (25 lbs down - 13 to go). I once went for over a year when we were living overseas without weighing myself and I came back to find I had put on 30 lbs! I was shocked! I had no idea I had put on that much weight. Now I weigh myself once a week. If I've put on some, I work a little harder and eat a little less. If I've lost some, then I know I'm on the right track.

We also have savings goals. When I track my net worth (which is in no way tied to my self worth) then I need an exact number there as well. It shows me how close we are to both our short term and our long term goals. It shows me that if the number goes down, then I need to spend a little less and save a little more, and if the number goes up, then I know I'm on the right track.

Part of it is that it also gives me the financial security (which is tied to my emotional security) of knowing that one day we will be able to retire and that I won't be living on the street eating cat food (my biggest fear). I fear the unknown, so by knowing, I can see the progress towards my goal and it gives me a tremendous amount of security.

HTH

newlywed0610 · 01-31-2007, 06:01 PM

I don't know, really. But I have learned on this board that people do things differently than I do. I know that dh and I in a huge amount of debt, and we may not be worth anything, so I have no interest in knowing our net worth. But if it works for other people, then that's just peachy with me!

Kim · 01-31-2007, 06:06 PM

Everyone needs to have financial goals if for nothing else, so you can retire. To retire, you will need a positive amount of net worth to draw on throughout retirement. If you aren't tracking it now, you won't how you are doing in reaching your goals.

I think it is a valuable tool to know how far you’ve come, especially when on the outside it may not seem like your have made any financial progress. I want to have enough saved to help finance my kids’ education and have a comfortable retirement. My husband and I know how much we will need for these things, and tracking our net worth helps us know we are making progress to achieve these goals and if we are on track. It isn’t because we’re greedy or money-hungry. To the contrary. Sometimes it seems like our frugal ways have no tangible payoff or reward, but seeing our net worth rise is gratifying to us in that we know that we are getting closer to our goals and attaining more and more financial security.

Spoodler · 01-31-2007, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kim

Everyone needs to have financial goals if for nothing else, so you can retire. To retire, you will need a positive amount of net worth to draw on throughout retirement. If you aren't tracking it now, you won't how you are doing in reaching your goals.

I think it is a valuable tool to know how far you’ve come, especially when on the outside it may not seem like your have made any financial progress. I want to have enough saved to help finance my kids’ education and have a comfortable retirement. My husband and I know how much we will need for these things, and tracking our net worth helps us know we are making progress to achieve these goals and if we are on track. It isn’t because we’re greedy or money-hungry. To the contrary. Sometimes it seems like our frugal ways have no tangible payoff or reward, but seeing our net worth rise is gratifying to us in that we know that we are getting closer to our goals and attaining more and more financial security.

Yeah...what she said!

We have a general idea of what our net worth is at any given time and do a detailed evaluation every year. It helps us keep on track for retirement.

stxmom · 02-01-2007, 09:29 AM

We track ours so we can stay on track, we have 4 kids to send to college and the youngest will be attending college very close to the time we plan to retire. We have lots of dreams and plans for our retirement and we want to make sure we can afford to achieve them. My DH has worked hard for everything we have and he deserves a nice retirement.

ladulce · 02-03-2007, 05:38 PM

I track mine because I feel like I am "spinning my wheels" and not really making much progress on eliminating debt, so, at the end of each month when I do the next month's budget, I list the value of our home- the mortgage. Even though I am only paying like $108 a month off of the principal, I like seeing a difference listed in the "net worth" area. Before doing this, I felt like I would be paying forever in just interest, now I know that atleast $100 is being increased in my "net worth" monthly.

Adda15 · 02-05-2007, 10:41 AM

I've never done this at a detailed level. I know what the house is worth and a ball-park on our retirement savings but don't have a bigger picture than that.