Your personal net worth is the difference between assets and liabilities: things you own minus things you owe. If it is positive, you’re on the right track. Otherwise, you need to do something about it.
Tracking your net worth is a critical step toward achieving your financial freedom. The term is quite intimidating but let’s make it simple anyway. In this post, you will learn about my net worth in June 2015.
Why Track Your Personal Net Worth?
Net worth is being used as a tool to measure the wealth of a person. Say, Bill Gates has a net worth of $79.3 billion. It means he has more assets (cash, investments, businesses) to outweigh his liabilities (loans, mortgages, debts). The surplus of his assets in his liabilities makes him wealthy, and it doesn’t require him to work anymore if he wishes not to.
The end mind is to have a high net worth as a person. Personal assets should be higher (in value) than liabilities.
Tracking our net worth ensures that our assets continuously grow while liabilities are maintained or reduced. But in reality, as income increases, liabilities do.
Thus the only way to increase net worth is to accumulate more assets, not to reduce expenses. As they say, the buttonhole is proportional to the button’s size.
Assets and Liabilities
Before we roll up our sleeves and do the calculation, let us classify the entries we can add to our assets and liabilities columns.
For assets, list all of the things that you own, including but not limited to cash, business, bonds, stocks, savings, retirement, and emergency funds. To make it simple, I do not include physical assets like houses, automobiles, or jewelry, although you may do so if you want.
Liabilities or debts include mortgages, student loans, credit cards, personal loans, auto loans, mobile plans, and all other debts that you owe, including interest rates.
My Personal Net Worth as of June 2015
This is not a bragging room. I am showing the actual figures (as accurate as I can) to be TRANSPARENT as much as possible, INSPIRE you to also track your net worth and SUPPORT one another in winning the game of investing. I’d be more than happy to hear your questions, comments, or even strategies.
So here’s the net worth calculation. Prepare a tissue, you might puke when you see this :)
Assets
- Cash: 28,802.19
- Emergency Fund: 10,756.00
- Savings – Cooperative A: 12,582.58
- Savings – Cooperative B: 11,660.15
- Stock Market Shares: 46,927.94
- Life Insurance: 10,800.00
- Index Fund: 9,965.54
- Total Assets: 131,494.40
Liabilities
- Mobile Plan: 54,000.00
- Credit Card A: 23,114.82
- Credit Card B: 1,589.00
- Credit Card C: 10,515.88
- Friend: 40,000.00
- Total Liabilities: 129,219.70
NET WORTH: 2,274.70
A Little Background of My Assets
The cash and emergency fund I have is taken from my monthly salary and accumulated over the years. Cash is for my primary needs: food, clothing, rent, and other basic necessities. The emergency fund is only used when I (or someone) is in “dire” need.
My two savings are automatically deducted from my monthly salary. Savings A is Php 1,000 per month (Php 500/payday), while Savings B is Php 500 per month (Php 250/payday). Auto-deduction is a good way of saving because you don’t feel the pain since you will only spend what’s left in your income. It’s like stealth savings since you are not doing the physical deposit of money.
Stock market shares are my investment in the Philippine stock market through COLFinancial. Although I am currently losing by 23%, I am still optimistic about earning returns in the future. Life insurance is not just an investment for my beneficiaries but investment savings. My annual premium is Php 10,800, payable in 5 years. Thereafter, I can withdraw my money (earning with interest) or leave it there and grow more. Nevertheless, I can withdraw it anytime I want.
My index fund is the latest investment vehicle I undertook due to my not-so-good performance in the stock market. The index fund mimics the performance of the Philippine Stock Exchange indexes. The funds (of investors) are managed by a Fund Manager and are invested equally to the Top 30 public companies in the stock market.
So Why Do I Have This Net Worth?
Without looking at my liabilities, you would think I am doing very well. Not really. That is just the tip of the iceberg.
Yes, I have a positive net worth. It is okay but not that good. Hence, don’t be deceived with a big asset unless you see the liabilities (whole picture).
This is the importance of tracking your net worth, you will see your financial condition when you sell all your assets and pay all your debts. Will you still survive or will you have nothing in the end?
My Action Plans to Improve My Net Worth
These are the steps I want to do to get out of debt and increase my net worth.
- Of all my debts, I need to repay my credit cards first. Here’s why: credit cards impose the highest interest rates! They are sneaky and nasty! Thus, I need to pay all my credit cards above other debts.
- Close the least needed and lowest credit limit card. Currently, I have three credit cards. While having multiple cards to increase your total credit limit is an excellent advantage, you will be more tempted to spend more, and annual fees will eat your money out. Thus, retaining the two most important cards is convenient and economical.
- My friend agrees that I will pay my debt on an installment basis. I’m very blessed with this person. Hence, I will pay Php 4,000 every month and pay off my debt next year :)
- My mobile phone is not a want but a need. My old phone has been with me for two years, and it served me well, not until two weeks ago when a significant defect started to appear. The phone always increases its volume when charging, even if you don’t move anything. It’s distracting, especially in the office. So I had no choice but to buy a new iPhone 6 :)
Conclusion
Having a small (or unfavorable) net worth is not so bad. The fact that you care and take action in tracking your net worth is a vital step towards improving it in the future.
Remember, you can’t improve what you can’t measure. Since you already know your net worth, the next step is to avoid liabilities and increase your assets.
Dba po kasama sa net worth yung mga property nyo like Real estate so tingin ko di lang 2k networth nyo
In theory, yes. But I did not include real estate for two reasons: First, to simplify the calculation only Current Assets are included since Non-current Assets (like real estate, jewelry, car) are not liquid assets. Second, my Hard Assets are not producing cashflow (no income) so it is irrelevant.
Hmm. Why purchase an iPhone 6 when you can choose to buy a cheaper (but not necessarily of lower quality) brand? And you're on a plan? Financial freedom teaches us to be clever in our spending decisions. You just bought a status object.
You noticed, thank you for bringing this up! Yes, I agree. This has been one of the biggest mistakes that I would suffer for 2 years. Justifications aside, the only thing I can do now is to increase my cash inflow to maintain my investments and payoff financial obligations.
Currently I am working on a project that could possibly increase my income on top of my monthly salary :)