Finances & Money

Almost there! A six-figure net worth

I’ve been tracking our net worth since last May when I was introduced to www.networthiq.com. It took a few months to really refine how I was tracking our assets and liabilities, but I think I have it nailed down, and I’m not seeing major percentage swings like I was earlier.

The main thing boosting our net worth is the “make-believe” equity we’ve earned in our home. How am I tracking this? Well, to maintain consistency and not make each month a total guessing game, I decided to settle on the county appraisal for taxes we got in January 2006 as our home’s current worth. Personally, I think the appraisal is about $30-40k higher than what we could really sell it for right now, but like I said, I don’t want to play the “how much is my home worth” game each month.

So, over the past few months, we’ve really gotten into a groove with putting money into savings and paying extra towards debt. With a little help from the year-end stock market rally, our net worth stands at $96,910. I think that in 2 months or less we’ll be over $100,000 in net worth.

Now, I know it’s just a number. Most of it isn’t liquid (I know how hard it is to sell a vehicle at KBB price, and forget about trying to sell a house right now), but it’s at least a benchmark to follow to see where we can make improvements or changes in our spending and saving habits.

Look for that next post saying we’ve crossed that Golden Line!