How often do you calculate your net worth?

[HFWR]

Have a google spreadsheet that tracks investments more or less in real time. Also have the rebalance bands entered, so don't do anything until something is outside the band (though I have been known to tweak my allocation based on my bunion/Ouija board/Magic Eight Ball...)

Adjust once a month or so for dividend reinvestment.

[rescueme]

Quote:

Originally Posted by militaryman So how do I value those when doing a networth estimate?

Many have different opinions on this point, but as for me/DW? We don't calculate any income stream of having any value unless it can be "passed on" until we are both gone.

For instance, my VA disability, my DW's two small pension plans, our respective SS are all calculated at $0.

However, our joint life SPIA does have value that will be passed on to our estate if we both die before the age of 78 (our joint life calculation).

BTW, we carry all "personal property" (cars, funiture, odds & ends, etc.) as zero worth as far as considering gross estate net worth.

Just the way we look at it.

[Meadbh]

I use an Excel spreadsheet to calculate net worth and do some graphs, scenario building and sensitivity analysis once a year, on March 31st. When there have been major changes In my personal circumstances I may do it halfway through the fiscal year, but never more often. During 2008 it would have been just too painful!

[militaryman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rescueme Many have different opinions on this point, but as for me/DW? We don't calculate any income stream of having any value unless it can be "passed on" until we are both gone. For instance, my VA disability, my DW's two small pension plans, our respective SS are all calculated at $0. However, our joint life SPIA does have value that will be passed on to our estate if we both die before the age of 78 (our joint life calculation). BTW, we carry all "personal property" (cars, funiture, odds & ends, etc.) as zero worth as far as considering gross estate net worth. Just the way we look at it.

^^^^^ That's what I figured most folks do also ....

Therefore someone who indicates they have a networth of $0 or a negative networth is not necessarily indicative at all of the standard of living they will be able to have in retirement, i guess.

I can lose all my investment $$ right before retirement and , i guess technically have a networth of zero, yet my pensions/annuity/ss should allow the DW and I to gross > $4,000 per month.

[rgarling]

I was obliged to calculate net worth each time we applied for a mortgage, which was 4 times in the past 30 years.

[photoguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by militaryman Therefore someone who indicates they have a networth of $0 or a negative networth is not necessarily indicative at all of the standard of living they will be able to have in retirement, i guess.

I guess it depends on how you want to use the networth value. For comparing to others, you could compute the present value (using some estimate for inflation) of the pension payments assuming an average lifetime. Or you could take the pension payment and figure out an equivalent "lump sum" using a 4% rate. Obviously all very approximate.

[Mulligan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by photoguy I guess it depends on how you want to use the networth value. For comparing to others, you could compute the present value (using some estimate for inflation) of the pension payments assuming an average lifetime. Or you could take the pension payment and figure out an equivalent "lump sum" using a 4% rate. Obviously all very approximate.

I only tally up assets that have any worth if I drop dead. I guess it's all in ones perspective. To me, in my retirement it is only about cash flow since I have a generous pension, I consider myself "red neck rich". To my daughter if I dropped dead today, she would bemoan the fact of how poor I was.

[Aiming_4_55]

I have a general idea based on monthly income/expenses.

Some elect not to include real estate, but I include rental real estate (value minus any liability/selling cost). I also am aware of the NW number including personal real estate, but don't factor that in my FI number.

[Finance Dave]

I do mine about once a quarter, and round off to the nearest $10,000. Accuracy is important, but precision is not. Someday I'm hoping I have enough to round to the nearest $100,000.

[FUEGO]

I update my "Quarterly Financial Statements" spreadsheet on a quarterly basis. Which reminds me, this weekend is time for another update that will probably show huge NW increases vs June 30 2012.

I also update a "portfolio analysis" spreadsheet 1-2x a month. This is my rebalancing spreadsheet that calculates which slices of the asset allocation are most out of balance, and that is where I direct new contributions, or if the percentages are way out of balance I'll do some buying and selling to get everything close to the target percentages.

[travelover]

I used to have a guy working for me that did it every morning over coffee, manually, on a spread sheet. Couldn't get any work out of him for the first couple of hours a day.

[Lsbcal]

Have been tracking in Excel for many years now. One tab per year. Reasons for tracking weekly are:

1) Rebalancing when equities go above our max percentage. I just sell 1%.
2) Knowing how many months of spending we have left. Sell short bonds if more needed.
3) Seeing our overall strategy on one sheet. This sheet is linked to an allocation sheet.
4) Every quarter recently I have benched marked our portfolio against a simple indexed portfolio and also against a portfolio that includes Vanguard Wellington.
5) Seeing how we are doing versus the inflation adjusted starting retirement liquid (no real estate) net worth.

[savory]

I'm a Yodlee user too and really like it. Everything I need is tracked on the site daily

[KB]

Once a month on the first, using a spreadsheet. I only count cash, bank and investment accounts.

[lhamo]

I have a master FI spreadsheet that I have been using to track net worth, expenses and other random financial data since July 2002. I set it up when I was at one of my high points of frustration at my previous job -- my mom was going in for open heart surgery and my boss gave me a hard time about taking time off to be with her and help during her recovery. One of those "who needs this job thing..." kind of moments.

I have been tracking networth figures consistently on a monthly basis since then. I use yodlee to consolidate and track account figures automatically. In September 2008, I added a daily networth sheet, which I update every morning over coffee (5 in the morning here means the markets just closed in NYC). I think I started it the MOnday after Lehman collapsed, mostly just to see what happened. It was indeed scary to watch all those red figures lining up and the balance going down, but eventually things started to go back up again. Now I have a nice little rollercoaster journey to follow. We are currently at a peak, which may turn into another trough. Seeing the historical data helps me stay the course and keep buying things when they are on sale - I have good evidence if the wisdom of that approach. Besides, what else are you going to do with your US$? They are losing value in China anyway, so we might as well keep them invested primarily in the US markets.

[W2R]

I just timed myself when manually checking my portfolio balance and bank account this morning, manually entering everything into my spreadsheet, and adding it up. This included Vanguard, TSP, and bank account (net worth as I understand it to be defined by David1961 in the first post of this thread).

It took 3 minutes, and that included figuring out why my bank balance had changed and entering that expenditure into the spreadsheet, as well. Luckily, as a retiree I can afford to spend 3 minutes over coffee doing something that I like to do.

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R ..........It took 3 minutes...........

Oh sure, but you don't have as many coins as I do.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover Oh sure, but you don't have as many coins as I do.

Oh, OK!!

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R I just timed myself when manually checking my portfolio balance and bank account this morning, manually entering everything into my spreadsheet, and adding it up. This included Vanguard, TSP, and bank account (net worth as I understand it to be defined by David1961 in the first post of this thread). It took 3 minutes, and that included figuring out why my bank balance had changed and entering that expenditure into the spreadsheet, as well. Luckily, as a retiree I can afford to spend 3 minutes over coffee doing something that I like to do.

For me it is just a couple clicks in Quicken to select "One Step Update" and type in my One Step Update password and accept any transactions of the day. EZ

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski For me it is just a couple clicks in Quicken to select "One Step Update" and type in my One Step Update password. EZ

Yeah, and when a person can do it with 2 clicks with Quicken, or probably even faster (and cheaper) manually as I described, I don't really know why they use "no time" as a reason not to compute net worth more frequently. I suspect that they really don't feel any driving curiousity about it, which is OK too.