{"id":2049,"date":"2008-09-11T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2008-09-11T19:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/?p=2049"},"modified":"2023-09-24T09:58:17","modified_gmt":"2023-09-24T15:58:17","slug":"why-i-dont-track-my-net-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/why-i-dont-track-my-net-worth\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I don’t track my net worth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier today I described net worth<\/a>, and asked if it were the most important number in personal finance. Many people believe that it is. For them, it acts as a motivator, a sort of “life scorecard”. For others \u2014 and I’m one of them \u2014 net worth is just another number.<\/b><\/p>\n

As I do my finances, Quicken computes my net worth, but it seems largely irrelevant to me. I don’t even know what the number is at the moment. (I’d have to open Quicken to check.) There are two main reasons I don’t track my net worth more closely:<\/p>\n

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  1. I’ve never figured out how to calculate my net worth in a meaningful way.<\/li>\n
  2. There are other numbers that are more useful to me.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I recognize that net worth is an important part of my personal finance toolbox, but to me, it’s just one tool of many.<\/p>\n

    <\/span>Learning the Rules<\/span><\/h2>\n

    For net worth to be meaningful from one year to the next, it must be calculated the same way each time. But what’s the best way to calculate it? Here are just a handful of the dilemmas I face personally when trying to generate the number:<\/p>\n