How much are you worth?
In quite a few number of financial blogs and books I've read, one of the things often discussed is Net Worth. According to these literature, in order to properly plan out your financial future it is essential to get a base point. That is, determine where you are financially. Once you know where you stand financially, you can easily take steps towards setting financial goals.
As someone who did not imagine herself living long, I didn't take personal finance seriously. I thought to myself there really was no point preparing for a future because in my mind I believe my health will turn on me and take life away anytime. At age 23, I gathered enough courage to see doctors again and learned that I have a condition called adenomyosis. Several doctors I consulted told me that this condition was NOT life threatening and this was confirmed by my own readings. Despite this assurance, the idea that I will die young remained in my head. Immediately soon after, I took out two insurance policies for myself.
Alas, God has some other plans for me! I'm still not dead at 33! That realization hit me two years ago - exactly 10 years since I was diagnosed. If death were out of my hands, then what if God allows me to live until I'm 50, 65, or horror of horrors at age 85!?! That's 15, 30, 50 years from now!
What will an old single woman do when the income stops?
It is when I had those realizations that I humored myself into doing the activity that every personal finance seminars I've attended advised; examine your finances and make your own Statement of Assets and Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN). Your Net Worth is essentially your Assets minus your Liabilities.
To create my SALN, I downloaded a Net Worth Tracking sheet from MillionaireMindIntensive.com two years ago. I filled out the sheet and created my first ever SALN. Haha, my SALN was not pretty. It was pure HORROR!
As you can see, my Net Worth isn't pretty.
But the beauty of it all is even if my NW is in the negative, seeing the RED spurred me to action. True, the figures were disheartening but it gave me the motivation to re.adjust my priorities. I made the conscious decision to limit my travel plans. Any money that I set aside for future travels, I re.directed to building my savings (or starting it, hehe..) The NEGATIVE figure also emboldened me to get serious with investing in the stock market. I joined COL in 2011, but didn't actually top-up. It was only two years later that I added to my account little by little. Moreover, thanks to my preoccupation that I will die young, and I wouldn't want my very nuclear family to have to worry about disposing my dead body, the policies now have cash values that I can easily cash in if something bad happens. All these helped oh so slowly increased my assets.
In 2013, I had 3 credit cards. I closed one and closely monitored my two accounts; paying off in full the due amounts for each card. Sadly, some situation happened which continues on; and some poor decisions in reaction to the bad situation late last year forced me to use my card unnecessarily again as my little savings have dwindled. The bad situation appears to persist and looking at my SALN now, I am a bit disheartened. All the progress I made since 2013 to lower my liabilities seems to have cancelled out due to events of late last year. Anyhow, true to the spirit of what knowing your Net Worh can accomplish, I am now back to studying things and finding out ways on how I can get back on track. This is the beauty of personal finance. Since most of the things are within your control, you can easily make tweaks here and there. The key is to NOT LOSE HOPE. The RED will soon turn GREEN . Obviously, I'm VERY FAR from hitting it, but rather than feel sad about it, I tell myself that I can still make things happen someday soon and remind myself of the following:
Bad things happen. Get over it. Stop complaining. Do things that are within your control and act on those. Keep on learning and learning.
Again. DO NOT LOSE HOPE if you find out your net worth is in the negative. We all have to start somewhere. Lucky for those who have zero liabilities and positive net worth. Somewhere, somehow, they too started from something.
I'll end this post with this quote from T. Harv Eker
Read the NEXT POST to know the items that can be listed as either an ASSET or a LIABILITY.
As someone who did not imagine herself living long, I didn't take personal finance seriously. I thought to myself there really was no point preparing for a future because in my mind I believe my health will turn on me and take life away anytime. At age 23, I gathered enough courage to see doctors again and learned that I have a condition called adenomyosis. Several doctors I consulted told me that this condition was NOT life threatening and this was confirmed by my own readings. Despite this assurance, the idea that I will die young remained in my head. Immediately soon after, I took out two insurance policies for myself.
Alas, God has some other plans for me! I'm still not dead at 33! That realization hit me two years ago - exactly 10 years since I was diagnosed. If death were out of my hands, then what if God allows me to live until I'm 50, 65, or horror of horrors at age 85!?! That's 15, 30, 50 years from now!
What will an old single woman do when the income stops?
It is when I had those realizations that I humored myself into doing the activity that every personal finance seminars I've attended advised; examine your finances and make your own Statement of Assets and Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN). Your Net Worth is essentially your Assets minus your Liabilities.
To create my SALN, I downloaded a Net Worth Tracking sheet from MillionaireMindIntensive.com two years ago. I filled out the sheet and created my first ever SALN. Haha, my SALN was not pretty. It was pure HORROR!
As you can see, my Net Worth isn't pretty.
But the beauty of it all is even if my NW is in the negative, seeing the RED spurred me to action. True, the figures were disheartening but it gave me the motivation to re.adjust my priorities. I made the conscious decision to limit my travel plans. Any money that I set aside for future travels, I re.directed to building my savings (or starting it, hehe..) The NEGATIVE figure also emboldened me to get serious with investing in the stock market. I joined COL in 2011, but didn't actually top-up. It was only two years later that I added to my account little by little. Moreover, thanks to my preoccupation that I will die young, and I wouldn't want my very nuclear family to have to worry about disposing my dead body, the policies now have cash values that I can easily cash in if something bad happens. All these helped oh so slowly increased my assets.
In 2013, I had 3 credit cards. I closed one and closely monitored my two accounts; paying off in full the due amounts for each card. Sadly, some situation happened which continues on; and some poor decisions in reaction to the bad situation late last year forced me to use my card unnecessarily again as my little savings have dwindled. The bad situation appears to persist and looking at my SALN now, I am a bit disheartened. All the progress I made since 2013 to lower my liabilities seems to have cancelled out due to events of late last year. Anyhow, true to the spirit of what knowing your Net Worh can accomplish, I am now back to studying things and finding out ways on how I can get back on track. This is the beauty of personal finance. Since most of the things are within your control, you can easily make tweaks here and there. The key is to NOT LOSE HOPE. The RED will soon turn GREEN . Obviously, I'm VERY FAR from hitting it, but rather than feel sad about it, I tell myself that I can still make things happen someday soon and remind myself of the following:
Bad things happen. Get over it. Stop complaining. Do things that are within your control and act on those. Keep on learning and learning.
Again. DO NOT LOSE HOPE if you find out your net worth is in the negative. We all have to start somewhere. Lucky for those who have zero liabilities and positive net worth. Somewhere, somehow, they too started from something.
I'll end this post with this quote from T. Harv Eker
Read the NEXT POST to know the items that can be listed as either an ASSET or a LIABILITY.
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