Do you track your NET WORTH?

[Pavlos Kasselouris]

After reading the book of the millionaire real estate investor by Gary Keller, where it says to track your net worth frequently, I started few months ago to track my net worth and see it how it performs during time. I must say that I got really obsessed with this, and try to improve constantly the rate of increase with a combination of control my personal spending and getting the most out of my real estate endeavors and investments. I created a excel sheet where I insert data and it shows also a graph. I'm sure I can make it a lot more complex, but its not something I need right now. Because I moved to the states beginning of 2013 and know exactly how much capital I brought with me and with combination of the monthly bank statements I was able to use approximate numbers to have a historical view. It fascinated to see the history...   

I use Mint where I have logged in all my assets and liabilities and it calculates most of this automatically. Market value of my real estate and personal notes I calculate my self, everything else it gets the data automatically. For budget watch I prefer using my banks online system (wells fargo)

Currently I see an average increase of approximately 1.1% monthly and so far it looks that it increases as time goes by and I leverage my capital more. After I file my taxes next year I should have a better view of things. 

Anyone else has this habit and how much increase have you seen with your REI?

[Brandon Hall]

Originally posted by @Account Closed:

@Pavlos Kasselouris I look and think about it maybe quarterly but not often.. In my opinion, it is a kind of worthless figure.. I care about how much I make, my expenses, my debt etc...

Your comments crack me up sometimes. The other day you were advocating mortgage fraud and now you are saying net worth is worthless?

So in the future when you've maxed out your conventional loans and go to a portfolio lender for a loan, are they going to care that your assets cash flow $300 per month or that you have a net worth of $500k? What's going to make them open their checkbook to you?

Your net worth is essentially your financial report card and it indicates your financial health. You can make a ton, but be worth nothing. Additionally, when reviewing it over time you can see trends that will show you the realities of where you stand financially. Ideally your net worth will be trending upwards over time, and if it isn't, tracking it will provide you with a real wake up call.

When you hit retirement and decide to tap into your retirement savings to live, what do you think happens to your net worth? It goes down. If you don't have much of a net worth, you don't have much to tap into. It would be pretty awful to surprisingly learn that your net worth won't get you through retirement.

That said I look at my net worth on a monthly basis. It is the most important financial figure for your "personal books" and it is critical that you track it. I don't think any successful guy will tell you otherwise. Maybe @Serge S. can chime in here.