@Bill F. Bill the op asked two questions. One was concerning net worth and a loan and then he went on to ask about net worth as related to becoming accredited. These are 2 different animals. In the first place a bank or lender cares very little about your net worth. Their focus is on your or ( in the case of a portfolio loan the asset you are purchasing's) ability to pay off the proposed debt. They cannot force you to sell your wife's jewelry, your stamp collection, and so forth UNLESS you pledge it as collateral for said loan. In short they don't care about that stuff. They are looking for ability to repay the debt. IF you offer your prized stamp collection as collateral it needs to be appraised, and insured with the lender as beneficiary. These will come at a cost making the stamp collection a liability with no income. If you need to feel good about yourself you can list cars jewelry etc on the credit app but if you don't list your income you prolly won't get the loan. List your income and leave the cars and jewelry off you will probably get the loan. The fact is I list all income but leave my wife's income off. I never list personal articles. She is 1/2 owner of everything but not on any loans. I have 5 conventional loans. I own on the far side of $100k in cars boats, snow machines, 4wheelers etc. I owe $10k total on this stuff. I list the 10k debt but never list the "stuff". One banker laughed and said "why are you making a car payment?" Then he quickly added "oh I bet you have a hell of a loan on it." I said yeah it was paid off and I financed it to get a down payment for a rental. The interest is 2%. The OP also asked about net worth as it pertains to a certified investor. Here you are attempting to prove you can withstand a substantial loss in a risky investment. It's a completely different thing. Your now putting money out and nobody is needing a loan satisfied. Your valuables can come into play here. They need to be appraised (expense) and the appraisal is submitted to the CPA that is going to certify you. Now anything counts both assets and liability's. Now before you tell me Again that art, watches, and other high dollar personal items are assets think about this. Cars need a garage, art needs security, collections need security and all need insurance. They need to be appraised to qualify you for the certification. These things come at a cost making these things a liability. They do not allow you to use the value of your personal home when figuring your net worth for accreditation because even that is considered a liability. Hence Rich Dad Poor Dad is correct in his assessment. If it's not paying you it's a liability. I gotta go with his outlook because his net worth is nothing to sneeze at. Even money in the bank not being invested is losing buying power at 2.5% to 3% a year. If your retirement is earning 6% a year after fees it's really only getting you 3% over the long haul. The first dollars in loose more than the last dollars in. You have to use an algorithm to figure the actual gain. Maybe an IRR calculator would do it. That's my story an I'm sticking to it. It's worked well for me I'm in the process to become accredited as we speak. RR
