Comments on: Personal Balance Sheet, May 2008 ($158,793, +7.8%)

By: CommRE

CommRE — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:58:13 +0000

Thanks to Flexo, I have been using his exact template since November. It has really helped me stay focused on my goal of increasing my net worth by 15% this year. I tend to think about how every dollar I spend is going to affect my net worth.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:53:25 +0000

This is so amazing to me how people keep such good track of their expenses. I always have a general idea, but I know if I was more diligent with my record keeping, planning, and goal setting, I’d probably have a lot more money and be feeling pretty good about the increase in my net worth. I hope you reach your year-end goal!

By: Flexo

Flexo — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:50:32 +0000

CR: Thanks for the comment and the question. Yes, my predictions are a little wild, I’ll admit that. I plan to write about my income a little more in the income/expense report which I’ll publish shortly, but it comes down to the unpredictability of my side business income.

On January’s report, the $154,000 remark wasn’t so much as a prediction but a straight-line calculation based on one month’s progress (December to January) assuming no growth.

By: Customers Revenge

Customers Revenge — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:41:06 +0000

Hi, Haven’t been reading you regularly except since the past month or so, but find your site interesting. Just curious as to how others are managing and analyzing their performance. By the way, and I’m not criticizing just asking.

You started in Jan saying you have a net worth of $120 with projected income of $100 to $125K aside from your job. Not sure what your job is but I’m assuming, since you keep it, it must be at least in the same 80-125K range otherwise you’d shift your time away from it. So why is you net worth goal only $210? Even if you spent your entire salary then your side income would bring you to 220K-245K.

As well, in Jan you make the comment that you might only reach $154K by year end. Then only 4 months later (this month) you already surpass that number. In Feb you make another run-rate prediction that you might only hit $200. I didn’t check back every month but are your forecasts really that volatile? And do you consider any particular net worth number to be “real”?

For example, I hit an all time high a couple of months ago on my investment accounts that was about 10% higher than it currently is just due to the coincidental swing on a number of holdings at the same time. I am sad, but not that sad. It did have me dreaming of raising my own goal to the stratosphere for a couple of days :). It proved to me that any particular snapshot is not exactly “real”, especially on items that are market value.

Thanks for the site and you are very inspirational.