The first quarter of 2010 has ended as fast as it began. In observing my personal finances as I have done for the past ten years or so, and publicly on Consumerism Commentary for the last seven years, I’ve put together my monthly balance sheet. This is a list of my account balances, including savings accounts, checking accounts, and credit cards.
In a perfect life, I would be reducing the number of bank accounts, but in this strange situation where I write about banking, I’ve opened more bank accounts for the sole purpose of reviewing them for Consumerism Commentary. In March, I opened accounts at Discover Bank (review here), Sallie Mae Bank (review here), and SmartyPig. I also opened a new investment account at Zecco (review here).
While I am publishing these numbers today, there is still a question about some of my outside income for March. This should be resolved by the end of the month, so the March results might change when I post an update next month. This outside income, in addition to a tax refund I received after changing the classification of my business, helped to provide a 11% increase over February’s month-end balances.
Here are the numbers.
Updated September 2, 2011 and originally published April 7, 2010. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Is this balance sheet exclusive of real estate assets?
It looks really good by the way.
I have no real estate assets (and no mortgage) to report.
Flexo rents and from my understanding does not own any rental properties.
Uggg. Theres that $$$$$$ figure in the blog title again.
I’ve avoided looking at your balance sheets until this blog post. Bye.
Your balance sheet looks good. Everyone should create their own balance sheet at least once a quarter. Your “overall total” is called book value, by the way. Compounding book value at a decent rate of return should be the goal of all investors. Take a look at the annual reports of Berkshire Hathaway and the discussions of compounded book value. They are very enlightening.
Hi Flexo
+11% is a great result but you are only showing assets minus liabilities. I appreciate this is important for understanding your level of wealth but it doesn’t tell a lot about your investment performance as the balance sheet result is influenced by both return on investment and by adding/subtracting external capital. Do you ever calculate your actual investment returns only using something like a mid-point Dietz to understand how efficiently you are invested for your risk profile?
Yes, I look at my internal rate of return and other aspects of my investments and report on a quarterly basis. That report should be ready in a few days, and last quarter’s should be easy to find in the Consumerism Commentary archives. (Look for the Net Worth link at the top of the page.)
I also look at my income, expenses, and cash flow, all more indicative of current and future financial health than just a balance report, but I don’t post those details publicly any more.
Nice work! Using the law of 72, you will double your net worth to almost $700,000 in just 7 months! Circl Dec 1 on your calendar. Keep it up!
Best,
Sam
Does accounts receivable mean you bring in $18k from the website and accounts payable means you spend $4k on the site?
Not exactly. The accounts receivable is mostly web income, but it’s just a snapshot of what I’m expecting to receive at some point, not a monthly total. Accounts payable includes business-related stuff like client invoices submitted to me, but it also includes both business and personal credit card balances.