Comments on: Net Worth and Credit Card Update – Major Changes

By: pfodyssey

pfodyssey — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 23:34:06 +0000

I agree with your idea to take the items off your networth. However, instead of doing it only for the one month, why not just go ahead and erase it for all the months so you don’t see such a dramatic drop in your networth?

By making the changes, you would more accurately reflect your progress over time by keeping everything “apples to apples”.

Just a thought.

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 19:10:48 +0000

Don’t fret too much on the net worth number. If you keep things moving in the right direction on your credit cards and all, it will fix itself eventually.

About 6 years ago, we had a net worth of -$3100. Small potatoes, I know, compared to many, but we still had $10,000 more in student loans and $11,000 in car loans coming in the near future. Fortunately no credit card debt.

We cracked down much like you are now. Since then, our net worth number has grown dramatically. We added those extra loans and bought a house, then focused on paying off the loans and building savings.

In 6 years, our net worth has gone from -$3100 to +$215,000. We had our months where it went down as well. It actually wasn’t but about 4 years ago that we broke +$2000 for the first time. Since then, we’ve had only one negative month, and that was when we put a new roof on our house.

So don’t let a single month get you down, especially when its really just an accounting change like this (btw, we only count our high value household posessions (furniture) that we know the value of through auctions of identical items online)….

By: Elena

Elena — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 19:31:50 +0000

Tricia: While I cringed to see that we have over $21,000 in credit card debt again, Iâ€™m okay with it.

Tricia, you can apply for a home equity loan or home equity line and move this debt to a better place – a lower interest rate plus interest is tax deductable.

By: SavingDiva

SavingDiva — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 16:18:46 +0000

It’s okay to see it go down. The important part is that you’re making progress. My networth went down when I decided not to include my car. I consider it something that I use…and I won’t sell…

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 11:47:14 +0000

Last month I thought my net worth would go up but in the end it dropped a bit, at first I was a little perplexed until I realized that it was artificially high last month when I calculated it. As long as you know that the reason for the drop is appropriate then it isn’t all that bad. I’m sure you’ll get it back up soon.

By: debtmom

debtmom — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 17:46:59 +0000

Tricia, I enjoy your blog so much, you have such a great attitude, and I just hope that reading you blog helps my attitude toward this journey!

By: Ron

Ron — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 16:53:29 +0000

Hang in there, Tricia. It’s definitely better to look at everything realistically and like you said, it’s the long run that matters.

@Amber – I think I said that once, so I’ll just keep my distance!

By: Amber Yount

Amber Yount — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 16:28:50 +0000

Thats ok. Our net worth is a wonderful negative $113,000. WHo ever said that owning your own business was the American Dream should have their privates chopped off.

By: Jim ~ mydebtblog.com

Jim ~ mydebtblog.com — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 14:47:39 +0000

I know how you feel when your net worth drops way down under where you once where. The value of my house tanked and I had to update my charts. I started thinking without the house or the mortgage, which would be my net worth anyway so I guess it’s all the same in the end. It’s the motivation to continue to keep going and paying of credit cards. I’m only about a fifth of the way there but hope to be rid of one more account by the end of this year.

I’ve had a lot of setbacks lately though paying debt. If you’re interested in the drama it’s on my debt blog.