2014: Budgets and net worth!
January 20, 2014
Possibly there should be some shame in the fact that I didn’t do ANY net worth roundups in 2013 (or 2012), but honestly, I hadn’t made my peace with the reality of combining finances with PiC. Nothing against him, I’m just a control freak when it comes to money and having to put our money together on paper like that went against the grain. Aside from that, it felt weird putting up our net worth on the internet because this isn’t his or our blog, it’s mine – how would he feel about revealing that information?
However, I don’t really believe in money-shaming or forcing the issue when it doesn’t feel right. While I operate like a sledgehammer in most other aspects of life, forcing things when it comes to money and marriage is NOT a good idea. Not for us, anyway. Slow and steady does the trick. Or will.
This year, I’m in the mood to do Net Worth roundups again. I need to have them for my own peace of mind and to know we’re making progress. However, since I’m not sure how PiC would feel about airing actual numbers (he tends to shrug when I ask), I’m going to err on the side of caution.
After a good amount of debate on Twitter, Evan suggested his method of only sharing percentages. The question came up a few times about whether there was any point to doing this, but conversely, is there a safe way to share actual hard numbers? Particularly if there’s any chance at all of our identities being revealed or our sites being discovered? (Your opinions are welcome, of course).
For the moment, I’ll always have the hard numbers behind the scenes, and I can resurrect them if this method just doesn’t sit well.
1. The net worth will be calculated midmonth, after the first paychecks are in. Just because.
2. Our Assets column will include:
Checking and savings accounts
CDs
Money Market Accounts
Stock Portfolio value
Retirement accounts
3. Our Liabilities column will include:
Mortgage
1 month of budgeted spending
We never carry credit card balances so it makes sense to me to account for the money that will come out of the checking accounts by offsetting it with a monthly spending estimate. We don’t have car notes, or any other kinds of debt, so that sums up the story!
What this means, though, is that while I’ve compiled our total Net Worth, for the intents of these updates, we are saying that as of today our
Net Worth is: 0.
Next month, theoretically, we’ll see a …0.5% increase maybe? OH GAWD. This is going to fuel my desperate need to show progress and save more, I just know it!
~ ~ ~
As for our 2014 Budget, after last year’s disappointing performance, we have negotiated an amortization scheme. Rather than forcing ourselves to make up the difference between last year’s overspending out of this year’s budget, which would suit me very well indeed, we’ll make up half the difference this year, and roll over the remaining deficit to 2015. That makes me a little antsy (job security concerns), but it’s a reasonable compromise given our natural dispositions. I don’t want our budget to turn into a bone of contention between Stingy Tightwad and LaissezFaire Spender.
I fought the sharing of net worth for 2 years before I started in 2011. It feels like crap to share with readers that I failed to get any gains, so it has been a huge motivation for me! I think it will be for you too.
I actually shared my net worth between 2008-2011, with actual number and stuff. Stopped when I had to figure out how to deal with combined finances and really wanted to start again so now’s as good a time as any!
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