If I Had a Personal Finance Blog
Oct. 3rd, 2005 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebI guess there are blogs on all kinds of topics. I just found a pile on personal finance.
It looks like most of those guys have much higher salaries than I do; if I had such a blog, I might name it "It's Not What You Make" [it's what you save].
If I had such a blog, then today I would be telling you my estimate of my net worth as of today.
Then I might break it down for you in a balance sheet. But unlike these bloggers (and corporations), I wouldn't have a liabilities section. It's not that I don't have liabilities, but I don't think of them like that. For example, I could say that my house is an asset worth a large amount of money and then I could also say my house loan is a liability of a medium amount of money. I'd rather just list the net value of my house. If I still had student loans or owed more on something than it was worth, then that would be listed as a negative number, but those days have been over for some time (so far, knock wood).
Also, I wouldn't tell you how much I owe on my credit cards. What I do is after each monthly paycheck is deposited into my checking account, I see how much I owe on my credit card. Then I subtract that amount from the amount in my checking account. I also subtract my mortgage and other static monthly expenses in my checkbook register even if they aren't due at the beginning of the month. I like to keep $750 in there to cover the rest of the month. If I have more than that after all the subtraction, I move the remainder to my savings account and/or brokerage account; and if I have less, I transfer money the other way. The resulting amounts in my savings, stocks, etc. accounts are what I would list. (I don't include checking or cash--too small, and it's all about to disappear over the next month anyway. But I do include the value of my car, which is also a small amount.)
One thing people like to do is list certain things in terms of percentages. I like that. For example:
*Amount saved over the past month as a percentage of income over the past month.
*Increase in net worth as a percentage of the earlier net worth (from a month ago, a quarter ago, and/or a year ago).
*How progress compared to goals.
Then I might tell you about any irregular spending for the month (car repair). And any irregular savings (earnings from scoring teacher certification tests). And any financial blunders (keeping forgetting to return purchases that didn't work for me) and victories (I collected all monies owed to me for the past month).
P.S. "Blog" is not in LiveJournal's spell-checking dictionary. Heh.
It looks like most of those guys have much higher salaries than I do; if I had such a blog, I might name it "It's Not What You Make" [it's what you save].
If I had such a blog, then today I would be telling you my estimate of my net worth as of today.
Then I might break it down for you in a balance sheet. But unlike these bloggers (and corporations), I wouldn't have a liabilities section. It's not that I don't have liabilities, but I don't think of them like that. For example, I could say that my house is an asset worth a large amount of money and then I could also say my house loan is a liability of a medium amount of money. I'd rather just list the net value of my house. If I still had student loans or owed more on something than it was worth, then that would be listed as a negative number, but those days have been over for some time (so far, knock wood).
Also, I wouldn't tell you how much I owe on my credit cards. What I do is after each monthly paycheck is deposited into my checking account, I see how much I owe on my credit card. Then I subtract that amount from the amount in my checking account. I also subtract my mortgage and other static monthly expenses in my checkbook register even if they aren't due at the beginning of the month. I like to keep $750 in there to cover the rest of the month. If I have more than that after all the subtraction, I move the remainder to my savings account and/or brokerage account; and if I have less, I transfer money the other way. The resulting amounts in my savings, stocks, etc. accounts are what I would list. (I don't include checking or cash--too small, and it's all about to disappear over the next month anyway. But I do include the value of my car, which is also a small amount.)
One thing people like to do is list certain things in terms of percentages. I like that. For example:
*Amount saved over the past month as a percentage of income over the past month.
*Increase in net worth as a percentage of the earlier net worth (from a month ago, a quarter ago, and/or a year ago).
*How progress compared to goals.
Then I might tell you about any irregular spending for the month (car repair). And any irregular savings (earnings from scoring teacher certification tests). And any financial blunders (keeping forgetting to return purchases that didn't work for me) and victories (I collected all monies owed to me for the past month).
P.S. "Blog" is not in LiveJournal's spell-checking dictionary. Heh.