It’s been a long time since I wrote. Work drains the life out of me that I find writing something clear and concise seems to escape me. Perhaps it’s all the clutter cluttering my brain and my chi!
I’ve started the first step in the process in “Your Money or Your Life”.
The first step is to gather all assets either fixed or liquid. That includes your checking account, any assets you’ve stowed away in your retirement fund, your 401K, your savings account, a money market fund, CDs, bonds, etc. as well as the home – the estimated worth, the car, money you’ve lent to friends or family and even items around your home. I find this last part of itemizing and listing the subjective value of the items your home to be the most challenging and even at times, fun. If there is no point in it laying unused, and adding just more stress to your life — sell it or donate it.
The second step is to figure out what debt you owe – your mortgage and balance on your home, loans you might have taken out from the bank, your friends and other accreditations, credit card debt, etc.
Figuring out your net worth is subtracting your liabilities from your assets. Hopefully one comes out positive when calculating their net worth!!
It’s rather a large task, and I’m still on the first step. Luckily, I don’t have any debt, thanks to only having one credit card and having parents that are extremely frugal (and not having to pay off any school loans). Having grown up in a society where the social thing is to go to the mall, to buy more, to want more, that it’s never enough just owning what you have and wanting you already have, I’m a lot less frugal in comparison to my parents.
Several salary increases since I’ve started working, my increase in spending as gone up in parallel. One would imagine that when you have a salary increase, it means you get to save more, but I think the majority might think “Hey, I get to spend more.” Looking back when I was still a student in school and working at an hourly wage and then viewing how much I was spending, I sometimes wonder how I spent so little. My credit card statements are about two times that much since that moment, and it’s been a little four years. I’ve got a lot more “stuff”, but what have I got to show for it? Is my life that much more satisfying than before? No, not really.
Among a few purchases such as my treasured digital SLR, my laptop that I did buy as a student, I think most of my purchases have been in excess that has not brought me much satisfaction. Every weekend I see that I have accumulated more clutter, which requires more of my time to clean up. I’ve got more books, more mail, more ads, just more! This is why I find the part in which itemizing everything in your home to be fun. I’ve gathered a few items that I plan to sell and a few items of which to keep — but I’ve got a ways to go yet. Next post: a clear list of all the items around my home of which I will evaluate!