Most people, even the ones who hated math, can figure out their net worth.  For those of you who aren’t accounting lingo-savvy, your net worth is the difference between what you own and what you owe. 

Add the value of everything you own

Then subtract

The amount you owe to others

Equals

Net Worth

The biggest mistake in figuring net worth is not the inability to subtract one number from the other:  it’s the overestimating of what stuff is worth and underestimating the total amount of debt.  So, don’t do either of those things, and you can get a pretty accurate estimate of your net worth.  And remember, if your debts are bigger than the value of your stuff, your net worth is negative.

 You’re spending waaaay too much money.

Now you know what you’re worth right?  Yes, if you think that your net worth is equal to your self worth.  If that’s the case, stop reading.  While I’d love to engage you in a debate over that principle, this is a one way conversation, and I don’t think the rest of it will crank your tractor. 

Go in peace.

For the rest of us, if you think there’s something of value that wasn’t included in your net worth statement, now what do you do?  How do you assign a financial value to

·         Your loved ones?

·         What you love to do? 

·         Your talents? 

·         Your education?

In a radical departure from generally accepted business practices, why don’t we assign financial assets a non-financial point value that represents how much they contribute to your overall happiness?  Money and other financial assets have value only to the degree that they make you happy.

Interesting concept.

Are you happy?  Then give yourself 1000 “groovy points” spread among the things bring you happiness. 

List them all, in order of the amount of happiness it brings you.  A relatively well adjusted happy person may have a list that looks something like this.

Personal Worth Statement

·         My main squeeze = 350

·         My loved ones = 300

·         My life’s work = 250

·         My stuff = 100

Total = 1000 groovy points

According to this statement, my main squeeze is 350% more important that my stuff.  So, if I’m spending 70% of my time working on my stuff and 30% of my time with my squeeze, I don’t understand how to interpret my worth statement in a way that contributes to my happiness. 

Yeah, I know we all have to work for a living.  Times are tough.  Jobs are hard to find and hard to keep.

But a little time management goes a long way in lessening the pervasiveness of one’s job.  And, as the old saying goes, no deathbed confession has yet been ‘I wish I’d spent more time at the office.’  

What if you’re not happy?  Then spread your groovy points among the categories that do make you happy, and start spending your time more accordingly.  No excuses.  This is your life.  

You only get one.

Rich

Having been a financial planner, lots of people told me their goal was to be “rich.” 

What does rich mean?  

·         Do you want to be Bill Gates? 

·         Donald Trump? 

·         Have $50 million? 

·         $5 million? 

·         $1 million? 

Assume for a moment that you already have that amount, whatever it is.  What would you do with it?  Once you buy all the stuff that you want, then what?  

There’s the part of the worth statement most people forget about, because while they’re saving up for whatever it is they want, they forget to pay attention to what really makes them happy.   I have personally seen people work long hours and neglect loved ones saving for a financial goal that will allow them to do whatever they want, only to die shortly after retiring, leaving their neglected loved ones lots of money.   

Couldn’t these people have strived toward more than one goal at the same time? 

Of course they could.  But, how they lived their lives could teach us a valuable lesson.  All we have to do is transcend from the confines of thinking strictly in financial terms, and think in terms of things that bring us happiness.

So, go ahead.  Make yourself a worth statement, and even in these troubled times, give value to the things that make you happy.

You may be richer than you think.