Happy New Year!
Every new year, since I was twenty-three, I have had a New Year's day ritual of determining as accurately as possible my net worth. So long as the results are good, this is better than a glass of bubbly in Times Square. The practical reason is to allow me to take the long view on my portfolio and to recalibrate my personal financial strategies if necessary.
Net worth is simply assets minus liabilities. However, I try to make an effort to be as accurate as possible, so I exclude home furnishings, furniture, appliances, sports equipment, tools, art, rental agreements, and hobbies. Liabilities include mortgages, credit card debt, equity loans, and the like.
This has been a hard year for just about everyone. The stock market, in particular, the banking sector, has been bad. And home property values have eroded, in some markets, by twenty percent. For the remnant of true believers in President Bush's free market economic theories, I suggest you only type in the address of your home in the following web site to see objectively what he has wrought on your family's biggest and msot improtant asset. The difference in what your house was worth last year and what it is worth now is your Bush tax. I don't think it will make your smile.
http://www.zillow.com/
In addition to this, state taxes have increased to accomodate what federal tax revenues have not been able to do, in infrastructure, education, immigration, and health care. The final insult has been the massive offshoring of middle class jobs. Look for the price of oil to climb while the value of the dollar declines. A recession next year wouldn't surprise me.
Folks, wake up. In 2008, vote your personal interests-- not your prejudices nor your fears. And surely it is in your interest to reverse the trends that are hurting you and your family economically.
I'm not completely sure that a Democratic president is the answer. But I am sure that that there must be a serious change in the nation's direction and a systemic change in how the president and congress conducts the people's business.
Despite this past year's generally poor economy, we were able to eke out a small increase of about ten percent this year, thanks to diversification in a number of funds and by understating the value of our real estate in prior years.
Net worth is simply assets minus liabilities. However, I try to make an effort to be as accurate as possible, so I exclude home furnishings, furniture, appliances, sports equipment, tools, art, rental agreements, and hobbies. Liabilities include mortgages, credit card debt, equity loans, and the like.
This has been a hard year for just about everyone. The stock market, in particular, the banking sector, has been bad. And home property values have eroded, in some markets, by twenty percent. For the remnant of true believers in President Bush's free market economic theories, I suggest you only type in the address of your home in the following web site to see objectively what he has wrought on your family's biggest and msot improtant asset. The difference in what your house was worth last year and what it is worth now is your Bush tax. I don't think it will make your smile.
http://www.zillow.com/
In addition to this, state taxes have increased to accomodate what federal tax revenues have not been able to do, in infrastructure, education, immigration, and health care. The final insult has been the massive offshoring of middle class jobs. Look for the price of oil to climb while the value of the dollar declines. A recession next year wouldn't surprise me.
Folks, wake up. In 2008, vote your personal interests-- not your prejudices nor your fears. And surely it is in your interest to reverse the trends that are hurting you and your family economically.
I'm not completely sure that a Democratic president is the answer. But I am sure that that there must be a serious change in the nation's direction and a systemic change in how the president and congress conducts the people's business.
Despite this past year's generally poor economy, we were able to eke out a small increase of about ten percent this year, thanks to diversification in a number of funds and by understating the value of our real estate in prior years.
Labels: personal finance
posted by My Mall & News at
8:23 PM
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