Net Worth Update 2007

"Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones."

- Benjamin Franklin

I've calculated our net worth at the end of 2007 and appended it to the previous ten years of data I posted last year. I was perhaps hoping for a bit more progress last year, but I'm nonetheless satisfied with the results.

You may also wonder why I only update our net worth statistics once a year, as I've noticed a number of personal finance blog authors provide monthly or even weekly updates. In our case, we have a portfolio consisting primarily of equities, and the total portfolio dollar amount size has grown to dwarf even our yearly savings. Thus, I'm afraid that a monthly net worth update would merely be a reflection of monthly market fluctuations, which I don't think is a useful thing to calculate and post.

Year	Net Worth At Year End
1997	$80,641
1998	$134,135
1999	$224,502
2000	$300,710
2001	$337,281
2002	$401,199
2003	$477,903
2004	$549,144
2005	$684,813
2006	$864,380
2007	$950,346

TIPS Rates Too Low

"I just wait until there is money lying in the corner, and all I have to do is go over there and pick it up. I do nothing in the meantime."

- Jim Rogers

In June of 2007, I posted an article describing why TIPS rates were very attractive at the time. How things change in seven months! Back then we had a rate of about 2.7% to 2.8% (plus inflation) across almost the entire yield curve. Now the entire curve is well below 2% and the short end is below 1%.

The total return on 10-year TIPS has been about 11% or 12% since last June. To me, this figure represents the excess over typical bond returns that I originally hoped to achieve over several years by entering at an attractive price. Looking to exit here...

Most Viewed Posts Of 2007

"Popularity, next to virtue and wisdom, ought to be aimed at..."
- John Adams

According to Google Analytics, the following are the most viewed pages for this site during 2007. Thank you for reading!

1. Retire At 45 [main page] (7,085 views)


2. Financial Autopilot (5,422 views)


3. Early Retirement and Social Security (590 views)


4. Roth IRA Conversions as a Tax Timing Tool (275 views)


5. Why I Won't Need 80% (218 views)


6. My Mutual Fund Holdings (207 views)


7. The Record Thus Far (149 views)


8. Mental Accounting Errors (144 views)


9. Detailed Social Security Calculations (119 views)


10. Reframing The Question (95 views)