“…the worth of that is that which it contains, and that is this, and this with thee remains.”
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) – Sonnet 74
Slack investor is accepting that Bill had quite a way with words, and that he may have been making an assessment of how a character’s worth will live on with his own writings. He wasn’t talking about financial worth here – but Slack Investor has often drawn a long bow. It is fair to say that Shakespeare wasn’t a dill with money, as a result of his works, he was well off, but not super-rich. I am not sure if the Bard took his financial independence skills seriously – but he was an investor in land.
Tracking your net worth – particularly your investing net worth – is so important to your financial well being these days. Your investments net worth is a vital number that will be used to fund your retirement income. Using the 4% rule, if you divide your investment net worth by 25, you will get an idea of your annual income that this net worth will generate in retirement.
“When you understand that your self-worth is not determined by your net-worth, then you’ll have financial freedom.”
Suze Orman – American financial advisor and TV and podcast host. She is a prolific finance author – A noble statement, however, not sure I agree with you here Suze. Self worth is so very important – but it’s a long way from financial freedom! Lets work on both.
Measurement of Net Worth
It is a trait of Slack Investor that he likes to measure things and put them on charts. Net worth is no exception. My mother would dismiss such things as crass – but tracking your Net Worth is quite a thing amongst the financial independence set. It is a simple matter of listing your assets and then subtracting your liabilities. Slack Investor likes to keep his house (that I live in) separate from other assets – It is your non-house assets that will fund your retirement.
“Know your worth. People always act like they’re doing more for you than you’re doing for them.”
Kanye West (Slack Investor is impressed with Kanye’s self worth!)
Let’s Smooth things out
I learned an important investing lesson long ago – about not treating your temporary investment gains/losses as real things. They represent a transitory moment in the great oscillation between the times when the market price for your stocks is unreasonably high – to moments when they are unreasonably low. Such is the pattern of stock volatility.
Although I monitor the price of my investments on most days, and collect monthly investment net worth totals, I have taken a lead from Kipling on how I treat these totals.
“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster. And treat those two impostors just the same.”
Rudyard Kipling – from the poem “If”
Because I grudgingly accept volatility as a price to pay for involvement in the wealth creating aspects of share ownership, I don’t accept the daily or monthly figures as real valuations of the Slack Net Worth.
I put my monthly totals in a spreadsheet and then take the average of the previous 12 months. By smoothing things out, the (red line) gives me an a figure that is close to what I think is my actual investment net worth. The reassuring thing is, that despite some serious monthly investment net worth declines in the past 5 years – December 2018 (-10%), March 2020 (-17%), and May 2022 (-12% so far!) – the red 12-mth “lagging” average line of Slack Net Worth has gone reassuringly upwards. This as been the case since I started tracking 12-mth average net worth back in 1991. An example of the excel spreadsheet that calculates the trailing 12-month Slack net worth can be found in the link below.
Believe me … this helps a lot in the testing times of a falling market.
May 2022 – End of Month Update
Slack Investor remains IN for Australian index shares and the FTSE 100 – but OUT for the US Index S&P 500 due to a sell in January 2022.
Another volatile month, with the S&P 500 ending up flat +0.0%. The FTSE 100 drifting upwards +0.8% and the ASX 200 down -3.0%.
All Index pages and charts have been updated to reflect the monthly changes – (ASX Index, UK Index, US Index).
Hi Slack
How do we go about making a bar graph like that with a 12 month trailing average? Do you have a template that I would be able to use please.
Keep up the articles. I always find your thinking interesting & often reflects my own.
Ben
Hi Ben, thanks for the kind words. I have revised the net worth blog to include an example of the excel net worth spreadsheet that I use to calculate trailing net worth. Good Luck and happy investing – Slack Investor
Thanks! Appreciate that.