Do You Have Reservations Posting Your Exact Net-Worth Numbers?
If you had been following my net-worth progress thus far, you may have realized that my digits always seems to be a flat out whole number. The reason for this was because I had decided to round them down in attempt to keep my anonymity on the web.
However, now that I have decided to post monthly net-worth updates, it is time to be more precise in my calculations. Here’s why:
3 Reasons to Use Exact Numbers
1. More Accountability and Transparency
The first and foremost reason why I am going to start posting exact numbers is to become more accountable both to myself and those interested in my progress. Without exact numbers, I am just going to be another random guy posting random numbers.
2. Establishes Credibility
Although I am still pretty new to personal finance, it is my hope that one day I can get to a point where people can gain value from what I have experienced. If there is anything I have learned through my journey so far is that there is always something new to learn from others. 😉
3. Better Documentation of my Financial Journey
Total transparency of my entire financial situation will also keep things realistic for me. It will help me document my journey in a much more efficient manner. The more precise calculations will help me set better goals and determine an appropriate deadline to reach them by.
Alternative to Posting Exact Numbers
For bloggers who wish to remain anonymous, there is always the option to not post any net-worth updates. I have seen many successful personal finance blogs that don’t publish their own financial situation.
At the same time, there are also a few bloggers out there who round their numbers up or down. Personally, I don’t see this to be as effective as posting the exact numbers but that is simply my opinion.
Monthly Net-Worth Update
Having a monthly net-worth update is no doubt a popular trend amongst many personal finance bloggers out there. This is why the biggest change coming to Million Endeavour for the year 2015 is the transition from a quarterly update to a monthly update.
The main reason why I had implemented a quarterly net-worth update in the first place was because I didn’t know if I would had enough new material to make it post-worthy. Unfortunately, I have found that not only was a quarterly update very inconsistent, it was also a self-fulfilling prophecy weighing down on my progress.
Hopefully both the monthly net-worth update and use of exact numbers on ME (Million Endeavour) will align me better to reach financial freedom by the year 2020!
What about yourself? Do you have any reservations sharing your entire financial situation to the world?
ME,
Theres definitely benefits to posting the net worth update and you have summarized it well. However, for the sake of privacy, I have decided to keep my numbers private although I re-evaluate every few months. Thanks for sharing your details.
Best wishes
R2R
Hi R2R, every blogger has their own way of doing things. I really like the way you keep track of your passive income portfolio!
Hi Jeff
The only reason I put the exact figure is for better documentation as you have described. This will be handy whenever I wanted to double check how much dividend in my bank account im getting or how much i have paid for the stock.
For expenses related, I tend to round the figures up. I think its too micromanage to put each and single figure to the decimal to track expenses and this is more for a gauge of where your expenses are going to.
Different method different purpose. 😉
Hey B, I definitely know what you mean! Rounding the cents up to 00 definitely makes the numbers less messy and more attractive!
For now I am comfortable showcasing my real world dividend portfolio as that is my main focus of my site. However, I may one day want to reveal my total financial picture including net worth if I expand the breadth of my blog.
That is a good plan DivHut! One thing that worries me about show casing my entire net worth is the paranoia that hackers can start tracking me down. Or is that all just in my head. 🙁
Jeff,
I wouldn’t worry about that too much. Nobody is going to make an effort to try and track you down unless your blog really balloons. You’d have to be pretty stupid these days to try and get to someone’s money like that.
In the beginning I was also hesitant to publish my net worth, but in the end I decided to post it online. Mainly to show my readers the journey I’m on, but also to establish credibility. Furthermore, nobody I know in real life knows of my blog, so there’s not much chance of having jealous relatives or friends.
Cheers,
NMW