<center>http://i.imgur.com/AS7cP9y.jpg</center>
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I’ve been tracking my net worth since the end of November of 2014. I started because I became married the month prior. We also found out that my wife was pregnant (Yeah, we wasted no time!). It was time to get serious about the future as I was no longer responsible for just myself. 

So I began to budget, and also added up all my assets and liabilities. That is all net worth is – your assets minus your liabilities (debts). 

I found out that my net worth was just over $80k. 

It was sobering. I mean that it wasn’t horrible, but I had made hundreds of thousands of dollars over my working years and all I have left was a fraction of it. I had been so wasteful with the money I had been given for putting up with everything that I had to do at work. 

In my adult life I have only worked for the same employer since age 17. In 2014 I had turned 33, so roughly 16 years. Most of those years I worked way more than 40 hours per week I currently do, so let’s say 2300 hours a year. That comes out to 36,800 hours worked, or a whole $2.17 an hour that I managed to keep. 

Some of that was used to pay for basic necessities, some had been spent on useful things, but most had been wasted with no lasting benefit.

I vowed right then and there to do better. 

I began to read personal finance blogs. <a href="www.budgetsaresexy.com">budgetsaresexy.com</a> - <a href="http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/">mrmoneymustache.com</a> and the forums there – dividendmantra.com before it was sold – and various other personal finance websites.

The only thing was that most of the people in the personal finance blogging niche are highly paid professionals. Many are engineers, programmers, and similarly high income folks. The only exception was Jason from Dividend Mantra who worked at a car dealership. I'm paid a decent wage, but nowhere near six-figures.

I didn’t let that stop me though, as Robert Kiyosaki says *"it's not what you make, it's what you keep."*

I read books. 

I watched videos on Youtube that gave me financial knowledge.

I started to work multiple side hustles to bring in extra cash. 

I paid off all my debts up to the mortgage.

In short, I got serious about keeping and building wealth.

Now, just two years later my net worth has increased to $173k! It has more than doubled in the last two years! During 16 working years I only managed to accumulate a positive $80k in assets because of not tracking my net worth. In two years of tracking however, I gained a positive $93k. THAT is the power of making something your focus. 
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<center>http://i.imgur.com/FyRu5h9.jpg</center><center><h1>How To Find Your Net Worth</h1></center>
If you don’t know how to figure your net worth out, here is what you do. Make two lists, one will have all your assets that have a direct monetary value. This means your house, bank accounts, retirement accounts, your car, etc. - anything that is either money, or has a monetary value that you would sell and no longer have. 

The other lists all your loans or other debts. This means your mortgage, car loan, student loan, credit card balance or anything else you owe money for. These are liabilities.

Subtract your liabilities from your assets and you have your net worth. Some people might find that they have a negative number, maybe they recently graduated from university and haven't had many years of earnings yet. While it might be humbling to find out that a homeless person is currently ‘worth’ more than you, I would say there is a good chance that since you are reading this that you are in a better position to add to your number. 
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<center>http://i.imgur.com/00Jd9VF.jpg</center><center><h1>Why Net Worth Matters</h1></center>
Some people may say that life isn’t about money or that a person is more than their net worth. I agree with both of those statements. Net worth is important because it is a securing of your financial life.

Some people make fantastic six-figure incomes and live paycheck-to-paycheck. Income can be a fickle beast though, and disappear with hardly any time to adjust. You net worth is how much money you would have leftover if you sold everything you own and paid off every one you owe. 

If you have a net worth of $100k and you live off of $25k, then in a worst case scenario you could live for 4 years without any income. This provides you with financial security. Yes, it would be a huge change in your life to sell all of your assets, but just knowing that you have years ‘saved’ up is a huge pile of stress off your back.

Those high income people living paycheck-to-paycheck have hardly anything saved and are accustomed to living an expensive life. If anything happened to their income, say they lose their job in a bad economy and no one is hiring or a medical problem appears, what would those people do?
 
Some people focus on increasing their income just so they can ‘afford’ the finer things in life. I focus on my side hustles for income so that I can increase my investments and thereby my net worth. It is these investments that will (hopefully) grow and allow me to live off of their ‘fruits’ in the future.
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<center>http://i.imgur.com/x7o95df.jpg</center><center><h1>Start Tracking Today</h1></center>
I’ve told you that I have increased my net worth by $93k in the last two years compared to $80k in the prior sixteen. I am proof that by keeping an eye on it, you will have a better chance of increasing your financial security – and that security is something I think we all find to be a positive thing in our lives. When you are more secure financially, you will feel more free to try for that job that might pay less but you would enjoy more. 

Competition is just a part of human nature. When many people think about the word, it is viewed as a conflict of sorts but it doesn't have to be. There is such a thing as beneficial or friendly competition. Think about a company having two departments compete against each other to make the most sales. Imagine an athlete striving to beat their personal best. 

In the personal finance world you often hear about "keeping up with the Joneses" or *FOMO* the "fear of missing out." This is a natural reaction to be similar to your peers. To be accepted as part of your local tribe. The problem is that so many people are barely making ends meet, that to try to be the same as them is financial folly. I put aside these types of thoughts. I know what I am doing will help me more than any purchase made for appearance sake.

Your net worth is a result of your past financial behavior. To increase it is to just compete against yourself. I view this as a positive action towards self-improvement.

Start tracking. Compete against yourself in a positive manner. Become financially secure and then become wealthy as your investments grow faster and faster. It will take years and maybe decades, but it is within yourself to do it. Think about the positive aspects of a future where you never have to worry about money. 

<h3>Because even if you fall short, you will be in a better position than you would have otherwise been. </h3>
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Pictures from Pixabay or <a href="http://www.toolsformoney.com/net_worth.jpg">1</a>

My website: <a href="http://www.doublingdollars.com/">DoublingDollars.com</a>
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