#156 - How Your Personal Net Worth Statement Can Inform Your Retirement Decisions - Retirement Plan LIVE Ep. 2

Planning for retirement will be next to impossible if you don’t have some sort of barometer of your financial situation - and that’s why I always create a personal net worth statement with my clients to have a starting point for retirement planning. On this episode - the 2nd in the 2017 Retirement Plan LIVE sessions - I’m talking with Kim about her and her husband’s financial status, and you’ll hear us go item by item through their financial situation to build their net worth statement. It’s the first step, and one you can take easily enough on your own. Find out how on this episode of The Retirement Answer Man. What the HECK is a personal net worth statement? Your net worth statement is a document that will provide you a quick look at your financial situation at any point in time. By calculating your net worth you’re able to see what all the work you’ve done in your life has provided for you - as well as what you’ve spent so far. But tracking your net worth over time gives you even more insight into your financial picture. On this episode, I’m talking with Kim about the current assets and expenses she and her husband have right now, a few years before retirement. This will enable them to know where they are starting from as they begin to set retirement goals. You’ll see how applicable the net worth statement is to retirement planning, on this episode. Here’s the simple way to create your own net worth statement. You can calculate your own net worth statement pretty simply with very little effort. The hardest part is assembling all the facts and figures that go into a simple subtraction problem. Here’s how you do it: Total up all your assets (things you actually own that have value, including cash accounts at the bank), total up all your liabilities (the things you owe money on) and then subtract your liabilities FROM your assets. That will give you a net worth figure. Now that you have it, how do you use it to plan for retirement? I’m glad you asked because that’s what I’m covering with Kim, on this episode. How can you use a net worth statement to plan for retirement? When you’re planning for retirement you have to do more than just dream up fancy things in regard to your future without knowing how those fancy things are going to be funded. Your personal net worth statement will enable you to know what resources you have available to build upon in order to fund your retirement plans. Think of it as a starting place, the dot on the map where you are now. Once you understand that figure you’ll be able to see how far you are from the ideal retirement you’ve imagined. If you’d like to build your net worth statement with a little help from a retirement planner, here’s your chance. One of the things I love about what I do is that I’m able to help people accomplish financial goals through the creation and use of simple tools that are truly helpful. One of those is my “Build Your Net Worth Statement” worksheet - which is yours for free if you want it. If you’d like to get your own copy and find out how to get started with your own net worth calculations you can find it on my learning center page. OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN [0:30] My introduction to this “part 2” episode of the Retirement Plan LIVE. HOT TOPIC SEGMENT [2:43] What IS your net worth and how is it calculated? PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT [12:30] Looking at Kim and Joe’s personal net worth statement to plan for retirement. TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT [42:39] Identify the location of all your important documents and write down those locations for your loved ones. THE HAPPY LAB SEGMENT [44:20] Mishandling stress is a bad way to build happiness in relationships. RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Contact Roger: http://www.rogerwhitney.com/retirementanswers/ Roger’s retirement learning center: www.RogerWhitney.com/learn The Retirement Answer Man Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/RetirementAnswerMan LastPass 1Password