The Future of Financial Planning

...that I'm still budgeting, in a way....

What I do now is I calculate my assets every week, using a spreadsheet (I use Excel). This is not that hard to do, really....

This keeps track of my various assets.... my "chatteling", my stocks, and other income I have (which has found its way into a bank account or my wallet).... Then I subtract my "liabilities" (the money I owe) from my "assets" (the money I have plus the worth of my investments) to get my "net worth"....

Your "net worth" is how rich you are.... My goal is to increase my "net worth" every week, compared to the previous week. I don't always succeed (sometimes I make a bad purchase, sometimes I just spend a lot of money, sometimes the value of my stock holdings fluctuate).... But it gives me a good idea where I'm heading!

Another thing I wanted to mention with the budget idea is you can do this in conjunction with what Robert Kiyosaki teaches in "Rich Dad Poor Dad"....

Robert Kiyosaki defines an "asset" as something which "puts money in your pocket," and a "liability" as something which "takes money out of your pocket."

Using this definition, how much are you spending on assets, and how much on liabilities?

Probably most people are spending most of their money on liabilities.... However, try to change your habits and spend some of your money on things that put money IN your pocket. Chatteling is one way, good solid stock investments is another way, real estate, REITs (real-estate investment trusts), bonds, and there are plenty of other ways too.... :)

- Dien Rice