We have made it all the way to June 2021. We are halfway through the year and this is the perfect time for a money date. The idea of a money date is to create a periodic check in with your finances and to get an overall picture of your net worth and financial health. Join me as I discuss what you should be tracking on this date.
Come talk money with me! Listen in to the episode below and join the conversation on instagram @Spondulixpod
Transcript
Hi Everyone! Welcome to Episode 12 of Spondulix. A podcast cast where I share the tidbits of financial information I am learning on this journey. We have made it all the way to June. It is the 6th month of the year so we are halfway through 2021. That is unbelievable.
If you remember from Episode 3, I encouraged each of you to do a monthly money date. The idea behind this date is to see month to month how your net worth changes and where these changes are happening. This will help you to get a overall picture of your financial health. Now I will be honest and tell you that I have not kept up with this every single month so far but Ii could not miss the mid-year check in and you shouldn’t either.
Since we are halfway through the year, having your money date at this point will show you where things stand and where you need to adjust to reach your goals through the second half of the year. So sit down with me, and let’s run through the mid year money date.
This is our June money date! Feel free to open up your excel file or however you track your money and do this with me. You can pause and gather your numbers and pull all of your information and your numbers together. You can pause as you listen along and you are creating your table. If this is the first time you are doing this, feel free to pause where you need to, to pick up any information when you need it.
I track my numbers in an excel file and I have a tab or sheet for each month so that I can toggle between them and see where things have changed. Because the items in my table have pretty much stayed the same, I simply copy my table from the last time I did this and just change up the numbers to match where things stand for me in June.
What we are doing is calculating net worth. Your net worth is the value of your net worth minus the value of your liabilities. So you will have an asset category and a liabilities category. Then you will do the math (simple math) to figure out your net worth. Beginning in my asset category, I have included my checking accounts, savings account, high yield savings account, 401k, my investment counts and my health savings account. I have covered a couple of these accounts in previous episodes. You can find High Yield Savings Accounts covered in Episode 1 and Health Savings Accounts covered in Episode 6. In that episode I also talk about investing through my Health Savings Account so I will include that investment account to my asset category as well. As far as investments, Episode 10 is a good one if you are looking for some investing practice as this episode covers paper trading. If you have CDs or certificates of deposit, you can add them to your asset category as well. Those are covered in the last episode, Episode 11.
Now as far as assets, if you have a home for example, you can include the value of it here and in the debt/liabilities section of your table you will include your mortgage or what you owe on your home. The process is the same for a car. You can include the value your car in this section and whatever you owe on it in the debt section.
This now leads to the debt section of my net worth calculation. Here I am including my student loans, bills and utilities, anything I owe on my credit card at this point in the month. If you have any other type of loan you would also include it in your debt/liabilities section. Here I write my numbers in as negative since they are owed.
You can now add up the value of all of your assets and the value of all of your debt. Your net worth is the value of your assets minus the value of your liabilities. People like to describe net worth as the difference between what you own and what you owe. So if you owe more than you own, your net worth will be negative. This is okay and happens often for those with high amounts of student debt.
In addition to calculating your June net worth you should do one additional thing. You should calculate the difference between your January numbers and your current numbers. This will help you to see whether your net worth has increased or decreased, any by how much. Take your January totals and subtract them from my June totals. That is June minus January. This will tell you how much your net net worth has changed over the first half of the year.
I love sitting down to this money date because at this point I can really pay attention to any outstanding bills and really take a look at my bank statements if anything seems out of whack. This will also allow you to get a better general picture of your overall financial health so you know what I need to do to achieve your goals. This helps you to see on a global scale how things are looking for you financially. This will keep you aware of your money and inform your spend, saving and investment habits. If you need anymore of an endorsement to do a money date, just treat it as your once monthly, or mid year check in with the financial doctors.
Lastly, just as in Episode 3, I also take this opportunity to check my credit score. I do this informally through credit karma. Similarly, this helps me to see how my habits over the past month have help or harm my credit score. If you are looking for a quick and easy tip to help improve your credit score, I cover a really quick one in Episode 7.
And that’s it! That is our mid year money date. I encourage you to put aside a half hour or an hour this weekend to check in with your money. With most goals it is super useful to check in at the mid point so even if you have not done this every month, this is an excellent time to pause and check in.
I hope you enjoyed this date and I will catch you a later. Bye!
The information provided in the Spondulix podcast, is provided for informational and entertainment purposes only. The information provided in the Spondulix podcasts and other affiliated posts is not intended to be, and does not constitute, financial advice, investment advice, legal advice, or otherwise. You should not make any decision, financial, investment advice, legal, or otherwise, based on the information provided in the Spondulix podcast without consulting your financial advisor or attorney.