Net Worth and Retirement Planning

I monitor our net worth regularly (at least weekly). Net worth in retirement is important, but not as important as a secure retirement income. Nevertheless, there are some very good reasons to track your net worth as you prepare your retirement nest egg.

I wrote a short post for the On Retirement blog at U.S. News and World Report stating my views on why net worth tracking is helpful for the baby boomer. One problem that I acknowledge exists for some folks is that they do not have the resources to easily monitor their own net worth. For many of these people who struggle with the concept of net worth tracking, I suspect that the tools and resources exist. They just don’t know how to use them.

I have recently changed the methods by which we track all of our accounts and compile the data into a simple net worth tracking tool. I will be writing a more detailed post about this in the near future. I may make the tool that I developed (a Google Docs spreadsheet) available to others. I am in the process of expanding the tool to the point where I can ditch Quicken.

The problem with Quicken is that you must install it on single computer. Your data also resides on that computer. If you regularly use more than one computer (as I do), you must have multiple Quicken installs and transport your data with you. That is not efficient. Using an online spreadsheet means I can access the net worth tool and other data from any computer, from any location. More on this later.

Meanwhile, you might want to read the full newt worth post I wrote. Here is the link:  3 Reasons You Should Track Your Net Worth

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