Quantcast
Debt Reduction - $37,000
Sponsors

Previous Posts

1.20.2006

blech!

I'm annoyed right now, and I probably shouldn't be. Over in NetWorthIQ, I received a polite comment from a person named kiki asking me to clarify our salary and net worth. Just to answer her question, both are combined values for me and Mr. Savvy. However, before I could answer kiki's question, some one else decided to answer it for me, and they were not very nice about it.

Question for those of you that are married or partnered and track your net worth.... do you do it jointly with your partner, or do you track just your own net worth? I don't see the point in keeping it separate, at least not in our situation, so I naturally track them together. I didn't think it would be fair in my NetWorthIQ profile to use just my income and our combined networth (that would make us look like super-duper savers), so I posted with our combined income. I don't think this is deceitful, not that it should really be anyone's concern anyway. I also don't hide the fact that I combine our net worths. I posted several times back in May/June about the work I was doing to combine our finances.

And for the record, Mr. Savvy does pull his weight. I think it is pretty good that a couple in their mid-20s can have investments with a value over $100,000, own their own house, own their cars outright, have no debt outside a mortgage, and manage to save over $2,000 per month for retirement. I think our teamwork makes this possible.

::end rant::

Also, check out Everybody Loves Your Money for some info on the new tags feature in NetWorthIQ.

posted by savvy at 1/20/2006 09:07:00 AM

Comments on "blech!"

 

Anonymous Make Love, Not Debt said ... (10:10 AM) : 

We definately do a combined net-worth. If we'll be married soon, doesn't that also mean a financial union?

 

Blogger savvy saver said ... (10:15 AM) : 

make love, not debt- We combined our networth a few months before out wedding. Looking back, since we were living together it would have made sense to combine them sooner since our net worth growth seemed to pick up steam once we made that move.

I was checking out your blog and love the Him/Her aspect of it!

 

Anonymous Hazzard said ... (10:19 AM) : 

We absolutely do a combined net worth and pool our income. We decided when we got married that we wouldn't try to keep things seperate. So, our numbers are a combination. (My wife isn't working now, but she did in the past)

I'd tell that person that left the comment on NetworthIQ to "stick it". :)
Hazzard

 

Anonymous Ryan Williams said ... (10:25 AM) : 

I agree with the others, if you're married combining net worth makes sense. I believe that's how most do it on the site.

We did add an "income status" question to the profile (you can see it on the My Account page) to clarify this exact situation. You can indicate how many incomes are contributing to your net worth. As soon as we have significant percentage of the user base using it, we'll add it into the display.

 

Anonymous trip said ... (10:29 AM) : 

We combined a few months after we were married six years ago. It helps avoid mistakes because you have to run big financial decisions by your spouse. Teamwork really has its benefits.

 

Blogger savvy saver said ... (10:29 AM) : 

Ryan - thanks for the info, I'll go update my profile right now!

 

Blogger savvy saver said ... (10:30 AM) : 

oops, I guess it was already set to "joint".

 

Blogger SMB said ... (10:31 AM) : 

I asked the same sort of question on another blog and got some pretty strange responses. One person seemed to think I was implying numbers were padded (that bloggers were being deceitful, in other words), and then I was told not to "nickel and dime" my marriage. All I wanted to know was how people in committed relationships calculated net worth! I guess it's a touchy topic, though I still don't understand why.

Anyway, the useful information I did gather was that most people in committed relationships appear to calculate their net worth together. That's how I plan to do it.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (10:52 AM) : 

Hi Savvy,

I think the person who questioned whether the income was joint or not just wanted to know for comparison's sake. After I found out about NetWorthIQ, I noticed they included a new feature allowing someone to specify whether the income was joint or single. I wondered that myself about your profile, but never asked. Of course, I figured from your blog that it probably was joint, but since many people are using NetWorthIQ as a tool to see how they stack up, both savings- and income-wise (for the same or similar professions, that is ), it's helpful to know this.

 

Blogger savvy saver said ... (11:10 AM) : 

anonymous- I do know the first person to comment on our December net worth was just curious. It was the second commenter that got under my skin. I guess you can tell by their name that they know they are a jerk :)

 

Blogger Caitlin said ... (11:39 AM) : 

"I guess you can tell by their name that they know they are a jerk :)"

LOL! How true. I am honestly STUMPED by how to handle our situation. Firstly, we CAN'T marry (at least not in a way recognized by the entire country) and to make it even more complicated, LaLa's income is completely erratic since she freelances (so it would be very hard for me to choose an annual combined salary range at this point)

Last year it was less of an issue since the only thing that I counted in networth that was "ours" was the equity in the house (which we co-own equally, but mortgage has been paid our of my salary since buying it). Since she used her entire income to pay for her business and save for retirement, it made sense not to count it or her personal assets. She did contribute her own funds towards our vacations but this was probably less than 1k all year total.

This year, that's about to change since she will be contributing cash directly to our emergency fund before we go back to retirement savings.

I have been considering creating a new networthIQ profile to better track our combined income/networth. Who would have thought a simple "single or joint" radio button would be so complicated? Ugh.

 

Blogger savvy saver said ... (12:53 PM) : 

Caitlin - I think you can track your net worth however you want to, I wouldn't worry about whether anyone recognizes your relationship or not (look at how many married couples divorce each year, and that doesn't stop them from tracking their net worth together if they want). Whatever works best for you.

It sounds like you indirectly contribute to LaLa's business by paying more of the bills to free up her money for investing, so I think tracking jointly would make sense. But it also makes sense the way you have it.

 

Anonymous Will Kirby said ... (1:16 PM) : 

I think you're doing it correctly. I think you're seeing a little envy from some of the folks at NetWorthIQ!

 

Blogger Amdollar said ... (2:07 PM) : 

Definately have a combined networth... it doenst even make sense to have it any other way. My wife and I look at our finances together and make decisions on all of our money, so why not have it combined?? The person on networthiq was just being a pain.. *ignored*

 

Blogger Cap said ... (7:30 PM) : 

I also think its pretty damn hot that a couple in their mid 20s can pull that off.

but hey, the preson that commented is named douche.

 

Blogger mapgirl said ... (7:54 PM) : 

Hi Savvy,

Sorry to hear about the crappy comment. If it makes you feel any better, I got one today too that sent me totally through the roof.

I think if a person is married, then s/he should report net worth jointly unless they signed some sort of pre-nup or really do have legally separate assets. That only makes sense because when one spouse dies, the other spouse inherits the estate, etc. It really is jointly held. And screw the NetWorthIQ poster for saying it's impossible for you to earn upwards of $90K in WI. They know nothing about you!

 

Anonymous Jonathan said ... (1:15 PM) : 

Also combined here. There will always be mean people on the internet. Who cares? I could just as easily go around saying my net worth is $88,553,343. It's not like we're faxing in bank statements.

I don't like comparing net worths in general. It's like grade school all over again - mine is better than yours, nyah nyah nyah... Nuh-uh, you cheated! Which is one reason why I don't use NetWorthIQ.

 

Blogger Flexo said ... (12:09 PM) : 

I'm with Jonathan. I'm not married, but the reason I post my networth is for personal reasons, not to be compared with other people.

 

Blogger Brian said ... (3:16 PM) : 

That's rather optimistic of you. I also track on a combined basis. If the worse happens, it seems more realistic to divde your joint net worth by 2 rather than to assume you are going to keep what was originally yours.

 

post a comment

Links to "blech!"

Create a Link