Keeping your balance sheet updated

As people who are bothered about our personal finance there is one metric that you should bother about.... What are the numbers in your balance sheet.

First I find that a lot of people in the salaried class do not have a balance sheet. Businessmen mostly have that and a lot of them have these small books which have even the black balance sheets available !

For a salaried class they should create and maintain a balance sheet which shows and maintain the status of all of their investments.

For investments this would mean all of the below

All stocks and shares with their present value

All mutual funds calculated for their present value ( debt and equity)

Any ppf or epf

Any money lying in bank accounts ( all accounts!)

Any fds with any banks

Any loans given to anyone ( friends and family or even faircent p2p platforms)

Any real estate with present value ( apartments , land etc)

Any investment bonds ( NcDs etc)

Any jewellery

Any loans taken for which emi is being paid

All of these together will add up to your balance sheet.

Keeping these in a list is great for a few things

1. Ensuring you know your true networth
2. Ensuring you have a consolidated list which ensures that in case of any emergency your family is well protected in at least knowing what is left behind

Make a balance sheet.. it's the first step to having a simplefinancialsense