The Mom Weekly Volume 99: July 1, 2025
You can read this, or any other previous Mom Weeklies, by going to the home page here.
Notes:
Because of the rather spontaneous travel that some of us are doing this week, it made the most sense to me to expand on the action item for this week: Update your net worth. I hope you take a moment to make a simple (or complicated) spreadsheet with your info. Once you get it started, it’s a breeze to update your numbers once a quarter.
Give it a try!
Remember how much I love you,
Mom
Time to Update Your Net Worth (Mom’s Occasional Money Advice)
Yesterday was the end of Quarter 2 of the year, so it’s time to update your net worth!
Here is my regular pitch for this:
This may take slightly longer this first time, if you have not done so. But I promise you, over time, you will be happy that you do this.
The reason I hesitated is that, especially for younger people, it could be pretty likely you have a negative net worth, largely because of student loans. But that’s will be so temporary (over the long haul!) that you should not be discouraged by it.
When people begin to track their net worth, they call it “getting back to zero” when they have a zero net worth. That may not seem promising, but it’s a great accomplishment for those who have paid off a significant amount of debt, whether student loan debt, credit card debt, or other types of debt.
And it can be very encouraging to see an improvement in your net worth over time.
Here is a super-simple net worth calculator spreadsheet I put together. There’s no formatting with cool colors and such, but it works and completes the calculations for you. Let me know what you think about it!
A couple of notes:
*Make your own spreadsheet or list. Unfortunately, Google Sheets does not allow password-protecting of items. I prefer to keep this information, and most of my spreadsheets, in a format I can password protect. Think Microsoft Excel, Apple’s Numbers, etc. You can even do this on paper if you want, and store it somewhere safe.
*There are two “sheets” in the shared spreadsheet — the first is a blank one, and the second is a sample with random numbers that I have included. I have added in pretend numbers to the sample sheet, so you can see how the numbers change over time.
*Sometimes people do not add in their vehicles or mortgages. I do, because you can see how much equity you have in the house or vehicle. But I mentally don’t include them the same weight as other assets, since they are not liquid and it’s not likely one would sell them for living expenses, in retirement or not.
Interesting/Notable:
Are weighted vests worth the hype? WSJ (gift article)
Not for the first time do I point out that I am often ahead of the trend! I have known about “rucking” and weighted workouts since 2010 when I chatted for a bit during the Royal Parks Half Marathon with two British servicemen who were wearing weighted rucksacks and completing the half-marathon that way. Impressive!
Two or so years ago, I purchased a 12-pound weighted vest at Aldi’s specials aisle, and have used it off and on for walks and hikes. This spring, I got a little more serious about it, and I now have a 20-pound and a 30-pound weighted vest. It increases my heart rate and effort level for any walk from not much to really challenging!
I also find that I can lift weights easier when I attend a weight lifting class, and that I walk faster when I’m not wearing one of the vests. They have been really worthwhile investments!