Please also feel free to check out and comment on my staff writer post, 5 Criteria for My Future Car, at Sweating the Big Stuff today! 
For anyone new to BFS, I post a net worth update at the beginning of every month in order to keep myself motivated and to involve BFS readers. Please feel free to ask questions, make suggestions, or even post your net worths too. I am a participant-motivated blogger, so please jump on in.
I calculate our net worth as listed below. I don’t include the value of our possessions, I round down to the nearest hundred for assets, and I round up to the nearest hundred for liabilities. I also don’t include my husband’s pension account since I’m too lazy to keep up with it and it shouldn’t actually matter until he retires.
Assets
1. Cash – $11,200 ($1300 up)
2. Stocks – $16,400 ($400 down)
3. Retirement – $34,900 ($900 down)
4. Home – $130,000 (same)
5. Cars – $16,000 ($2000 up. Here’s something really odd – both of our cars APPRECIATED…my best guess is that gas prices and a bad economy are driving used car prices up for high gas mileage vehicles…needless to say, I was pretty dang surprised)
Liabilities
1. Home – $70,400 (down $600)
Total Net Worth = $138,100 instead of $135,500
Increase/Decrease = Up $2600 from last month
Okay, so crazy car appreciation may not be a great way to grow your net worth, so I’ll be proud of the other $600.
I base the value of our home on two things: comparables selling in our neighborhood and the estimated appraisal by Chase Home Value Estimator. I will always estimate very low.
I base the value of our cars on Kelley Blue Book’s Private Party Value of our vehicles in “Good” condition truncated down to the nearest $1000. For example, if my car is valued at $4600, I’d calculate that as $4000.
Please feel free to visit the archive to see our past net worths.
You did pretty good for the month, especially considering I think the stock market was down 4 percent in August. (At least I think I read that.)
Now you have a reason to like your Aveo since it appreciated!
@Everyday Tips, hahaha, guess I’ll stop cussing in its general direction now.
Mind if I ask what cars your family drives?
@Jenna, hubby drives a Toyota Prius and I drive a Chevy Aveo.
@BFS – Cool. I can see how the Prius can appreciate, not sure about the Aveo.
@Jenna, yeah, I can’t come up with anything either – it’s just weird…
I was also surprised by the increase in my net worth this month. I had thought the stock market would have taken care of that, but I’m still up for the month. I went from $21,063 in July to $22,228 in August, a difference of $1,165. Anything positive works for me.
@MikeS, yep, that’s why I was happy too!
Nice increase! I’m down due to certain suprise expenses (car work and the need for a new lawnmower), and my investment accounts got pummeled!
I’m off to read your other post now
Hah I love the cars appreciating
I just finished calculating my net worth a few minutes ago — it’s a good exercise and way of paying attention at least once a month to all the money areas.
Hi Crystal, A good way to view a decline in stock prices is that it’s an opportunity to BUY at lower prices. As long as you’re not cashing out, don’t worry about it and keep the course.
So you’re focusing on beefing up your cash savings right now, eh? Do you have a goal amount for that? You guys are doing great!
I admit I don’t pay much attention to my net worth number. I track it on mint.com, but I don’t update the numbers I’m responsible for on a regular basis: i.e. car values, etc. We don’t have fuel-efficient cars, generally speaking, so I don’t gather ours are appreciating. I’m just glad they’re paid off.
I hope you’ll link up this post on my Financial Updates linky-linky on my blog tomorrow!
@Money Reasons, pop up expenses kick our butts some months too. I’ll cross my fingers for your investments this month too.
@Jackie, yeah, the cars were pretty surprising. Hope your net worth ended up in the green for the month too.
@Barb, oh yes, Mr. BFS and I don’t really worry about our losses since we do have at least 25 years before it will even matter. It’s just annoying when you have to broadcast your losses to the world once a month.
@Jolyn, we’re aiming to get our emergency fund back up to $5000 before we even think about a 2nd Roth IRA – that goal should be reached by mid-September. Then we’ll be splitting our emergency fund money between a 2nd Roth IRA and the actual fund until it hits $10,000. After that, the fund contributions will be minimal until the 2nd Roth IRA is fully funded for the year – I have no idea what we’ll do after that.