I think it’s dangerous if you include your home in your net worth and use its value as an excuse to skimp on other investments (stocks, bonds, investment real estate, limited partnerships, etc.)

For instance, having a $200k home with $800k in other financial investments is a much safer position to be in than a $1,000,000 home with $0 in other investments. Under both scenarios, you’d still be able to call yourself a millionaire.

It’s too late for me start up on borrowing to invest in real estate. I’ll save that for later.

There are financial benefits to being organized. How long does it take to put a book on a bookshelf or a bottle of aspirin in the medicine cabinet? You’ll spend far more time looking for or replacing these items than you would if you just put them somewhere you could find them. Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done.

@Ashley. Thanks. I just read on Bargaineering that Citi will no longer offer automatic travel insurance. I know we were talking about checking accounts, but I think it’s worth mentioning since a) they’re a bank and b) we have to watch them. I really hope I don’t have to cancel my HHonors American Express. We’ll see how they behave in the coming months.

Thanks for the break down of Liz’s article, jk! We all know the banks are just trying to get over. It’s our job to make sure we don’t let them or if we feel we’re getting the short end of the stick, to take our business elsewhere.

Okay, now I’m curious..! =)

About home value, it seems a bit odd to me to not include that in our net worth. We could always sell it and move to a smaller place, or a less attractive neighborhood, right?

To me, real estate can be just as good an investment as stocks or bonds. Couldn’t we in fact get a higher gearing on real estate since it’s much easier to get substantial loans for that?

What do you think Shawanda, should we include it or not?

By nature I’m a very disorganized person. But I think post #5 is rather about whether we should spend some of our time (finding stuff that is missing in this case) or our money.

The value of time in terms of money is an outstanding challenge. How much more would we spend on flying instead of taking the bus? Depends on the distance, right? Time spent on the road.

Belated happy birthday! Hope you got tons of love on your birthday week =)