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Why do bloggers track their net worth?

After writing yesterday about my net worth, I was curious about how many others out there might be doing the same thing, and why. So as I usually do when I’m curious about something, I did a quick bit of research. I found this: The Ultimate List of Blogger Net Worth. It was last updated only a couple days ago (as of this writing), so it’s pretty up to date.

My favorite part about the personal finance community is how *open* everyone is with their money. They’re not ashamed to list any and all debts they have, and of course they’re not too afraid to post up their savings either 😉

This is relatively true, in regards to how open people are about their finances. It’s like an unwritten rule (or maybe it’s written somewhere and I haven’t found it yet) that you’re just not supposed to talk to anyone but your accountant about your financial situation.

I had a great deal of hesitation too, about engaging in full disclosure about my financial situation. When things were bad I had a sense of embarrassment about being my situation so I didn’t really want to talk about it. And when things are looking good, I worried about some people thinking I was bragging or something. Either way, I almost didn’t write anything. What changed my mind was that it was something I already started on my blog almost a decade ago, but which was discontinued. I just made the decision to continue it again, and was particularly motivated by the fact that things are certainly looking good now.

But why do some of those bloggers our there do it? I decided to have a random look at some of those blogs and see what they’re saying. I was curious if they’re running blogs dedicated to talking about their net worth, or if they’re doing what I do, which is just talking about their net worth in the context of everything else in my blog (it’s about my journey, and my net worth and financial growth is part of that journey).

I found that most of them are dedicated to the ongoing analysis of their net worth and financial situation, and nothing else. That’s all they wrote about.

 

Down near the bottom of the page I found this: Why 185 Bloggers Are Sharing Their Net Worth

This guy is more into analysis than I am!

After working in finance & accounting for several years now, whenever I see a set of numbers or data, I feel a strong compulsion to put them into a chart. The ultimate list of blogger net worth was no exception. I was scrolling through it one day, and my financial analyst inclinations got the best of me.

It’s quite interesting to read what he found. The median net worth of these bloggers was $167,000. Apparently the median net worth of all people in the US is only $67,000 so bloggers are more wealthy. At least the ones writing about their net worth…

He found that there’s a lot of different reasons many of these bloggers publicise their net worth journey, and some of them include:

  1. Transparency about not being perfect
  2. Recording a journey to financial freedom
  3. Saving and increasing net worth is motivating
  4. Teaching their children about money
  5. Achieving financial freedom

I think #2 is the reason I do it. Financial freedom is my ultimate goal. The ability to do anything I want and go anywhere I want (within reason), without having to worry about where the money is coming from, and without being tied down to any one location to earn the money from a job.

Freedom. That’s my goal. That’s what I’m tracking.


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