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Part 5 of the lessons I revisited from the 2008 stock market correction is coming, however, as I reviewed my October statements earlier this week, I felt it was important to convey these thoughts sooner rather than later. Have your October brokerage and mutual fund statements all arrived? While it may seem like Halloween all over again, you should make time to review them. Unless you were short the stock market over the past few months, or have most of your assets in cash equivalents or another investment not correlated with the stock market, your net worth is probably significantly lower. This is a good time to update your net worth spreadsheet for several reasons. It is important to control the factors that you can with regard to your assets. While there are many factors you cannot control, such as the direction of the stock market, you can control the amount of money you have placed in the various asset classes and how you choose to manage your investments. Knowing your options and exactly where you stand financially provides current information on those things you can control, and this is mandatory for moving forward.
Updating your net worth spreadsheet will require that you focus on each item that you revise. This will lead you to evaluate your earlier choices. While I am certainly not promoting selling stocks now, such huge moves in most assets classes call you to evaluate your previous decisions to see if any portfolio changes should be made based on the significant movements in the financial markets.
If you have not yet downloaded the free portfolio spreadsheet on TheFinancialWoman.com, do so now. Make time to complete it with your own data so that it reflects where you currently stand. You must first know where you are before you know where you want to be. Be accountable. Accountability invites achievement of your financial goals.