Every Monday is Intents and Purchases day at Living Behind the Curve.

On Sunday morning, I decided to run a little experiment to see what we are actually worth. Armed with my online account logins and this net worth workbook from Consumerism Commentary, I sat down with a cup of coffee and got to it.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that even with 100% financing on the house we bought a year ago, two car loans, credit card debt, and student loan debt, we have a positive net worth. It may only be $5721 - but it’s still positive!

A few notes about how I calculated this:

• Car values are included here, which is a bit non-traditional, depending on the methods you use. I used estimated private sale values from Edmunds.
• I did not include other assets, like computers or jewelry.

Now we can use this information to set goals, and incorporate them with the goals we already have.

Goals for the month of June: Increase net worth by 25%. (This may seem like a lot, but it’s really only an increase of $1430.25. Those big jumps are easy when your net worth is low. We would be targeting closer to 40%, but we’ll be buying Mer a new laptop this month. We’ll also complete a rough three-year financial plan, to take us up through my college graduation.

Goals for the remainder of 2007: Increase net worth by 300% (from May numbers). This will be a challenge, considering we will both be taking classes (and therefore incurring some student loan debt) in the fall. Finish paying off all credit card debt. Hit the $10k mark in my 401(k).

Building our net worth and getting our financial ducks in a row is a big part of the process for us as we move toward a simpler life. It’s amazing to be out from under (most) of our credit card debt, and I can’t wait for the day that we are completely free from it. I think one of the best decisions we made was to start building a small emergency fund at the same time as we are paying down our debt - having that security now, and building on it once the debt is gone, will allow us to break from the balance-carrying cycle, and move on to other, more interesting debts, like investment properties. At least, that’s the plan.