What do you measure and why?

george4064

Im probably very basic compared to others.

Regarding my S&S ISA I take a snapshot each month to calculate the month end unit price for my portfolio fund, by unitisation. I use this to calculate performance of my portfolio as a whole.

I keep a loose eye on my 2 current accounts, occasionally dripping new money into S&S ISA.

Reading other posts, i should probably include my bank balances info in my portfolio unitisation spreadsheet. As i get older, get a mortgage etc im sure ill improve my spreadsheet to track more things.

Flobberchops

I have a single spreadsheet where I record the year's income, regular outgoings, saving account balances, investments, and a jumble of other reminders, figures and milestones.

With todays always-on internet technology, it should be possible to have a unified document where balances across several different banks and investments are shown up-to-the-minute, right? Does anybody know if this exists? I suppose what I'm describing is a portfolio app but for current and savings account balances too.

KNJ_2

ChesterDog wrote: »

One is my Balance Sheet, listing all current fixed and liquid assets; house, vehicles,

Neither house nor car is an asset, both are expenses

Ken68

Hi Racing Blue.... I do the usual monthly statement of assets, though also thinking about "lost" revenue...as in having two spare bedrooms, so, say, £100 a week each ....income not being realised.
Also have never calculated the costs of selling e.g. house, shares etc, so my final figure is never final.

TheTracker

A monthly balance check of everything that I put in a ROI spreadsheet to keep tracks of returns. Also use this as a net worth calculator - I do not include my house in my net worth. I compare this with a crude estimate I made some years ago. The spreadsheet shows my investment holdings, every transaction (not many), and most importantly the OCF.

A yearly P&L that I use to determine how much dividends to take from my company and how much money to put in EIS and generally a tracker of net after tax income.

ChesterDog

KNJ wrote: »

ChesterDog wrote: »

One is my Balance Sheet, listing all current fixed and liquid assets; house, vehicles,

Neither house nor car is an asset, both are expenses

Why do you say that?

Both incur expenses of course, and those - together with their purchase prices - are recorded in my P&L account.

But each is an asset (a Fixed Asset is what I regard them as), sellable and with a book value.

Surely anything purchased or acquired and not immediately consumed is an asset?

AndyT678

KNJ wrote: »

ChesterDog wrote: »

One is my Balance Sheet, listing all current fixed and liquid assets; house, vehicles,

Neither house nor car is an asset, both are expenses

Whilst that's a useful mantra for those tempted to borrow money to buy things they can't really afford it's not true from an accounting perspective. Cars and houses definitely have a value and they definitely count as fixed assets.

Having said that, I used to exclude both from my numbers but then I added in my mortgage since it's the biggest liability that I have and once I did that it made no sense to exclude the corresponding asset. Cars I still exclude, mostly through laziness and because I'm not sure what benefit I'd add by including them.

AndyT678

oldfella wrote: »

Interesting that you choose to focus on cashflow. Is that comment serious or just being flippant with Dickens?

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you might think differently if you were a pensioner, its important that I dont run down total cash available

Perhaps I might although your approach seems conservative and means that you will continue to accumulate wealth for the remainder of your life. If that's your goal then great but shouldn't you measure your progress? Equally you could also say that it's important to run down total cash available in a managed and predictable way so that it doesn't fully deplete in your lifetime.

Thrugelmir

AndyT678 wrote: »

Interesting that you choose to focus on cashflow. Is that comment serious or just being flippant with Dickens? (

Turnover is vanity, Profit is sanity but cash is always king.

Liquidating balance sheets often results in a disappointing outcome. More so if it's a fire sale.

AndyT678

ChesterDog wrote: »

One is my Balance Sheet, listing all current fixed and liquid assets; house, vehicles,

Why do you say that?

Both incur expenses of course, and those - together with their purchase prices - are recorded in my P&L account.

But each is an asset (a Fixed Asset is what I regard them as), sellable and with a book value.

Surely anything purchased or acquired and not immediately consumed is an asset?

Technically if you're putting the full purchase price through the P&L then you've fully expensed the cost and the book value is 0.

The more usual treatment is to create an asset for the purchase price (cr cash, dr fixed assets) and put a depreciation charge through the P&L (cr fixed assets, dr P&L).