There are a lot of changes to my balance sheet this month. Most significantly, my fiance and I are combining our finances. So I wanted to create this balance sheet with our combined finances as of August 31st. All of our accounts are not physically combined; this will be happening over the next year.
To limit the overall impact on my balance sheet I have made some adjustments to smooth out the transition’s impact on my net worth. Here are the two adjustments I made:
- I had a total of $6,000 saved for a new car. I have taken this off of my balance sheet because I expect to close the deal on a car in the next two days. More details on that to come soon.
- I created a liability for the wedding equal to the money that I’ve saved for it. I’ve long debated on whether this should be included in my net worth without a liability for it and I figure now is the best time to add that liability. The reason is because I expect to spend this money in the next year and I don’t want the wedding day to cause a catastrophic hit to my net worth. So money will continue to be saved for the wedding, but it won’t add to my net worth.
I realize that this approach strays from being a cash-basis balance sheet, but I think it’s a better representation and it evens out the effects from combining our finances. In fact, with this representation, our combined net worth with these adjustments is about the same as mine before.
I expect September to be a big month because we will both be earning a paycheck during the month. I will also be receiving my raise at work during September, so that will also help out.
To see more of my analysis regarding my current balance sheet and goals for the remainder of the year, check out my post about combining our finances before marriage.
