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Are folks including the worth of their home in net worth?
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Are folks including the worth of their home in net worth?
I do. I think most do. But you can calculate it any way you like. It's not a contest between different people, only a contest between you and your financial goals.Helping those who wear the white coat get a fair shake on Wall Street since 2011Comment
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Are folks including the worth of their home in net worth?
In net worth, you should. It's an asset. Of course, you should subtract the value of the mortgage, if you carry mortgage debt.
On the other hand, I do not include the value of my primary home when counting my retirement assets, i.e. the money I plan to live on.Comment
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Are folks including the worth of their home in net worth?
In net worth, you should. It’s an asset. Of course, you should subtract the value of the mortgage, if you carry mortgage debt.
On the other hand, I do not include the value of my primary home when counting my retirement assets, i.e. the money I plan to live on.
Ha, maybe I should get married. My fiance's condo is worth a lot
. Otherwise I'm still negative net worth.
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I think net worth includes everything minus any debts. Some stuff is hard to put a number on it. I own some antique porcelain, furniture, etc that I don't include because it is hard to value it. I use home and other property values because Zillow makes it easy to put a number on it. I recognize that number may be way off. I usually think in terms of financial net worth. That is the value of stocks, bonds, retirement accounts etc. this should be a very easy to obtain number and accurate.Comment
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Do you include your pre-tax 401k as is? Or do you factoring in how much it will be taxed when the amount comes out?Comment
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I would have a hard time taking financial advice from a blogger with a net worth of $100,000. It’s a little unfair because certainly a newly minted MBA or CFA or CFP could teach me plenty. But I trust people more who have already accomplished what I want to accomplish. And of course, I trust docs more. That was WCI’s brilliant insight: that combining credibility in both finance and medicine was a viable business idea.
Yes WCI had the insight to recognize the need. For sure. And that may have not been common. But I thought of it before he did and I doubt I was alone. Ideas are common and cheap. WCI has executed masterfully though and he continues to improve. It has been amazing to watch. His skill set is vast and rare. Just a few of the things that come to mind: although he makes a lot of money it isn't his sole goal, he is open and transparent with his income and methods - more so than most of us feel comfortable, he spends hundreds (thousands?) of hours a year on the blog, he has attention to detail, he writes often and flawlessly, he wrote and self-published a great book on the same topic, he is willing to travel and speak, he encourages other physicians to learn and grow, he is open to new ideas but has thick enough skin to not get too upset when others don't agree, he built the forum which allows us to help each other, he never seems to sit on his laurels even though most humans would by now, he continues to practice medicine and spend time with his family which gives him experience and energy outside this blog which helps it to continue, he has mastered the web technology (which still baffles me and others), he understands income taxes, he runs his company with a focus on the bottom line. OK. I will stop now. I don't want him to lose all his humility and he most likely is reading this. My point isn't just to praise WCI, although he deserves that 100%, it is also to point out how extremely difficult it is to create a business like this. 900K doesn't just fall out of the sky when you put up a good business/medicine webpage. It requires a ton of knowledge, passion, dedication, and a rare complement of diverse skills.
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I would have a hard time taking financial advice from a blogger with a net worth of $100,000. It’s a little unfair because certainly a newly minted MBA or CFA or CFP could teach me plenty. But I trust people more who have already accomplished what I want to accomplish. And of course, I trust docs more. That was WCI’s brilliant insight: that combining credibility in both finance and medicine was a viable business idea.
Yes WCI had the insight to recognize the need. For sure. And that may have not been common. But I thought of it before he did and I doubt I was alone. Ideas are common and cheap. WCI has executed masterfully though and he continues to improve. It has been amazing to watch. His skill set is vast and rare. Just a few of the things that come to mind: although he makes a lot of money it isn’t his sole goal, he is open and transparent with his income and methods – more so than most of us feel comfortable, he spends hundreds (thousands?) of hours a year on the blog, he has attention to detail, he writes often and flawlessly, he wrote and self-published a great book on the same topic, he is willing to travel and speak, he encourages other physicians to learn and grow, he is open to new ideas but has thick enough skin to not get too upset when others don’t agree, he built the forum which allows us to help each other, he never seems to sit on his laurels even though most humans would by now, he continues to practice medicine and spend time with his family which gives him experience and energy outside this blog which helps it to continue, he has mastered the web technology (which still baffles me and others), he understands income taxes, he runs his company with a focus on the bottom line. OK. I will stop now. I don’t want him to lose all his humility and he most likely is reading this. My point isn’t just to praise WCI, although he deserves that 100%, it is also to point out how extremely difficult it is to create a business like this. 900K doesn’t just fall out of the sky when you put up a good business/medicine webpage. It requires a ton of knowledge, passion, dedication, and a rare complement of diverse skills.
No it certainly does not. And while I think it is much less of a hurdle to be a good writer and bring a blog about that adds value to people...that doesnt always translate into profits, and most of the time if it does its small. There are definitely a lot of other business wrangling things going on, affiliate deals, books, talks, etc...that the average blog will just not be able to convert into a stable stream of income. Thats particularly impressive to me.
I have an interesting (to me) book/blog idea that I've considered, but it doesnt really have these obvious (maybe they never are) tie ins to generate income. This level is definitely rare.Comment
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@PoF: LOVE the microbrewery idea! Missing Garrison Keillor dearly. Wish we lived back in Midwest again instead of HCOL Coastal SoCal, but alas our choice! It's pretty cool that you guys put it out there as bloggers and appreciate that. ?: What is backup emergency fund -- Total US stock? We keep a Municipal Bond fund (cali income tax 9%) in our taxable account as our immediate access fund (aside for unused HELOC). How often do you move funds in the taxable to reset for tax harvest and which funds do you use?Comment
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Eh not so rare for established blogs. His ranking on google alone brings tons of traffic. First to market and then readership increase due to speaking gigs and most of all the ebook he published. There is a formula of sorts and affiliate deals he seeks kinda sell themselves. He has helped a ton but let's not pretend that at the core this is content marketing at its best on different media channels. Takes a ton of work. Finance, health (his neighbor dad trying), fashion are ever green ideas. Combine that with physicians sucking at finance. Perfect storm.
This CAN be done, it's just few are willing to put in work and weather the zero revenue years.
See PoF as an example of execution of similar idea ... anonymously no less.Comment
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WCI’s networth is an estimation or is that real?
There’s an old saying that if you can pinpoint your net worth to the penny, you must not be that rich. You tell me what WCI and my house are worth and I’ll tell you my net worth. Everything is an estimate really, including the value of the stocks and bonds in my index funds.
To be fair, when I did that survey, I said the following when asked my net worth:
“Depends on the value of the website, probably somewhere between $4 and $6 Million.”
They apparently split the difference. At most this website may be worth $3.5 Million. At the least, it’s worth a million. And of course 25% of that disappears to long term capital gains taxes. Of course, some portion of my retirement accounts doesn’t really belong to me either. Nor do those UTMAs, Roth IRAs, and 529s for my kids. I’m certainly a multi-millionaire, but which million is a little hard to say.
The really interesting thing about that list, however, is just how many financial bloggers there are with a net worth under $100K. There are really two types, I suppose. Type # 1 has “been there and done that” and can teach you how to do it too. Type # 2 is asking you to “walk with me while I learn about finance and build wealth.” Both can be useful depending on where you are at in life.
I think I’d lose a lot of credibility if I didn’t have a rapidly growing net worth at this point in my life. We basically locked in our lifestyle at what we could afford on a pre-partner salary (a little under $200K) and aside from the occasional big splurge (the boat, the new car last year), save or give the rest. When you’re saving 2/3 of a very good net income, your net worth grows rapidly. When you actually like the work you do and plan to do it indefinitely, then you start realizing the assumptions you started with a decade ago may not apply in retirement. For instance, I never would have guessed I was going to have an estate tax problem. But if I keep working and earning like I have been the last couple of years, we almost surely will. Makes me wish I’d done more Roth 401(k) contributions and conversions back in the 28% bracket. First world problems…
I don’t know that I’ve ever blogged about my net worth (Although I certainly wrote about it in the book), but given that my readers are very well aware of what emergency physician partners make and know exactly what this site makes, and know about what we save and spend each year, it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone. It’s just a math equation.
Can you expand a little on how exactly a site like this is valued. It seems like the main value is you and the content that you generate. If you were to sell it and leave completely, then they would have to replace you with someone else. That alone would probably reduce the value significantly. I suppose probably the best way to extract value would be to sell and stay on for a few years, while the replacement can get a couple of years of posts and exposure after which you would fade out. But even then, once you're gone, there's still going to be a drop.
So really the question is that if you're an individual who could produce the type of content that WCI can, how much would you pay to take over vs starting from scratch. I really have no idea. But what does seem unlikely to me is that any of those people would want to cough up 1MM+ to buy this. So at the end of the day, I'm really just left scratching my head. How does one sell something like this site and what type of buyer. I have no doubt that you could get at least a couple of million for the site, I just don't understand why.
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Eh not so rare for established blogs. His ranking on google alone brings tons of traffic. First to market and then readership increase due to speaking gigs and most of all the ebook he published. There is a formula of sorts and affiliate deals he seeks kinda sell themselves. He has helped a ton but let’s not pretend that at the core this is content marketing at its best on different media channels. Takes a ton of work. Finance, health (his neighbor dad trying), fashion are ever green ideas. Combine that with physicians sucking at finance. Perfect storm.
This CAN be done, it’s just few are willing to put in work and weather the zero revenue years.
See PoF as an example of execution of similar idea … anonymously no less.
Yes, but not all topics have great affiliate type deals that can bring in 400k a year themselves. Finance, anything finance does have that opportunity. Health, unsure, etc...they may exist but definitely harder to come by.
The valuation issue is definitely harder as its really tied to the writer. Yes it could go on for some time after a change, but I've never seen a previously successful blog do well after transferring to a writing team when they were originally built around a specific personality. They still produce cash flow, but its definitely a haircut any way you look at it.Comment
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I don’t want him to lose all his humility and he most likely is reading this. My point isn’t just to praise WCI, although he deserves that 100%, it is also to point out how extremely difficult it is to create a business like this. 900K doesn’t just fall out of the sky when you put up a good business/medicine webpage. It requires a ton of knowledge, passion, dedication, and a rare complement of diverse skills.
Thanks for your kind words. You're right that it takes a lot. I was kind of embarrassed to admit how much time I was spending on this before it started making money and I was continually reminded that I could be working additional shifts in the ED and making a lot more money. But I do feel passionately about it and was certainly willing to do it for two years for free.Helping those who wear the white coat get a fair shake on Wall Street since 2011Comment
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WCI’s networth is an estimation or is that real?
There’s an old saying that if you can pinpoint your net worth to the penny, you must not be that rich. You tell me what WCI and my house are worth and I’ll tell you my net worth. Everything is an estimate really, including the value of the stocks and bonds in my index funds.
To be fair, when I did that survey, I said the following when asked my net worth:
“Depends on the value of the website, probably somewhere between $4 and $6 Million.”
They apparently split the difference. At most this website may be worth $3.5 Million. At the least, it’s worth a million. And of course 25% of that disappears to long term capital gains taxes. Of course, some portion of my retirement accounts doesn’t really belong to me either. Nor do those UTMAs, Roth IRAs, and 529s for my kids. I’m certainly a multi-millionaire, but which million is a little hard to say.
The really interesting thing about that list, however, is just how many financial bloggers there are with a net worth under $100K. There are really two types, I suppose. Type # 1 has “been there and done that” and can teach you how to do it too. Type # 2 is asking you to “walk with me while I learn about finance and build wealth.” Both can be useful depending on where you are at in life.
I think I’d lose a lot of credibility if I didn’t have a rapidly growing net worth at this point in my life. We basically locked in our lifestyle at what we could afford on a pre-partner salary (a little under $200K) and aside from the occasional big splurge (the boat, the new car last year), save or give the rest. When you’re saving 2/3 of a very good net income, your net worth grows rapidly. When you actually like the work you do and plan to do it indefinitely, then you start realizing the assumptions you started with a decade ago may not apply in retirement. For instance, I never would have guessed I was going to have an estate tax problem. But if I keep working and earning like I have been the last couple of years, we almost surely will. Makes me wish I’d done more Roth 401(k) contributions and conversions back in the 28% bracket. First world problems…
I don’t know that I’ve ever blogged about my net worth (Although I certainly wrote about it in the book), but given that my readers are very well aware of what emergency physician partners make and know exactly what this site makes, and know about what we save and spend each year, it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone. It’s just a math equation.
Can you expand a little on how exactly a site like this is valued. It seems like the main value is you and the content that you generate. If you were to sell it and leave completely, then they would have to replace you with someone else. That alone would probably reduce the value significantly. I suppose probably the best way to extract value would be to sell and stay on for a few years, while the replacement can get a couple of years of posts and exposure after which you would fade out. But even then, once you’re gone, there’s still going to be a drop.
So really the question is that if you’re an individual who could produce the type of content that WCI can, how much would you pay to take over vs starting from scratch. I really have no idea. But what does seem unlikely to me is that any of those people would want to cough up 1MM+ to buy this. So at the end of the day, I’m really just left scratching my head. How does one sell something like this site and what type of buyer. I have no doubt that you could get at least a couple of million for the site, I just don’t understand why.
There's lots of value in an enterprise such as this. I've got a valuable trademark that I'm defending vigorously from others trying to glom onto it to sell docs insurance. The SEO/advertising value of the site is worth about $78K a month (i.e. if someone just bought the site and redirected all URLs on it to their site that's the equivalent of paying Google $78K a month to get that much traffic). Most of the content is evergreen and will last a long time with no updating.
If I did NOTHING from now until the end of the year the site would still have a mid six figure income. There's real value to that. With a team working on it full-time, it could grow into something 5 times the size (although probably not 50 times the size). So there are certain people in the world who see value there. I recently turned down a very nice 7 figure offer for the site. Many well-known financial sites out there started out as blogs like this one.
The general valuation figures are somewhere between 2 times profit and 5 times revenue. But the idea when buying one is to buy one that you can add something big to with your talents, skills, and work.
If someone comes to me with some ridiculously huge offer, I'd probably sell tomorrow. But if they're only offering me a fair value, I'd like to keep doing this for at least another 5 years and who knows, maybe my daughter will take over when I'm done. At any rate, any sale is going to involve me staying on for a year or two to aid in the transition so it's unlikely I'd ever disappear on you suddenly. At a certain point, something like this becomes a question of "What do I want to do with my life" rather than "how much can I get for this?" Once you have "enough" getting more doesn't really change things much.Helping those who wear the white coat get a fair shake on Wall Street since 2011Comment
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Kudos WCI. Do what you want and when you want--including this (your) website. My sister sold her company to a larger corporation and stayed on a year to transition administrative functions and teach the 'look and feel' of her company.
It would be great if your daughter takes on the spectre, but remember, like a small business, the progeny may not have the same desires and drive despite the financial benefits.
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