I have calculated my Net Worth every New Year’s Day since 1988.
My financial Net Worth on 1/1/2023 is 1.4% higher than my Net Worth on 1/1/2022. Talk about skin of my teeth! As DH pointed out, the real value is lower due to high inflation.
I don’t include my home in my financial Net Worth because I count it as “One House Unit.” If I sold it I would just have to buy a different house in a similar market.
How did you’all do in the rather horrible investing year of 2022?
Wendy
My losses mimic the QQQ at roughly 33% down for 2022. 
I’m down about 6.6%. On the other hand, I am cash flow positive. Have not touched a nickle of divi income, and, seems I have not touched the IRA distribution, covering all current expenses from my SS check alone.
And good news! The Gov was laying out her plans for the year when she was sworn in for her second term yesterday. On the to-do list for Q1 is repeal the income tax on pension and IRA distributions. This was one of the taxes imposed by the previous Gov to help pay for his two rounds of tax cuts for the “JCs”. As the old gerrymandered voting districts were replaced with a map designed to be competitive, the Michigan House and Senate have both flipped, for the first time in nearly 40 years, so the Gov has a very good chance of getting the pension tax repeal through.
Steve
Honestly it is not that much cash but there is no point to sorting out whether it is up or down in value.
The value today is not the point. The investments in the future for the next decade plus are the point.
I am aching to get into game development. I have a marketing project for the next two weeks for my first artworks. There is money in both but perhaps a small fortune in the game.
down 32% across all accounts. Ouch, lol.
Thanks for the fixed income investment info on I-bonds and Tips this past year, was able to put a chunk of money out of basically 0% accounts and get a higher yield.
( and before any scolds respond with how I-bonds and other fixed incomes investments are losing ground to inflation, am well aware of that. They are losing less than if the money was in the 0.xx% ( now more than that, of course ) accounts. Have approximately 5-7 years of cash withdraws out of harms way, so have not had to do any “panic” selling )
Absolutely the best investment is in your own earning power!
Wishing you the best success,
Wendy
P.S. Get paid in real USDs, not crypto. 
How old are you, @steve203 ? I thought you were under 70, not over 72.
Wendy
I am 69, and a few months. I started conventional IRA distributions at 59 1/2. My reasoning is, the less there is in the IRA, the smaller the RMDs will be, when they become required. Smaller RMDs will keep me in a lower tax bracket. Right now, between IRA distribution, cash account divi income, and SS income, I am barely below the level where my Medicare premium would increase. By bleeding money out of the IRA, I can leave all the loot in the cash account, where the divis are taxed at a lower rate, vs living off the divis, while the IRA piles up, which is all taxed as earned income.
Of course, I never anticipated the state tax, 4.25%, on my IRA distributions being repealed. The previous Gov enacted that tax just in time to snag me.
Of course, 20/20 hindsight says I should have converted the IRA to a Roth, the moment that option became available, before the IRA cracked six digits. Never anticipated the stack would be where it is now.
Steve
I have been gradually converting my Traditional to a Roth IRA since the 2017 tax law passed.
Wendy
It was not our typical year. We sold our primary residence and purchased a new one.
There were some not insignificant costs associated with those transactions.
All of our income was investment income, since my wife and I are both retired as of 3 years ago and we are still too young for Social Security.
Net worth decreased 14%.
Investment returns -11%.
Could be worse.
On the positive side, dividend income increased 24% compared to 2021.
We are close to the point where we could live reasonably well on the dividend stream, assuming it is sustainable and continues to grow. Our distributions are currently below 4% of our retirement portfolio, so I will try not to be too concerned about market gyrations.
What is the point now? Being my age, you are past the growth stage, and into maintenance of principle. Isn’t converting now, taxwise, the same as taking distributions? The time to convert was twenty years ago, when it was fiddling small change, so the growth until now would be tax-free.
Steve
ditto and thanks plus 20
I run my numbers at the end of each year using Quicken. Our home is included in our overall net worth which I update 2x / year based on the average of our Town’s appraised value, Zillow Zestimate and RedFin Estimated Selling Price. I also include our vehicles in our Net Worth which I update every year using KBB Blue Book Value for current mileage and our zip code.
Net Worth With All Assets increased 3.1%
Net Worth w/o Home decreased 1.4%
Net Worth w/o Home / Autos decreased 1.9%
'38Packard
→ it’s easy to keep track of all your asset present values using Quicken!
Twenty years ago I was working so my income was higher.
We are the same age, true. I am into maintenance of principal although I also would like some growth.
I foresee two scenarios.
I need the money in the future and will be able to withdraw it tax-free.
I die and the money is then inherited by my husband if he outlives me or by a non-spouse beneficiary (e.g. siblings or nephews). This is where the impact of the Roth would be superior to the Traditional IRA. If you inherit a Roth IRA, it is completely tax-free if the Roth IRA was held for at least five years, starting Jan. 1 of the tax year for which the first Roth IRA contribution was made. I started my Roth IRA decades ago. My heirs would not be forced to make Minimum Required Distributions the way they would with a Traditional IRA.
Wendy
My net worth is down 4.3%, BUT I do include real estate equity. Investment accounts are down quite a bit more than that.
Pretty horrible. But I haven’t run all the final numbers yet. I’d guess somewhere between -10 to -15%. I worked until September at which time I retired (not my choice, I planned to work for another 3-5 years). So I had earned income in 2022. I also will have earned income in 2023 from deferred wages and from severance.
Now the big issue is that interest rates have risen rapidly which has put me into a terrible tax position causing me great loss net of inflation. Since I will have very large expenses for the next 6 years (until last college kid graduates and I become eligible for medicare), I keep a very large amount of liquid cash (money market, 4/8-week bills, 13/26-week bills, and recently some relatively short-term TIPS). When interest rates were near zero, the tax effect was minimal, and I was satisfied with losing 1.5-2% a year due to inflation. But suddenly the interest paid has ballooned to very large sums. Now I get 4+% interest on most of it, but being in the 35% marginal tax bracket (this year, and probably also next year) means that I earn gross 4%, pay 1.4% in tax, net is 2.6%, and inflation eats 6.5% or so of it. That leaves me with a -3.9% loss after inflation. That is more than twice as bad as previously. And to add insult to injury, it causes all sorts of phaseouts and additional taxes on capital gains and dividends. So this whole bout of inflation and higher rates has really hurt me. It is also why I am always so puzzled by the jubilation among many I see over these 4% CDs (“rates”).
When I think interest rates have peaked, and I may have missed it but probably not, I will consider setting up a fixed income ladder for 6 years of expenses so i can leave all my equity investments alone during that period. After 6 years quite a few of the large expenses will disappear. Second kid will complete graduate school in '24, Third kid will complete college in '24 and may go to graduate school, fourth and fifth kids (twins) will complete college in '28. So come summer '28 I expect my expenses to drop by 60-70%. Then I will recalculate what a safe withdrawal rate will be from that point on.
I don’t include my house in any calculation. My house is an expense, not an investment, and plenty of things keep going wrong that incur more and more expense as the years go by.
That was the narrative we were fed when IRAs became a thing "your income will be lower in retirement, so, when you take your distributions, you will be in a lower tax bracket, than when you took the deduction for the contributions…except it has not worked out like that for me.
Steve
Your home is definitely part of your net worth. It affects your life style as well as your expenses. In addition, there is nothing that says you have to replace your present home with a similar one. For example, you could down-size in the same town or move to a lower cost area and get twice the house for half the price (which my niece did).
DB2
Wow, @MarkR, you are an amazing dad! I hope that next year is less stressful for you!
Wendy
I’m just a regular dad. Yes, I pay for everything (no student loans at all so far), but that is only a [small] part of being a dad.