Happy New Year(Net Worth Statement Time)

[jIM_Ohio]

Along these lines. I've heard that a pension should not be counted as part of your net worth. Can anyone explain that or is that just a rumor?

I would not include it as net worth because
a) the pension is not yours- it belongs to the entity which is paying you a portion of the pension per month.
b) the pension goes away when you or spouse dies
c) it is not a tangible thing you own (not shares, not property, not anything else).

[disneysteve]

I've heard that a pension should not be counted as part of your net worth.

I agree with Jim. A pension is not an asset that you own. That would be like counting your future Social Security benefits in your net worth since that is a government pension.

[GREENBACK]

That makes sense. I always look at my statement and my pay stub and see what I have and wonder about it but that explains a lot.

[feh]

I see our net worth every month when I pay bills - I use Quicken to track all our assets. Portfolio value gets updated over the web, so I don't need to see monthly or quarterly statements to view the recent carnage.

[Like2Plan]

I agree with Jim. A pension is not an asset that you own. That would be like counting your future Social Security benefits in your net worth since that is a government pension.

I think it depends on the pension (granted-there are different rules for different pension plans). Most of the pensions I am familiar with you pay a percentage of your salary into it. If you leave the company before you are eligible to retire you may be permitted to keep the money on account and take a deferred pension or you could take out your contributions in a lump sum.
If you pass away before you get a chance to collect the pension, your beneficiary gets your contributions (unless they are eligible for a survivor benefit).
While you may not get to count your future benefits in net worth, I think you could count your employee contributions if you are in a pension plan from which you can take a lump sum distribution (if you left before qualifying for a pension) ....

[TBH]

Bleh. Mine went down $14,823 in 2009, mostly in our retirement accounts.

I track it monthly, here:
TBH household net worth

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Same net worth, which is depressing considering I saved about $40k.