Review of NetworthIQ: Track, Share, and Compare Your Net Worth

Recently, Jason of The Amatureist Financial Journey referred me to a site called NetworthIQ. On his recommendation, I gave it a try and I must say that I am impressed. To keep it short, here are the things I liked about NetworthIQ:

• Easy to track my net worth from month to month
• I can compare my performance against 5,000+ other users
• Great discussion forums about money and personal finance

When you get to the site, the sign up process is simple. You indicate your age, location, income, joint vs. single status, occupation, and education.

The next step is to create your first Net Worth entry. This is also easy. Simply go to “My Portfolio” and click on “Add New Entry.” At this point you fill in information about your assets and liabilities:

• Enter your assets
  • Cash
  • Stocks
  • Bonds
  • Annuities
  • Retirement
  • Home
  • Other Real Estate
  • Cars
  • Personal Property
  • Other
• Debts
  • Home Mortgage(s)
  • Other Mortgage(s)
  • Student Loans
  • Credit Card
  • Car Loans
  • Other

You will notice that the categories are limited, which makes it easy to fill out. However, you may have to put assets or liabilities into the wrong category if one does not exist. But I think this is sufficient for most users.

Once you create your first Net Worth entry, you can click on the “Comparison Report” tab and get a cool chart (below) and a basic comparison report to other users within the same group, by age, income, occupation, education, and state. Neat!

Of course, some users can leave false information and make the comparison report less effective.

The next feature that I really like is their Questions, Journals, and Tips sections. Basically, they are discussion forums. When a user asks a question, record an entry in the journal, or write a tip, a new entry in the public blog space is created. Other users can browse the topic and leave replies, similar to post and comments. The topics are generally good. There is also more accountability than other forums because you can click on the profile link to see who is giving you the advice. For me, I would think twice before taking investment advice from someone who has no stock portfolio, or a negative net worth.

One thing I wish I could do is have a personalized list of all the discussions I participated in, or some sort of email notification to let me know that someone added a reply to the conversation.

In case you are curious, here is my profile page on NetworthIQ.

If you are into personal finance, I think you will like it. Give it a try!

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