smart spending

March 2011: Net worth

Q:

Think about your total net worth -- that is, your total assets including any equity you might have in a home or other property minus your debts. Compared to 12 months ago, is your net worth:

March's results on net worth exactly matched February's Financial Security Index.
Nearly three-fourths feel their net worth is the same or lower despite large stock market advances in the last year.
Respondents aged 50 to 64 were most likely to feel their net worth is lower (28 percent) followed by those 65 and older (26 percent).

Kimberly Foss

"An unspoken, underlying feeling that everything is not OK ..."

The job market and the housing market are the big plagues to people's feelings about their net worth. But people do feel that investments have increased quite a bit over 12 months but they don't think that that's real or that it will last. I think there is an unspoken, underlying feeling that everything is not OK in the U.S. They're happy about their 401(k)s and their investments, but they think it's a temporary situation.

- Kimberly Foss, founder of Empyrion Wealth Management, Roseville, Calif.