Why I started to track my net worth in my 30s

Why starting early might be the best way to secure your future lifestyle

Two years ago, I made one of the biggest decisions in my life - I quit my stable corporate job at Google to start a company. (pictured below a photo with me and my batch mates from my accelerator Entrepreneur First)

And it came with a forced reckoning with my personal finances - a departure from my previously carefree “cashflow without consequence" lifestyle as a well-paid expat living in Singapore.

Suddenly, I went from viewing personal finance as “tomorrow’s problems” to “should’ve been yesterday’s problems.” I didn't even know how long I could do the startup thing before I went broke. Or if I’m going to irreversibly compromise my medium and long-term financial goals while pursuing my dreams. This realization initially caused me a great deal of stress.

Until I pulled together my net worth for the first time.

Seeing my whole financial life quantified in front of me gave a few insights that gave me greater peace of mind and sense of control. And actually reduced my overall feeling of anxiety and uncertainty. Here’s what I learned:

• With a slightly reduced monthly spend, I had several years of financial runway ahead of me, without seriously impacting my long-term financial goals. There was no need to resort to an extreme ramen diet or cut out all social activities. I was very thankful that my “FOMO investing” (I hate holding any cash in the bank account) led to healthy investment gains in the 2010s era.

• That being said, I did need to change my spending habits to ensure that I could save more and avoid dipping into my savings - which could compromise my plans for net worth growth. I switched apartments to save $2K a month on rental, halved my travel expenses, and used public transit more regularly.

• I realized I didn’t want to have as many wild swings to my net worth coming from just one stock just in case I needed to tap into emergency liquidity. I started diversifying out of my very concentrated holdings of Google stock from my RSUs.

• I would likely need to delay some life milestones like buying a house or financing a wedding, but it would be very much possible in my mid to late 30s with the trajectory of my savings and investments.

These adjustments made to my life were very liberating for me. While these were personal to my journey, turning thirty often marks a similar shift for many. Conversations with beta users of Peek (peek.money) echo this sentiment. Many of life’s new stages like marriage or parenthood bring about a deeper need for awareness and forward-thinking around one’s financial situation. 

“I got married two years ago and we just had our son recently. We need to start thinking about cash flow and tax planning and planning as a family.”

“There are a lot of things that are really important for me right now to figure out from a planning perspective. I need to figure out the finances behind having a child or buying a house right now.”

Tracking net worth certainly won’t feel urgent if you only care about personal finance when you are getting into crises situations like accumulating debt, facing bankruptcy, or retiring without the lifestyle you want. However, it is incredibly important to track and develop these habits in your 30s to set the stage for a fulfilling future, to AVOID these problems when it’s too late. Just like health trackers like WHOOP and Fitbit help you maintain daily habits around physical health before it is too late in your later years to tackle serious health conditions. Knowing where you stand with your finances is one of the first steps to take to pursue the life that you want to live.

If you would like to learn more about your net worth and what you could do with it, sign up for Peek’s beta (peek.money).