No, I won't reveal the figures of monies I've earned for the past 25+ years or so of being able to earn a (grand way of) living for myself, plus giving away substantial amounts of money to my loved ones and those who'd catch my fancy every now and then. Reading this magazine article on "Net-Worth Obsession" from New York Times' Magazine (see link here), got me into thinking, what exactly is my net-worth. All I can share is that I've not done bad, thank God.
With the small amount of money I earn nowadays, I'm just simply happier and more contented. In fact, I'm more able to do what I want, and able to meet my needs, thank God, again, mainly for that. When a lot of my friends are losing their jobs (& not able to land one after some time now), and I'm still able to get part-time jobs (mainly by choice, as I decided I won't do full time jobs anymore, and won't do corporate jobs unless I own the business where I'd be doing such jobs---they're simply dreadful, & getting paid that way is not worth the whole unseen & unaccounted costs of aggravation he he he he), I'm not going to be timid in saying, I've done greatly well, thank God!
At least now, most people who've known me before don't go out of their way to measure my net-worth out of the knowledge they have about me doing a full-time highly paid job (at least back in the Philippines). And my status has given me all the opportunities to get me to save at least part of my earnings, no matter how little they are.
How to increase your net-worth? I wrote something related to answers to this question (Tips for saving money when you're unemployed). Well, we need to continuously work on it. I also recommend you take time to read Graham's "The Intelligent Investor" (see Amazon's feature on it here) which is a great textbook on doing finance, and dabbling more wisely on investing and saving from someone who's seen the ups and downs of Wall Street in many periods, and getting himself overcome the struggles by focusing on his targets. And the book documents how to go against the typical flow of thinking most Wall Street advisors would give their clients; remember that Warren Buffet himself learned from Graham, which fact in itself speaks volume about the wisdom you can find from this book.
More tips I can share?
1) Personally, I'd also keep on saving, as it's actually now, what most people call nowadays, as the "new spending."
2) I'll do more thrift store shopping, if you're up to more spending on trivially beautiful objects we use in our lifestyle.
3) Pay debts more aggressively
4) Keep a record of your earnings and spendings, and know where you're standing today.
5) Associate actively with others who have the same interests as yours, or at least, network with people whom you admire and who can help you accomplish your goals.
6) Focus on the intrinsic value on the money that you get, and not on the mere numbers that you can actually change anytime you want it. Intrinsic values usually don't change overnight; have you thought about it?
Yes, define what you want, and work on your needs. The NYT's article mentions about out human beings' proclivity on comparing themselves with others---that's very natural. Hence, we can't help but compare our networth with those of others, especially because we like to know "how are we doing" given the challenges of living these days. Well, I can only shrug, and keep on praying, and doing what I want. I know that I've improved my net-worth grandly through the years. This has allowed me the peace of mind to keep on living, despite everyday struggles, and the annoyances I face every time I go out he he he. More so, my accomplishments on improving my net-worth, despite the odds, have helped me immensely in my efforts to keep moving on......
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