Items you possess with current liquid (realistic) values between $100 to $2,000 should be tracked on a Minor Asset Log. To create the list, I suggest spending time walking through your home and identifying items that you feel you could realistically sell for over $100 if you needed to and then note the name of the item and the value you believe you could recover from it. You may be surprised by the value of items you have in your home. When completed, your list should resemble the Minor Asset Log shown in the Table below. There are several reasons why documenting your minor assets is beneficial. Firstly, it allows you to see where some of your net worth is sitting. Second, it allows you to assess if you would be better off selling some of the items and having that money work for you in some other way. As an example, I may decide that I don’t use my mountain bike and that I rather sell it and use the $1,200 to pay down debt. Most of the items in your minor asset log will only lose value over time, so performing this exercise once yearly will allow you to assess what you should keep and what you should sell.

I have found tremendous benefit in documenting my minor assets. While trying to maintain a modest lifestyle and practicing some minimalistic principles like minimizing consumption, I have found this yearly assessment to support and justify reducing the number of things we have in our home. Around 5 years ago, I realized that I had $800 golf clubs and $300 ski gear that I had not used in 4 years and had no plan to use in the coming years. By selling them, I was able to free up some space in my garage and add that $1,100 into my investments!

Click HERE for an Excel template you can use to document the value of your ‘Monor Assets’.