Stock Prices

Let's say that a new corporation is created and in its IPO it raises $20 million by selling one million shares for $20 a share. The corporation buys its equipment and hires its employees with that money. In the first year, when all the income and expenses are added up, the company makes a profit of $1 million. The board of directors of the company can decide to do a number of things with that $1 million:

It could put it in the bank and save it for a rainy day.
It could decide to give all of the profits to its shareholders, so it would declare a dividend of $1 per share.
It could use the money to buy more equipment and hire more employees to expand the company.
It could pick some combination of these three options.
­If a company traditionally pays out most its profits to its shareholders, it is generally called an income stock. The shareholders get income from the company's profits. If the company puts most of the money back into the business, it is called a growth stock. The company is trying to grow larger by increasing the amount of equipment and the number of people who run it.

Shareholders

­From this description, you can see that a corporation has a group of owners -- the shareholders. The owners elect a board of directors to make the company's major decisions. The owners of a corporation become owners by buying shares of stock in the corporation. The board of directors decides how many total shares there will be. For example, a company might have one million shares of stock. The company can either be privately held or publicly held. In a privately held company, the shares of stock are owned by a small number of people who probably all know one another. They buy and sell their shares amongst themselves. A publicly held company is owned by thousands of people who trade their shares on a public stock exchange.

One of the big reasons why corporations exist is to create a structure for collecting lots of investment dollars in a business. Let's say that you would like to start your own airline. Most people cannot do this, because an airplane costs millions of dollars. An airline needs a whole fleet of planes and other equipment, plus it has to hire a lot of employees. A person who wants to start an airline will therefore form a corporation and sell stock in order to collect the money needed to get started.

A corporation is an easy way to gather large quantities of investment capital -- money from investors. When a corporation first sells stock to the public, it does so in an IPO (Initial Public Offering). The company might sell one million shares of stock at $20 a share to raise $20 million very quickly (that is a simplification -- the brokerage house in charge of the IPO will extract its fee from the $20 million, but let's ignore that here). The company then invests the $20 million in equipment and employees. The investors (the shareholders who bought the $20 million in stock) hope that with the equipment and employees, the company will make a profit and pay a dividend.

Another reason that corporations exist is to limit the liability of the owners to some extent. If the corporation gets sued, it is the corporation that pays the settlement. The corporation may go out of business, but that is the worst that can happen. If you are a sole proprietor who owns a restaurant and the restaurant gets sued, you are the one who is being sued. "You" and "the restaurant" are the same thing. If you lose the suit then you, personally, can lose everything you own in the process.

How Stocks and the Stock Market Work

­The stock market appears in the news every day. You hear about it any time it reaches a new high or a new low, and you also hear about it daily in statements like "The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2 percent today, with advances leading declines by a margin of..."

Obviously, stocks and the stock market are important, but you may find that you know very little about them. What is a stock? What is a stock market? Why do we need a stock market? Where does the stock come from to begin with, and why do people want to buy and sell it? If you have questions like these, then this article will open your eyes to a whole new world!

Calculating Your Net Worth

Now that you've gathered all the information about your own assets and liabilities, you may find the next part easy. You'll simply need to add up all of the amounts listed under assets, and separately, add up all of the amounts listed under liabilities. You should end up with two numbers: a grand total of assets and a grand total of liabilities. Finally, subtract the total liabilities from the total assets -- and, voila! You have your net worth.

The formula can be expressed simply as:

Net worth = assets - liabilities

Assets and Liabilities

Your net worth is a snapshot of your finances. The picture will change slightly the next time you pay a bill and again, the next time you receive a paycheck. To determine your current magic number, the first step is to take a look at all of your assets, which are anything of value that you own. Make a list of all these items and next to each, list the amount it's worth. These typically include:

Cash -- any physical currency and coins you have
Funds in the bank -- all the money you have in a savings, checking, or money market accounts, and any certificates of deposit (CDs)
Stocks, bonds and mutual funds: also list savings bonds
Retirement accounts -- includes 401(k) funds, IRAs and any other retirement accounts
Life insurance -- counting any cash value you have in the policy
Motor Vehicles: the current blue book value of any cars, motorcycles, boats, RVs, etc.
Real Estate -- the current market value of property (house, condo, land, etc.) you own, even if you have a mortgage
Personal Valuables -- including the market value of jewelry, collectibles (from baseball cards to art) and furniture
Money you're owed -- as long as you have a reasonable expectation of being paid back

How to Determine Your Net Worth

­When you were younger, did you ever wonder if you'd amount to anything? Although it may be hard to quantify your true worth, it's easy to quantify your finances. If you've never done it before, perhaps it's time to take inventory and find out exactly how much you're worth. Calculating your net worth will give you an accurate picture of where you stand financially.
Net worth is a single amount representing how much money a person would have if he sold all of his assets and paid off his debts. Unless you plan on shedding yourself of every material thing in your life right now and starting anew, you probably won't ever act out this scenario. So, why consider it at all? If you have any financial plans for the future -- say, buying a house, sending a kid through college or retiring -- it's especially important to know your current financial state. As the saying goes, you never know how to get somewhere unless you know where you are right now. Knowing your net worth helps you make better decisions on how to accomplish your financial goals.

Determining your net worth involves taking a good hard look at all aspects of your finances -- the good, the bad and the ugly. This means that you may not come out ahead when all is said and done. Prepare yourself for the possibility that the final number will be negative. A negative net worth means that you owe more than you own. A hefty mortgage, student loans or steep credit card debt could send you down into negative territory. But, take heart; there are several avenues out of debt that we'll discuss later.

Determining Value

Let's say that you want to start a business, and you decide to open a restaurant. You go out and buy a building, buy all the kitchen equipment, tables and chairs that you need, buy your supplies and hire your cooks, servers, etc. You advertise and open your doors.

Let's say that:

You spend $500,000 buying the building and the equipment.
In the first year, you spend $250,000 on supplies, food and the payroll for your employees.
At the end of your first year, you add up all of the money you have received from customers and find that your total income is $300,000.