Chapter 5 | Your Resume and Financial Statement | 99
charge accounts, and credit cards you listed in the Liabilities part of the form. Use last year’s numbers unless they have changed substantially; if they have, append a sheet and explain. Insurance Premiums: List everything you expect to pay for the year that won’t be covered through your job. Common types of insurance include life, health, disability, property, and automobile. Living Expenses: Estimate your other regular personal living expenses that weren’t covered earlier, such as utilities, child care, medical and dental costs, transportation, food, clothing, entertainment, and travel. Either provide an itemized list or a general category of expenses. Other Expenses: List child and/or spousal support obligations and any other expense not listed above, like art collection purchases or vacation trips. Include professional associations that have continuing education expenses and club membership fees. Total Annual Expenses: Now add up all your expenses. (If you are using the Personal Financial Statement form included on the CD-ROM, the spreadsheet program will automatically calculate your expenses.) If your total is greater than your annual income total above, examine the information carefully before you consider borrowing money with a fixed repayment schedule.
Complete Your Personal Financial Statement If you have not already done so, print out your computer spreadsheet. Make sure you
sign and date your completed form; you’ll be surprised at how fast things change. As noted above, many financial institutions prefer their own form, which they will supply you. However, chances are that you won’t have to redo your Personal Financial Statement or, if you do, it will be easy.
Verifying the Accuracy of Your Financial Statement Potential lenders probably will want to verify your financial statements. Tax returns for the last two or three years are normally adequate to back up your income and expense statements. If your actual income is somewhat greater than your tax returns show, be ready to verify your assets in some other way. But don’t worry too much about this sort of disparity unless it is large. In an age of overly high taxation, your lender will not be surprised if your actual income is a shade higher than your reported income. His probably is, too. In addition, lenders usually obtain a personal credit check from a credit information agency on your track record in making payments. That shows what bills you pay and when, as well as any unpaid bills. Credit reports also list your current employment, lawsuits in which you’re involved, and bankruptcies filed in the last ten years. It’s a good idea to request your own copy of your credit report before you meet with any prospective lenders. That way, you’ll know what they will see and will be prepared to discuss it. If your credit file contains some inaccurate or misleading