What is an asset? Am I an asset?
A couple of months ago, I caught myself ending an interview summary with the words, “she will be an incredible asset to the company”. My recommendation was to move forward with the recruiting process with the candidate because I strongly believed that they would bring a wealth of experience to my team. After 45 minutes of conversation, going over topics such as accounting operations, technical accounting, and culture, I was comfortable making this recommendation.
Assets make the world go round! A statement of assets (and liabilities) is needed for most financing activities, whether to obtain a mortgage, get a line of credit, or acquire a business.
As a CPA, assets, and liabilities are my bread and butter. They are my babies on paper. I spend a lot of my time worrying about how to account for, value, reconcile, depreciate/amortize and report the assets owned by my organization. I oversee my team categorizing thousand of bank transactions, and adding, and subtracting to reconcile dozens of cash balances. I review that investments are properly categorized between held-to-maturity or available for sale, I work on technical accounting analyses for our new leases and ensure that our new leasehold improvements are properly depreciated. This is routine, meticulous, detailed-oriented work that is part of any accounting processes for month-end, quarterly and annual closes. In my 9 to 5, I make my living accounting for financial assets, not mine, but others’ assets.
I started obsessing about my personal financial assets after the birth of my first daughter. My husband and I were young successful professionals and as a newly married couple, we were focused on experiences (traveling, socializing, and discovering new restaurants - this is how I gained 10 lbs). I was new to the US, trying to fit into a new job and I was mostly worried about integration and survival. With our first daughter, material assets, monetary assets, and monthly recurring dollars gain importance. Kids are expensive, and keeping them alive is expensive and raising them to become “assets” require significant monetary assets. With the obligation of maintaining this new family, I realized that personal financial assets are extremely important.
According to Google, an asset is “ a useful thing, person or quality”. As such, as a creator of financial assets, I am by deduction an asset. Indeed, we are all assets! Whether we know it or not. Whether we admit it or not. Whether it is being said or not. Creators of assets are assets bigger than the sum of the assets that they created.
Am I an asset? Really? As a woman, as a Black woman, as an immigrant, as an introvert, being an asset, identifying myself as an asset, and proclaiming to be an asset is a new skill that I am teaching myself. I do not usually consider myself an asset, I am often too busy, lost in my routine, going through my weeks, fighting with doubts, and micro-aggressions. And because, I am usually unable to find “other assets” who are like me, look like me, and talk like me; I throw myself in the court of opinions of how I should be, what I should say, do, not do, care about, not care about. However, I am slowly chasing these self-doubts and slowly claiming my asset qualifier. And this post is not a pity post or a cry for attention, but more a framework for personal accounting introspection.
As a mom, I am an asset to my daughters. My maternal skills (or sense of obligation) or love and affection, enshrine me with the desire to take good care of my daughters, I feed, educate, teach, play, mentor, and coach with tenderness and when I cannot, I pay, schedule and drive them to service providers. The management or execution of these transactions clearly qualifies any mothers to consider themselves as one of the most valuable assets in the lives of their children. (Yes, a transactional set of facts, practical for an accountant).
As a spouse, I am the most important asset in my partner’s life. Just ask him (periodt).
As a professional, I built teams of superaccountants, they are thoughtful, smart, and diligent. Multiple times, I established frameworks for timely and accurate financial reporting, established technical accounting policies for complex and innovative products, shorten close timelines, cleaned up and prepared many first financial statements, led many first audits (including with Big 4), implemented different ERPs and systems, partnered and supported different teams in their initiatives. I love to work (just like I love love). I work hard and I love to get isht done and whether I take the credit or not, whether I control the narrative or not, isht still gets done.
As a friend, advisor, and human, I strive to “uplift and support”.
I have struggled to consider myself as an asset and recognize all the assets that I have. I plan to work on identifying and showcasing many of these assets, as methodically as I would do it as an accounting leader. One of my goals is to encourage and support others to do the same; consider themselves as assets and inventory their assets using sound accounting and financial reporting frameworks that have supported billions in valuation for many successful organizations.
