ed
words do mean things. and in financial accounting and legal terms, a car is clearly an asset. for household accounting and colloquial use, it's much less clear whether a car should be considered an asset.

Nashton
In that case, a car can be considered, and mostly is, a liability.

ed
personally, i don't consider my car an asset for purposes of household accounting or calculating net worth, just as i don't include the value of all my random crap that i could sell on ebay,

Nashton
Actually, he contents of your house are are actually valuable assets, which insurers consider when insuring a home.

In many case, they exceed the value of the dwelling.

Idem for a car, that is insured for its residual value.

ed
as the purpose of me keeping track of assets and net worth is to see where i stand long term. bookkeeping the current value of a vehicle (and other assets) that will be worthless in 15 years adds nothing to that view. ymmv.

Nashton
A car is a liability

with a zero sum benefit towards calculating net worth

In strict accounting terms, it is an asset, but by that token, so is your dog, your cat and the contents of your pantry.

OTOH, for an individual with limited resources, earning $12/hour like KDT, I can see how he would consider a car an asset. It is also very telling of the state of his finances ;)