While you may consider a balance sheet to be an essential financial statement for a company, assessing your own personal assets, equity and wealth in a well-laid-out financial report is equally ...

Investors often focus myopically on earnings, but a company's balance sheet — its financial strength, is also key.

Stocks to avoid have three things in common: "poor balance sheets, poor business models, and poor management". And in the current climate, monitoring balance sheets is more important than ever.

Charlene Rhinehart is a CPA , CFE, chair of an Illinois CPA Society committee, and has a degree in accounting and finance from DePaul University. The balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow ...