No offense, but I don't think you got what I meant

income statement is for a period, you gain some you lose some during the period and you add them up.

balance sheet is a snap shot of a particular time, such as December 31, 2009 -- a balance sheet cannot tell you what happened during the year, it just tells you what it is at the end of the year. Say your balance sheet shows NAV of $1,000. It does not tell you how you got there.

That is why I said when I look at my life, it is like looking at an income statement, I think about all the good and bad things that happened in my life. I don't just think about a snap shot of the most recent day of my life --- that is not my life.

And yes, ending balance is death, which will do us all.