EDUARDO CONTRERAS / Union-Tribune Last month, SeraCare Life Sciences closed its Oceanside headquarters, opting instead to run things from the East Coast.

For more than three years, it seemed business was booming at SeraCare Life Sciences, a small Oceanside company that sold tools for drug discovery. Profits appeared to grow steadily, and the company regularly gobbled up smaller biotechs to improve its product offerings. From 2003 to late 2005, the stock quadrupled in value – and a few executives made millions of dollars selling shares.

It's crunch time for stakeholders in the Metabolife International bankruptcy. Despite more than a year of legal wrangling and negotiations, the various parties involved in the San Diego company's bankruptcy have yet to agree on a plan for settling hundreds of personal-injury claims related to Metabolife's now-defunct ephedra diet pill.

When Americans try to figure out their net worth, they often find that their biggest chunk of wealth isn't stashed in a bank or a brokerage account. For many of us, our true wealth can be found in our porcelain sinks, wallpapered bedrooms, outdated kitchens and scuffed hardwood floors.