How to calculate your net worth.

Updated 30 September 2026

What is the net worth formula?

That's all there is to the arithmetic. The hard part is deciding what goes in each column and what value to use. The rule of thumb: use what an asset would realistically fetch today, and what you would need to pay to clear a debt today. Not what you paid, not what you hope, and not the monthly repayment.

Net worth is a snapshot. It's most useful as a series of snapshots over months and years, because the trend tells you far more than any single number.

What counts as an asset?

An asset is anything you own that has a value you could turn into money. For most households the list looks like this:

• Cash: everyday, savings and term deposit accounts, and money held in offset accounts.
• Investments: shares, ETFs, bonds, managed or mutual funds, and crypto.
• Retirement accounts: a 401(k) or IRA in the US, an ISA or SIPP in the UK, super in Australia, an RRSP or TFSA in Canada, and workplace pensions.
• Property: your home, investment properties and land.
• Other things with a resale value: vehicles, precious metals, collectibles, a stake in a private business, money someone owes you.

Leave out things with no realistic resale value, like furniture and clothes. They cost money but won't pay for anything later, and including them only inflates the number.

What counts as a liability?

A liability is money you owe. Use the payout balance, not the original loan amount:

• Mortgages and home equity loans
• Car loans, personal loans and student loans
• Credit card balances and buy-now-pay-later
• Margin loans and investment loans
• Tax you owe but haven't paid yet

How should you value each asset?

Property

Use a realistic market value: a recent bank or agent valuation, an online estimate, or recent sales of similar homes nearby. Record the date and the source, and update it every few months rather than every week. Be conservative; a home's value is only proven when it sells, and selling costs money.

Retirement accounts

Use the balance on your latest statement or provider website. Some people discount pension balances for future tax, since a traditional 401(k), SIPP or RRSP will be taxed on the way out. Either approach is fine as long as you are consistent and you note which one you chose.

Shares, ETFs and funds

Units held multiplied by the latest closing price. If the holding is in another currency, convert at the current exchange rate. The value is today's price, not what you paid, which is your cost basis (see cost basis explained).

Crypto

Units multiplied by a current market price from a major exchange or price index. Crypto moves fast, so a monthly snapshot can swing a lot. That is real, but don't let it distract from the long-term trend.

Vehicles

Use a private-sale valuation from a used-car guide, and expect it to fall every year. Many people leave cars out entirely. If you finance a car, though, include both the car and the loan, or your net worth will look worse than it is.

Should you track household or individual net worth?

Both, if you can. Most couples think in household terms: one mortgage, one set of bills. But assets are legally owned by specific people, often in different shares, and that matters for tax, estate planning and separation. A joint account might be 50/50 while an inherited property belongs to one partner outright.

The clean way to handle it is to record who owns what percentage of each asset and liability. Household net worth is the total; each person's net worth is their share of each item added up.

A worked example

Here's an illustrative household (figures in US dollars, rounded, not real data):

Notice that most of this household's net worth is home equity ($650,000 − $410,000 = $240,000) and retirement savings. That is typical, and it's why a net worth figure can feel abstract: most of it isn't spendable. Many people also track liquid net worth (cash and investments you could reach without selling the house or breaking a pension) alongside the headline number.

Want to try it with your own numbers? Use the free net worth calculator.

How often should you track your net worth?

Monthly or quarterly suits most people. Weekly is fine if it's automatic, but don't react to weekly moves. Share prices and crypto move daily; property and pension balances change slowly and usually only when you update them.

What matters is consistency: the same list of items, valued the same way, at regular intervals. When your net worth changes, try to separate market moves (prices went up or down) from your own actions (you saved, paid down debt, or updated a valuation). Otherwise a good month in the market can hide a savings problem, and a new property valuation can look like progress you didn't make.

What are the most common mistakes?

• Using purchase prices. What you paid is your cost basis, not your value.
• Forgetting a debt. The credit card you clear every month still has a balance on the day you measure.
• Mixing currencies. Adding a euro account to a dollar total without converting it. It sounds obvious, but it's easy to do in a spreadsheet.
• Stale values. A property value from three years ago, or a pension balance from last year's statement.
• Counting an asset twice. An offset or redraw balance counted as cash and also subtracted from the loan.
• Overwriting history. Updating the value in a spreadsheet cell and losing what it was last month.

Keeping it up to date without the spreadsheet

A spreadsheet works until it doesn't: prices go stale, currencies get mixed, and history gets overwritten. Worthbase is a net worth tracker that runs inside your AI assistant. You hand Claude or ChatGPT a statement and it records the balances; Worthbase prices shares, ETFs, crypto and gold daily, converts currencies with historical rates, keeps every past value, and emails you a weekly summary that separates market moves from manual updates. Ownership can be split between people by exact percentage, so you see both household and individual figures.

Questions