Guide
How to calculate your net worth.
Total what you own, total what you owe, subtract the second from the first. The formula takes ten seconds. Getting honest inputs takes about twenty minutes.
Nothing you enter in the calculator on this site leaves your browser.
The formula
net worth = total assets - total liabilities
That is the whole calculation. Everything else on this page is about choosing values that make the result mean something, because a net worth built from optimistic numbers is just a mood.
Step 1: list what you own, at today's value
| Asset | Value to use |
|---|---|
| Cash and checking | Current balance |
| Savings and certificates | Current balance plus accrued interest |
| Brokerage accounts | Latest market value, not what you paid |
| Retirement accounts | Latest statement balance, before tax |
| Home and other property | Realistic sale price today |
| Vehicles | Private-party resale value, not purchase price |
| Business ownership | Your share of a defensible valuation |
| Valuables you would actually sell | Resale value, not insured value |
Use current value, never purchase price. What you paid for a car in 2019 has nothing to do with what it is worth now.
Step 2: list what you owe, at payoff value
| Liability | Value to use |
|---|---|
| Mortgage | Remaining principal balance |
| Home equity loan or line | Amount drawn |
| Student loans | Total outstanding balance |
| Car loans and leases | Payoff amount |
| Credit cards | Full statement balance, not the minimum |
| Personal and family loans | Amount still owed |
| Taxes owed | Any balance due or known assessment |
Record the full balance you would have to clear, not the monthly payment. Monthly payments belong in a budget, not a balance sheet.
Step 3: subtract, and date the result
Assets minus liabilities gives one number. Write the date next to it. Net worth is a snapshot of a single moment, and without a date it cannot be compared with anything, including your own earlier figure.
If the result is negative, that means debts currently exceed assets. It is common in your twenties and thirties, particularly with student loans and a recent mortgage, and it is a starting position rather than a verdict.
Five mistakes that inflate the number
- Counting the house without the mortgage. The property is an asset and the loan is a liability. Both belong in the calculation.
- Using purchase price for depreciating things. Vehicles, electronics, and furniture are worth resale value, which is usually far below what you paid.
- Counting money you have not received. An expected bonus, an unvested equity grant, or a promised inheritance is not yours yet and does not belong on the list.
- Using insured value for possessions. Insurance values replacement cost. Net worth uses what a buyer would pay you today, which is a much smaller number.
- Forgetting the balances you avoid looking at. A calculation that quietly leaves out one credit card is not a calculation.
Then use it for something
One net worth figure is trivia. A series of them, taken the same way on the same schedule, shows whether the gap between what you own and what you owe is widening in your favor. That trend is the only part of this exercise that changes decisions.
The compare-your-net-worth tool runs the arithmetic and puts the result next to the public fortune estimates tracked here. It works entirely in your browser: the value you type never enters a URL, a request, storage, or a log, because none of those exist for it. To see how a typical result compares nationally, the net worth by age table has the Federal Reserve medians.
Common questions
Should I include my house in my net worth?
Yes, on both sides. Count the home at a realistic sale price today as an asset, and count the remaining mortgage principal as a liability. The difference is your home equity. Counting the house without the mortgage is the single most common way people overstate their net worth.
Do I count my salary?
No. Salary is income, which is a flow over time. Net worth is a stock: what you hold at one moment. Income affects net worth only through what you keep after spending.
How often should I recalculate it?
Once a quarter is plenty for most people, and once a year is enough. Checking more often mostly measures market noise rather than progress, and it encourages reacting to moves that reverse within weeks.
Should I subtract future taxes on my retirement account?
A pre-tax retirement account will be taxed on withdrawal, so its spendable value is lower than the statement balance. Most people record the statement balance and simply remember that it is a pre-tax figure. If you want a stricter number, note the after-tax estimate separately rather than mixing the two.