How to Track Your Net Worth

Net worth is one subtraction: what you own, minus what you owe. It will not tell you if you are “doing well” compared with anyone else. It will tell you whether this year is moving in the direction you wanted.

A single snapshot is interesting. A year of snapshots is the useful part. The number jumps when you buy a car, receive a bonus, or watch an investment account move. The habit is recording it on the same day each month so those jumps are visible instead of surprising.

What to include

Assets are things you could turn into money, even if you do not plan to:

• Checking and savings
• Investments and retirement accounts, at today’s balance
• The home, if you own one, at a value you are willing to defend — a recent appraisal, a conservative estimate, or last year’s number held steady
• Cash value you would actually count, not the sentimental price of a car

Liabilities are what you still have to pay:

• Mortgage and other loans
• Credit cards, at the statement balance
• Student loans, medical bills on a payment plan, money you owe a person

Leave out things you cannot sell and debts that are not yours. A number padded with optimistic home values feels better for one month and then teaches you nothing.

How to use the history

Look at the direction, then at the reason. If net worth fell because you paid cash for a repair, that is different from it falling because card balances grew. The history tab is where that story stays, so you are not reconstructing it from memory in December.

Pick a day. The first of the month is easy. Open the latest statements, type the balances, and close the file. Twenty minutes is enough if the categories stay stable.

What the Net Worth Dashboard does

The workbook has a place for assets, a place for liabilities, a dashboard that subtracts them, and a history you fill as the months go by. It does not connect to your bank. You type the numbers, which is also how you notice a balance that does not look right.

Confirm every balance against your statements before you make a decision from the total. The sheet is a planning tool. It is not financial advice.

— CG Bots