How to Calculate Your Net Worth and Decide What Counts Toward the Total

WealthNX Team · November 10, 2026

Net worth has the friendliest formula in personal finance: what you own minus what you owe. The tricky part is the list. Does the house count, or only the equity? The 401(k), before or after tax? This guide shows how to calculate net worth step by step, with a clear rule for each item, so you get a number you can trust.

The Net Worth Formula Is One Line, and Each Input Needs a Rule

Net worth = total assets − total liabilities. Assets are what you own. Liabilities are what you owe.

Two rules keep the result honest:

• Value assets at what they would sell for today. Not what you paid, and not what you hope they're worth.

• List debts at the payoff balance. A car loan counts at the amount left to repay, not the monthly payment.

Most wrong numbers break one of these two rules. Everything below applies them, one item at a time.

How to Calculate Net Worth in Four Steps

Step 1. List Your Assets at Today's Value

Start with anything that has a balance on a statement: checking, savings, brokerage, 401(k), IRA, HSA and crypto. Then add what you own outright or are paying off, like a home or car, at an estimated sale price.

Step 2. List Your Debts at the Payoff Balance

Mortgage, home equity loan or HELOC, car loans, student loans, credit cards, personal loans, medical bills and taxes owed. Your lender's site or statement shows the current payoff amount.

Step 3. Subtract Debts From Assets

The result can be positive or negative. Both are normal, depending on where you are with loans and savings.

Step 4. Write Down the Date

Net worth is a reading on one day. Balances and prices move, so the date is what makes the next reading comparable.

Here's the Math With Everyday Numbers

Round numbers make the method easy to follow. Swap in your own and the steps stay the same.

Net worth: $53,000 − $30,500 = $22,500.

Now the same math with a few common changes:

• Add a home worth $300,000 with a $240,000 mortgage. Net worth rises by $60,000, the equity.

• Take out the 401(k). Net worth falls to −$7,500. That's why leaving retirement accounts out can make a number look worse than it is.

• Use the car's purchase price of $25,000 instead of resale. Net worth looks $13,000 higher than it is.

A Blank Worksheet You Can Copy

What Counts Toward Net Worth, Line by Line

The short version: count it if you own it and could sell it, or if you owe it and must repay it.

The Federal Reserve's net worth breakdown for its Survey of Consumer Finances uses the same building blocks: bank accounts, investments, retirement accounts, cash value life insurance, homes, vehicles and businesses, minus mortgages, loans and card balances. For a deeper look at the asset side, the guide on how to calculate your total assets goes item by item.

Is Home Equity Part of Net Worth?

Yes. The home counts, and so does the mortgage on it. List the home's estimated sale price as an asset and the mortgage and any HELOC as debts. The difference is your equity, and it appears in the result on its own.

Three details make the home number more accurate:

• Use an estimate of today's sale price. Online estimates and recent sales of similar homes nearby are common starting points. They're estimates, not appraisals.

• Sale costs reduce the payout. Agent commissions and closing costs come out of what you'd receive. Some people subtract an estimate of them to stay on the safe side.

• An underwater home still counts. If you owe more than the home is worth, it lowers net worth by the gap.

In WealthNX, you can add your home and see an estimated value from ATTOM Data where available, next to the mortgage balance. The asset tracker keeps your home, car and other assets in the same view as your linked accounts.

Does a 401(k) Count in Net Worth?

Yes. Retirement accounts count, at the vested balance. The Fed includes 401(k)s and IRAs in its net worth figures, so leaving yours out makes comparisons lopsided.

Three details change the number you list:

• Vesting schedules. Employer matches may vest over several years. Only the vested part is yours to keep, and your plan statement shows it.

• Taxes on traditional accounts. A traditional 401(k) or IRA holds pre-tax money. Withdrawals are taxed as income, and withdrawals before age 59½ generally owe an extra 10% tax. Most people list the full balance, and some also track an after-tax estimate. Roth accounts don't have that gap for qualified withdrawals.

• 401(k) loans. The right treatment depends on how your plan reports the outstanding loan and on the method you use for net worth. Some statements show the balance with the loan included, others without it. The aim is to count the loan once, the same way each time. Your plan administrator can confirm how your statement reports it.

The portfolio tracker shows your 401(k), brokerage and crypto holdings from linked accounts in one place.

Gray-Area Items and How Most People Treat Them

Some items don't fit neatly in either column. Here's the common treatment and the reason behind it.

If you run a side business, keeping its accounts separate makes both numbers clearer. The side hustle tracker lets you assign accounts to a business and filter net worth and cash flow views by business.

Accounts and Debts People Forget to Count

Most net worth math is right in method and short on items. These are the ones that slip off the list most often.

Assets that get missed:

• Old 401(k)s from past jobs. The balance stays with the old plan until you move it. The plan's website or your last statement shows it.

• The invested part of an HSA. Many HSAs hold cash and investments in separate sections.

• Savings bonds, CDs and security deposits you expect back.

• Crypto in an old exchange account or a separate wallet.

• Cash value in a whole life policy.

Debts that get missed:

• Buy now, pay later balances. Small plans add up across several stores.

• Medical bills still in the billing stage.

• Store cards and gas cards that rarely get a second look.

• Taxes owed for the current year, common with side income.

• Money borrowed from family, even without a formal loan.

The hardest part is often collecting these balances from a dozen different logins. It's also where most numbers go stale.

Common Calculation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

• Home equity counted twice. List the home and the mortgage, or list the equity alone. Never both.

• Monthly payments in place of balances. A debt counts at what's left to repay.

• A car loan without the car. If the loan is on the list, the car belongs there too.

• Unvested money in the total. Employer matches and stock grants count once they vest.

• Joint accounts counted by both partners. If each person tracks their own net worth, decide who counts the joint account, or split it.

• Balances from different days. A card balance from last week and a brokerage value from today don't describe the same moment.

Totals can also differ between apps, because each one sources balances and values a little differently. The post on why net worth totals differ between apps walks through the usual reasons.

Five Net Worth Myths That Lead to the Wrong Conclusion

Myth 1. Debt Payoff Raises Net Worth Right Away

Say you pay $2,000 toward a card from savings. Cash drops by $2,000 and the debt drops by $2,000. Net worth stays the same that day. The gain shows up over time, as less interest gets added to the balance.

Myth 2. A New Car Adds Its Price to Net Worth

The moment you own it, the car is worth its resale value. That's usually less than the price you paid once taxes and fees are included. A cash purchase lowers net worth by the gap.

Myth 3. A High Income Means a High Net Worth

Income is what comes in. Net worth is what's left after spending and debt. Two people with the same salary can end up with net worths far apart.

Myth 4. A Higher Home Estimate Means More Money to Spend

A rising estimate raises net worth on paper. The money becomes cash only through a sale or a loan against the home, and both have costs.

Myth 5. Net Worth Changes Only When You Save or Spend

Investment prices, home estimates and car values move on their own. Net worth can drop in a month when your habits didn't change at all.

Three Versions of Net Worth and When Each One Helps

The same accounts can produce three useful numbers.

The third one comes from a federal rule. The SEC defines an accredited investor partly as someone with a net worth over $1 million, excluding the primary residence. The home's value doesn't count as an asset. Debt secured by the home is generally left out too, but with exceptions under SEC rules: mortgage debt above the home's fair market value counts as a liability, and certain increases in home-secured debt in the 60 days before an investment can count as well. The same household can pass or fail the test depending on how the home is treated.

What the Fed Counts When It Reports Average Net Worth

Your number compares best with national averages when both are built the same way. The Federal Reserve's 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, released in October 2026, puts the median US family net worth at $215,900 in 2025 dollars. That figure:

• Includes homes, vehicles, retirement accounts, businesses and cash value life insurance.

• Measures families, not individuals. If you share finances, compare your combined number.

• Does not include the value of Social Security or most traditional pensions, the same way most personal net worth calculations leave them out.

That last point carries weight. A Federal Reserve Bank of Boston working paper estimated that for the median household, pensions and Social Security are worth more than half of all wealth. So a net worth figure can understate the retirement income a household will have.

If you share finances with a partner, the couples budget feature lets household members link their own supported accounts.

You Might Have These Questions About Calculating Net Worth

Does income count toward net worth?

No. Income is money coming in over time. It raises net worth only when part of it is saved, invested or used to pay down debt. The cash flow tracker shows that monthly gap between money in and money out.

Can net worth be negative?

Yes. It's negative when debts are larger than assets. That's common while student loans or a new car loan are still large.

How often should you calculate net worth?

Monthly or quarterly works for most people. The same day each time, like the first of the month, keeps the readings comparable.

The Number Matters Less Than the Direction It Moves

One calculation tells you where you stand today. A few of them, taken on the same day each month, show whether debts are shrinking and assets are growing. That trend is the useful part.

A manual recalculation means collecting each balance and price by hand. WealthNX links bank, brokerage, retirement and crypto accounts through Plaid (12,000+ institutions) with read-only access, and lets you add a home, car or other asset yourself. The net worth tracker shows an estimate based on the latest available balances, with stock and crypto prices from FMP and CoinGecko.

When the number moves, Wealth Genie can explain the change in plain language, using your available financial information and market data, on the Plus plan or during the free trial. Start your 7-day free trial and see your net worth without the manual homework.