Quick Answer
Tracking assets and liabilities in one place means combining everything you own, bank balances, brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, property equity, and cryptocurrency, with everything you owe, mortgages, car loans, student debt, and credit card balances, into a single view. The result is your net worth: assets minus liabilities. The most practical way to maintain this in 2026 is through a connected finance app that retrieves available data from supported accounts and allows manual entry for accounts that cannot connect directly.
Net worth is one of the cleaner measures of financial position available. It does not matter how much someone earns in isolation, because two people with the same income can have very different financial positions depending on how much they have saved, what they own, and what they owe. Net worth, assets minus liabilities, captures all of that in one number.
The Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances, the most recent wave available until the 2025 data releases later in 2026, found that the median US household net worth was $192,900. Median figures by age ranged from approximately $39,000 for households under 35 to $409,900 for those aged 65 to 74. The gap between those numbers reflects decades of assets accumulating and liabilities being paid down. But it starts with knowing what you have and what you owe.
Most people can tell you roughly what is in their bank account. Far fewer can give you a current figure for their total assets minus their total liabilities without doing some calculation first. That gap is what this article addresses: how to bring both sides together in one place, keep them current, and understand what the combined number is actually telling you.
What Counts as an Asset and What Counts as a Liability
Before setting up any tracking system, it is worth being clear on what belongs on each side of the ledger. Misclassifying items, or leaving them out entirely, produces a net worth figure that does not reflect reality.
Assets (what you own)
Liquid assets
• Checking and savings account balances
• Money market accounts
• Cash holdings
Accounts and holdings
• Brokerage accounts: stocks, funds, ETFs
• Retirement accounts: 401k, IRA, Roth IRA
• Cryptocurrency holdings on supported exchanges and wallets
• Health savings account balance
Physical and other assets
• Property: estimated current market value of any real estate you own
• Vehicles: current market value, not purchase price
• Business equity, if applicable
• Pension value, if calculable
Liabilities (what you owe)
Secured debt
• Mortgage balance outstanding
• Home equity loan or line of credit balance
• Car loan balance
Unsecured debt
• Credit card balances
• Student loan balance
• Personal loan balance
• Buy now pay later outstanding balances
• Any other outstanding obligations
A common mistake when calculating net worth is connecting assets but leaving out debt. A net worth figure that does not include liabilities is not showing a complete net worth calculation. It is showing gross assets.
Three Ways to Track Both in One Place
Option 1: A dedicated spreadsheet
A spreadsheet gives complete control. You set up two sections, one for assets and one for liabilities, enter current values for each, and the formula at the bottom subtracts total liabilities from total assets to give your net worth. The trade-off is that every number needs to be updated manually. A spreadsheet built today is accurate today and increasingly out of date as accounts fluctuate, markets move, and balances change. For people with simple finances and the discipline to update regularly, it works. For anyone whose financial life is more complex, the maintenance effort tends to undermine the habit.
Option 2: Manual entry in a dedicated app
Several net worth tracking apps allow you to create an asset and liability structure and enter values manually without connecting to any external accounts. This approach keeps your financial data private since nothing is transmitted to any external service, while giving you the organised view of a purpose-built tool rather than a spreadsheet. The limitation is the same as a spreadsheet: accuracy depends entirely on how recently the figures were updated.
Option 3: A connected finance app with read-only account access
A connected finance app retrieves available balance data from supported accounts through read-only connections, meaning it can see your account balances and available transaction data but has no ability to move funds or take any action on your accounts. When supported accounts are connected, balances update from available data without requiring manual entry. For accounts that cannot connect directly, such as certain pension accounts, property equity, or loans at smaller institutions, manual entry is typically also available.
This approach gives the most current view of your financial position across supported connected accounts. The trade-off is that it involves connecting to a third-party service, which is a different privacy posture than a local spreadsheet. For this reason it is important to verify the app uses read-only access, and to review the app’s privacy policy to understand how financial information is collected, used, shared, and protected before connecting any account.
The Commonly Missed Items on Each Side
A net worth calculation is only as useful as it is complete. A few specific items are regularly left out, either because they are easy to forget or because estimating them feels uncertain.
| Commonly missed | Side | Why it gets left out |
| Old 401k from a previous employer | Asset | Out of sight since changing jobs. Still part of the asset picture. |
| Cryptocurrency wallet balances | Asset | Held separately from traditional accounts. Requires manual entry or a wallet address connection. |
| Property equity | Asset | No automatic connection available. Requires periodic manual update of estimated market value minus mortgage. |
| Vehicle current market value | Asset | People forget to include it or use the purchase price rather than current market value. |
| Buy now pay later balances | Liability | Multiple platforms, small individual amounts, easy to overlook in aggregate. |
| Student loan balance | Liability | Payment is on autopilot and the balance is rarely checked until refinancing is considered. |
| Credit card balance as of last statement | Liability | The balance fluctuates and people often use an older figure without realising it. |
| Home equity line of credit balance | Liability | Sometimes treated as separate from the mortgage rather than as its own debt. |
How to Keep the Numbers Current
For connected accounts
A connected finance app retrieves available data from supported connected accounts as those connections sync. The figures reflect the latest available information from each connected source, which may not update with identical frequency for every institution. The app will typically indicate when a connection last synced. For any figure that matters for a significant decision, verify directly with the source institution.
For manually entered assets
Property equity and vehicle values change over time and require periodic updating to remain relevant. Checking an estimated property value against publicly available market data a few times a year, and updating a vehicle’s current market value using standard reference tools, keeps these entries closer to current. Pension values and other assets that cannot connect directly should also be reviewed and updated when statements are available.
For manually entered liabilities
Outstanding loan balances decrease with each payment and should be updated periodically to reflect current payoff amounts. Many loan servicers send monthly statements; updating the balance in the tracking system at the same time as reviewing a statement keeps the figure current with relatively little effort.
Understanding What the Combined Number Tells You
A net worth figure provides one snapshot of financial position. The Federal Reserve notes that net worth does not on its own reflect cash flow, liquidity, or future financial risks. A household with a high net worth concentrated in illiquid assets like property may face different day-to-day financial pressures than one with the same net worth held primarily in liquid savings.
Tracking assets and liabilities together over time is useful for a different reason than knowing the number on any given day. Watching whether the gap between assets and liabilities is widening or narrowing over several months shows whether saving and debt paydown are outpacing new spending and new debt, which is the underlying pattern that matters. Changes in net worth should be considered alongside the underlying accounts, liabilities, and other relevant financial circumstances.
A net worth figure on a single day is a starting point. The direction it moves over time, and what is driving that movement on either side of the ledger, is where the useful information lives.
How WealthNX Approaches Asset and Liability Tracking
WealthNX can connect to supported bank and brokerage accounts through read only connections and retrieves available transaction data from supported connected accounts. Cryptocurrency holdings can be tracked through read-only API keys for supported exchanges and public wallet address monitoring for on-chain balances. Where direct connections are not available for certain account types, financial information can also be added manually where the feature is supported.
The result is a connected view of assets and liabilities from supported accounts alongside any manually entered figures, combined into a net worth calculation that reflects available data. An AI assistant surfaces informational observations about the connected financial picture based on available data, and can answer plain-language questions about net worth, balances, and account trends. All observations provided by WealthNX are informational only and should not be interpreted as financial advice. Responses may be affected by incomplete, delayed, or unavailable data from connected accounts.
WealthNX holds ISO 27001 certification, the internationally recognised standard for information security management, and does not sell your financial data to third parties. WealthNX is the publisher of this article and references its own services where relevant.
The Honest Takeaway
Tracking assets and liabilities in one place is one of the more direct ways to understand your actual financial position. The calculation itself is straightforward: total assets minus total liabilities. The practical challenge is getting both sides complete and keeping them reasonably current.
Whether you use a spreadsheet, a manual tracking app, or a connected finance tool, the most important step is including liabilities alongside assets rather than tracking only the positive side of the ledger. A view that shows only what you own without accounting for what you owe is not a complete picture of where you stand.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between assets and liabilities?
Assets are things you own that have financial value, such as bank balances, brokerage holdings, retirement accounts, property, and cryptocurrency. Liabilities are amounts you owe, such as a mortgage, car loan, student debt, and credit card balances. Net worth is calculated by subtracting total liabilities from total assets.
Why is it important to track both assets and liabilities together?
Tracking only assets produces a figure that overstates your actual financial position by not accounting for debt. Net worth is assets minus liabilities. A household with 200,000 dollars in assets and 180,000 dollars in liabilities has a net worth of 20,000 dollars, not 200,000 dollars. Seeing both sides together gives an accurate picture of where you actually stand.
What is the most common asset people forget to include?
Old retirement accounts from previous employers can be easy to overlook when calculating net worth. People change jobs, stop actively checking the account, and forget to include it in any net worth calculation. Cryptocurrency wallet balances and property equity are also frequently missed, either because they require manual entry or because estimating a property value feels uncertain.
How do I include property in my net worth calculation?
Property contributes to net worth as equity: the estimated current market value of the property minus the outstanding mortgage balance. If your property is worth an estimated 400,000 dollars and your remaining mortgage is 280,000 dollars, your property equity is 120,000 dollars. This is what gets added to the asset side of your net worth calculation, not the full property value.
How often should I update my asset and liability tracking?
Connected accounts update from available data as those connections sync. Manually entered assets such as property values and vehicle values benefit from periodic review, perhaps a few times a year, to reflect changes in market value. Loan balances decrease with each payment and can be updated when statements are reviewed. The goal is a figure that is accurate enough to be useful as a directional indicator, not a precise accounting balance.
Sources
• Federal Reserve, Survey of Consumer Finances 2022, released October 2023. The 2025 survey is currently underway with results expected in late 2026. Available at federalreserve.gov.
Disclaimer
This article is for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Statistics cited are drawn from publicly available third party data as noted in the Sources section. WealthNX is the publisher of this article and references its own services where relevant. WealthNX holds ISO 27001 certification, the internationally recognised standard for information security management.
All AI generated observations provided by WealthNX are informational only and are not personalised financial advice. Responses are generated from available data from connected accounts and may be affected by incomplete, delayed, or unavailable data from connected accounts. For advice tailored to your situation, consult a licensed financial advisor.
