Your net worth is everything you own minus everything you owe, recorded at a point in time. To track it, list your assets and liabilities, write down a value for each on the same day, subtract, and repeat on a schedule. The trend over months matters more than any single figure.
Updated October 2026
An asset is anything with a value you could reasonably convert to cash, or that you would count as yours on a balance sheet. Most people include four groups.
Pick a rule for the gray areas and write it down. Some people count a car, some do not. Some count a pension at its present value, some leave it out. Either choice works as long as you apply it every time.
A liability is a balance you owe. Count the full outstanding amount, not the monthly payment.
Credit cards are the usual slip. A card balance of $1,500 reduces your net worth on the day you record it, even if you pay it off a week later. Record card balances at the same point in the billing cycle each time, or you will see small swings that are only timing.
Here is one snapshot with round numbers.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Checking | $8,000 |
| Savings | $20,000 |
| Brokerage account | $60,000 |
| Retirement accounts | $110,000 |
| Home, estimated value | $400,000 |
| Total assets | $598,000 |
| Mortgage | $280,000 |
| Car loan | $9,000 |
| Credit card | $1,500 |
| Total liabilities | $290,500 |
| Net worth | $307,500 |
Net worth is $598,000 minus $290,500, or $307,500. Notice how much of the picture is the home and the mortgage. Many people track a second figure that leaves property and its loan out, to see the financial side on its own. The method is the same; you just choose which lines to include and keep that choice fixed.
A brokerage balance has a market price. A house does not, so you have to estimate. Common sources are an online estimate, a recent appraisal, or sales of similar homes nearby. Whatever you use, label the number as an estimate and change it on a schedule, such as once or twice a year, rather than every time a listing site moves.
The same logic applies to a vehicle, a private business or a collectible. Use one source, note the date, and update on a fixed rhythm. A value you refresh rarely will drift from reality, so a note on when it was last updated helps you read the total honestly.
Monthly is a good default for most people. It is frequent enough to see a trend, and rare enough that market noise does not dominate. Pick a day, such as the first of the month, and record every balance as of that day.
Weekly updates show more movement but add little information for long-term decisions. Annual updates are easy but hide what happened in between. The more important choice is the same-day rule: balances recorded on different days produce a total that never existed at any single moment.
A net worth figure is only useful for comparison. If you change what you include, how you value property, or the day you record, the trend line breaks. Keep a short note listing your rules: which accounts are in, how property is valued, which day you record. Then a gap or jump in the data has an explanation.
Record history as it was, even if it was incomplete. A spreadsheet with a date column and a column for each account, one row per snapshot, is enough to chart and to check later.
Stridefly shows one net worth figure across cash, credit, investment, retirement, health savings (HSA), 529 education savings and UTMA custodial accounts. Property and loans are added by hand, so a house and a mortgage sit next to your brokerage accounts. Connected accounts update from your institution, usually about once a day. Manual accounts keep the value you enter until you change it.
If you already keep history in a spreadsheet, you can import net worth history from a CSV file, so the chart starts where your records start. When a value is estimated or a price is stale, Stridefly says so next to the number.
Read more on the net worth tracking page, or join the waitlist for the private beta.
Both approaches are common. Including it gives the full balance sheet, and leaving it out shows your financial assets on their own. Pick one, write it down and keep it the same.
Monthly works well for most people. Record every balance as of the same day so the total reflects a single moment.
Subtract the outstanding balance. The monthly payment is a cash flow, not the amount you owe.
Yes. One row per date and one column per account, with a total column, is enough to chart the trend.
Stridefly is in private beta. Join the waitlist and we will email you when a spot opens. Prefer to look around first? Demo mode lets you explore sample data before you connect anything.