Your net worth is the value of your assets minus your liabilities, a.k.a. everything you own minus everything you owe. Getting a handle on your net worth is like giving yourself a financial report card. When you count up all of your assets and liabilities, you can understand what’s working in your financial life and fix what’s not.
Net Worth Calculator
Datalign Advisory
Access to thousands of financial advisors.
Expertise ranging from retirement to estate planning.
Match with a pre-screened financial advisor that is right for you.
Answer 20 questions and get matched today.
Connect with your match for a free, no-obligation call.
Expertise ranging from retirement to estate planning.
Answer 20 questions and get matched today.
How to Use the Net Worth Calculator
To get the most out of Forbes Advisor’s net worth calculator, we recommend that you input data that accurately reflects the value of your assets and liabilities.
Understanding Your Assets
To get an accurate read on your net worth using this calculator, you need a good idea of the value of your major assets.
Assets are nothing more than possessions that you could exchange for cash. Stocks, bonds and other investments are assets, but so are things like your home, your car and even the money in your checking account.
Some assets are more liquid than others, meaning you could sell them more rapidly at a price that reflects their current value. Cash, for instance, is the most liquid asset. But other assets are less liquid, which means it would take time and effort to sell them, and you might not get exactly what you thought they were worth.
For each asset type in our calculator, enter an estimate of what you believe the value of the asset would be if you sold it today. Don’t worry about how much outstanding debt you might owe on something like a car loan or a mortgage. We’ll cover those in the “Your liabilities” section.
Annual Asset Growth Rate
The annual rate of growth in the value of your assets can be very tricky to get right. Our calculator lets you tabulate the value of four different types of assets: real estate, personal property, investments and cash.
Each of these would probably earn a very different annual rate of return, making it challenging to settle on the right overall annual growth rate. This calculator defaults to a growth rate of 7% to reflect somewhat conservative returns for stock-heavy investments and real estate. You may wish to lower this even more if you have substantial holdings in cash or personal property with low or no rates of return.
Understanding Your Liabilities
Liabilities are outstanding financial debts that you owe, or the negative side of your personal balance sheet. In our calculator, you’ll simply enter the amount outstanding on each variety of liability you owe.
Over time, some liabilities slowly transform into assets. That’s what happens as you pay off your mortgage and earn equity in your home. In other cases, paying off a liability simply means you have no further obligation to the entity that lent you money, like working down your credit card balance.
Annual Liability Growth Rate
The annual growth rate of your liabilities could be as challenging to determine as the growth rate of your assets.
Some liabilities, like a car loan or a home loan, have set terms and rates of interest that you’ve already agreed to. Other liabilities, like student loans and credit card debt, are more open-ended. If you keep adding more to your balance, or make only minimal regular payments, your liabilities may continue to grow.
If you have a mortgage and a car loan and are paying off each on a regular basis (per the terms of your loan agreement), the growth rate of your liabilities should be zero. If you have a credit card balance that you’re not adding to, and you’re paying it off every month, your liability growth rate should also be zero.
But if you have student loans or credit card debt that you’re not paying down regularly, think about the interest rates and balances you hold in order to enter a rough estimate of what your liability growth rate might look like.
What Is Net Worth?
Net worth is the sum of all your assets and liabilities at one moment in time.
Positive net worth means that the value of the assets you own is higher than the liabilities you owe. Negative net worth is when the amount you owe in liabilities exceeds the value of your assets.
How To Calculate Net Worth
To calculate net worth, start with a list of everything you own, including stocks, bonds, real estate, savings and other assets. Next, calculate everything you owe. Be sure to include your mortgage, car loans, credit card debt and any student loans you may have accrued.
Once you have compiled these assets and liabilities, subtract the total value of everything you owe from everything you own. This figure will give you your net worth.
How To Increase Net Worth
There are many ways to increase your net worth. One is by purchasing assets, such as stocks or real estate, that may increase in value. Another way is by decreasing your debt.
With the first option, you are increasing your assets, while with the second option, you are decreasing your liabilities.
Other ways to increase your net worth are by:
- Saving more
- Cutting down your spending
- Increasing sources of revenue
However you choose to increase your net worth, it will require a consistent effort to maintain the progress you make. You will either have to make sure you do not take on more debt than you earn, or else you will need to make sure your income grows while your debts remain the same.
Net Worth Calculator FAQs
What is the average net worth of Americans?
The average net worth of all American families was $746,820, as of 2019, according to the Federal Reserve. If this amount seems somewhat disconnected from your financial reality, that’s because average measures of things like net worth can be distorted by a small number of people with gigantic personal fortunes. A median measure is more realistic. The Fed found that the median net worth of all Americans in 2019 was $121,760.
Why is net worth important?
Net worth is important because it gives you a sense of the health of your personal finances. If your assets outweigh your liabilities, you’re probably doing well financially. But if your liabilities outweigh your assets, you should work on reducing debt.
The fact that net worth doesn’t depend so much on the size of your income but more on how you use it also makes it a helpful tool for comparing people’s financial states.
You might believe that a person earning a high salary is better off financially than someone who makes a relatively modest one. But the better comparison would be each person’s net worth. After all, a high salaried individual might have greater debts that actually gave them a lesser net worth than someone with less means who uses what they have more judiciously.
Who has the highest net worth?
As of June 2023, the wealthiest person in the world is Elon Musk who resides in the United States and has a net worth of $234 billion.
Looking For A Financial Advisor?
Via Datalign Advisory
