How do you calculate net worth, and what should yours be?
Net worth is one subtraction: total assets minus total liabilities. Assets: cash, investment and retirement balances, home value, car value, anything meaningfully sellable. Liabilities: mortgage balance, student and auto loans, credit card debt. A negative result is normal early on, a mortgage or fresh degree does that, and says nothing shameful about you.
Its value is as a trendline, not a scoreboard. Income measures what flows through your hands; net worth measures what stayed, and plenty of high earners fail that audit. Compute it quarterly, same method each time, and watch direction: paying down principal raises it even though your checking account feels the loss, which is exactly the reframe that makes debt payoff feel like progress. For calibration, the Fed's Survey of Consumer Finances publishes medians by age; compare against medians, not averages, which billionaires distort, and mostly compare against your own last quarter.
Everything you own minus everything you owe: accounts plus home value plus retirement, minus mortgage, loans, and cards. The number matters less than its direction; track it quarterly and make the line go up.
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https://frequentlyaskedquestions.us/q/how-to-calculate-net-worth/Everybody Asks. (2026, July 28). How do you calculate net worth, and what should yours be? https://frequentlyaskedquestions.us/q/how-to-calculate-net-worth/“How do you calculate net worth, and what should yours be?” Everybody Asks, 28 July 2026, https://frequentlyaskedquestions.us/q/how-to-calculate-net-worth/.“How do you calculate net worth, and what should yours be?” Everybody Asks. Last modified July 28, 2026. https://frequentlyaskedquestions.us/q/how-to-calculate-net-worth/.This page summarizes the primary sources listed above. For academic or encyclopedic work, cite those primary sources directly wherever possible.