Net Worth Calculator
Calculate your net worth by listing your assets and liabilities.
What Is Net Worth?
Net worth is the single most important number in personal finance. It is the total value of everything you own, minus everything you owe. Unlike income — which measures how much money is flowing through your hands — net worth measures how much money actually belongs to you at a given moment.
Two people earning the same $100,000 salary can have wildly different net worths. One might have $400,000 in retirement savings and a paid-off car. The other might have $5,000 in savings, a leased luxury car, and $60,000 in credit card debt. Income tells you what they earn; net worth tells you what they have actually built.
Tracking your net worth quarterly is the simplest way to measure whether you are making real financial progress. If the number keeps going up year over year, you are building wealth — regardless of what the stock market does in any given month.
The Formula
Assets— everything you own that has market value (cash, investments, retirement accounts, real estate, vehicles, business equity, valuable personal property).Liabilities— everything you owe to lenders (mortgage, student loans, auto loans, credit card balances, personal loans, medical debt, tax debt).
That's the entire formula. The math is trivially easy — the hard part is being honest about what your assets are really worth, and not forgetting any of your debts.
How Your Net Worth Compares — Median US Household by Age
The table below shows median and mean net worth by age from the Federal Reserve's 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances (the newest data, released late 2023). Medians are more representative than means because a handful of ultra-wealthy households pull the averages sharply upward.
| Age of head of household | Median net worth | Mean net worth |
|---|---|---|
| Under 35 | $39,000 | $183,500 |
| 35–44 | $135,600 | $549,600 |
| 45–54 | $247,200 | $975,800 |
| 55–64 | $364,500 | $1,566,900 |
| 65–74 | $409,900 | $1,794,600 |
| 75+ | $335,600 | $1,624,100 |
Source: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) 2022, Table 2. Figures are in 2022 dollars.
Rules of Thumb for Net Worth by Age
A widely cited target is to accumulate a multiple of your annual gross income in net worth:
- Age 30: 1× annual income
- Age 40: 3× annual income
- Age 50: 6× annual income
- Age 60: 8× annual income
- Retirement (~67): 10× annual income
These targets come from Fidelity's retirement savings research and assume you want to maintain your pre-retirement lifestyle without running out of money. They are aggressive but achievable if you save 15% of gross income starting in your 20s.
From The Millionaire Next Door (1996), this rule estimates your expected net worth at any age:
A 45-year-old earning $100,000 would be expected to have $450,000 in net worth. Stanley considered anyone with twice the expected amount a "prodigious accumulator of wealth" and anyone with less than half an "under-accumulator."
Worked Example — The Martinez Household
Ana and Luis Martinez are both 42. They bought a house in 2018, drive two cars, and both contribute to 401(k)s at work. Here's what they own and owe in April 2026:
- Checking + savings: $18,000
- Brokerage account: $42,000
- Ana's 401(k): $95,000
- Luis's 401(k) + Roth IRA: $110,000
- Home market value: $485,000
- Two cars (Kelley Blue Book): $31,000
- Remaining mortgage: $308,000
- Auto loan (Luis's SUV): $14,500
- Credit card balance: $2,800
- Ana's student loans: $11,700
With a combined household income of $155,000, the Martinezes have about 2.9× their income in net worth at age 42 — slightly below the 3× rule-of-thumb target but well above the national median for their age bracket ($135,600). They're on track.
What to Include — and What Not To
✓ Assets to include (at current market value)
- Cash, checking, and savings accounts — use current balance.
- Investment accounts — brokerage, mutual funds, ETFs, individual stocks, bonds.
- Retirement accounts — 401(k), 403(b), 457, IRA, Roth IRA, SEP, SIMPLE, HSA.
- Real estate — primary home, rental properties, land (use Zillow, Redfin, or a recent appraisal).
- Vehicles — cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats, RVs at current resale value (Kelley Blue Book, NADA).
- Business equity — if you own a business, estimate its market value conservatively.
- Valuable personal property — jewelry, art, collectibles, if individually worth $1,000+.
✗ What to leave out (or handle separately)
- Expected future income — your future salary, bonuses, or freelance income don't count until they're in the bank.
- Social Security and pensions — these are future income streams, not assets you own. Track expected benefits separately.
- Depreciating consumer goods — TVs, clothing, furniture, electronics. They lose 50–90% of value immediately and aren't practically sellable.
- Money owed to you informally — unless it's documented and collectible, leave it out.
- Inheritance you expect — until the money hits your account, it isn't yours.
How to Use This Calculator
- Gather recent statements for every bank, brokerage, retirement, and loan account. Do this once per quarter so the numbers reflect the same point in time.
- Enter your assets in the left panel — cash, investments, retirement, real estate, vehicles, and business or other assets. Use current market values, not purchase prices.
- Enter your liabilities — remaining mortgage balance, auto loans, student loans, credit card debt, and other loans.
- Read your net worth in the top-right panel. The donut chart shows your asset composition; the bar chart shows assets vs liabilities vs net worth.
- Save or export using the PDF button so you can compare against next quarter. Nothing is sent to a server — your numbers stay on your device.
Methodology & Assumptions
- Net worth = sum of asset inputs − sum of liability inputs. No growth projections, no inflation adjustment — it's a snapshot of right now.
- Benchmark data is from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) 2022, the most recent triennial release. We report medians, which are less skewed than means.
- Rules of thumb (1× by 30, 3× by 40, etc.) follow Fidelity's 2019–2024 retirement research. Your specific target depends on your desired retirement lifestyle, Social Security, and pension income.
- All computation happens in your browser using vanilla JavaScript. Nothing is sent to any server. You can verify this by opening the Network tab in DevTools — no outbound requests are made when you enter data.
Glossary
- Asset
- Anything of economic value that you own — including money, investments, property, and equipment — that can be converted to cash or used to pay debts.
- Liability
- Any financial obligation you owe to another party, typically debts that must be repaid with interest.
- Liquid asset
- An asset that can be converted to cash quickly and without significant loss of value — cash, checking, savings, and most brokerage holdings. Real estate and business equity are illiquid.
- Liquid net worth
- Total net worth excluding illiquid assets like your primary home, business equity, and vehicles. A better measure of short-term emergency resilience.
- Home equity
- The current market value of your home minus the outstanding mortgage balance. Counts toward net worth but is not liquid.
- HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit)
- A revolving line of credit secured by your home equity. Counts as a liability when drawn.
- Median vs mean
- The median is the middle value in a sorted list (half of households above, half below). The mean is the arithmetic average. For net worth data, medians are more representative because a small number of billionaires pull the mean sharply upward.
- Fed SCF
- The Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, a triennial survey of US household finances considered the gold-standard data source on American wealth distribution.
- Prodigious accumulator of wealth (PAW)
- A term from Stanley & Danko's The Millionaire Next Door — someone whose net worth is at least twice what their age and income would predict.
- HSA (Health Savings Account)
- A tax-advantaged account for medical expenses. Often forgotten in net worth calculations but counts as a liquid asset with significant tax benefits.
Frequently Asked Questions
Net worth is the total value of everything you own (assets) minus everything you owe (liabilities). The formula is simple: Net Worth = Total Assets − Total Liabilities. Assets include cash, investments, retirement accounts, real estate, and vehicles; liabilities include mortgages, student loans, auto loans, and credit card debt. Track it quarterly to measure real financial progress.
According to the 2022 Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, the median US household net worth is about $39,000 under age 35, $135,600 for 35–44, $247,200 for 45–54, $364,500 for 55–64, $409,900 for 65–74, and $335,600 for 75+. A common rule of thumb is to have 1× your annual income in net worth by 30, 3× by 40, 6× by 50, and 10× by retirement.
Yes. Home equity is the current market value of your home minus the outstanding mortgage balance, and it counts as a real asset in your net worth. Enter the full market value under Real Estate and the remaining mortgage under Liabilities — the calculator subtracts the two automatically. Some advisors prefer to track "liquid net worth" separately, excluding your primary residence, because you can't easily spend home equity without selling or borrowing against it.
Yes. Include all retirement account balances (401(k), 403(b), IRA, Roth IRA, SEP, SIMPLE, HSA) at their current market value. These are real assets that you own, even though they are tax-deferred. Note that traditional 401(k)/IRA balances are pre-tax, so your "after-tax" net worth may be ~15–25% lower depending on your future tax bracket — some people track this adjustment separately.
A defined-benefit pension is not a traditional asset because you don't own an account balance — you own a future income stream. Most personal finance trackers exclude pensions from net worth but note the expected monthly benefit separately. If you want to include it, estimate the present value as: annual benefit × life expectancy factor (~15–20×), discounted for uncertainty. Social Security works the same way.
Liquid net worth includes only assets you can convert to cash quickly without major loss — cash, checking/savings, brokerage accounts, and sometimes retirement accounts (minus early-withdrawal penalties). Total net worth includes everything: your home, vehicles, business equity, and illiquid investments. Liquid net worth is a better measure of emergency resilience; total net worth is a better measure of long-term wealth.
Not necessarily. Many young professionals have negative net worth right after graduating because student loans exceed their savings and small retirement balances. What matters is the trajectory: if your net worth rises year over year, you are building wealth. Negative net worth becomes a problem only if it is growing or stuck due to high-interest debt (credit cards, payday loans). Focus on paying down high-interest debt first, then increase your savings rate.
Quarterly is a good cadence for most people — frequent enough to catch trends but not so frequent that short-term market swings dominate. Pick a consistent day (for example, the first Sunday of each quarter) and save your inputs with a note for that date. Research on financial behavior suggests quarterly tracking leads to better decisions than daily obsession.
According to the 2022 Fed SCF, the top 10% of US households have a net worth above about $1.94 million, and the top 1% above roughly $11 million. Charles Schwab's 2024 Modern Wealth Survey found Americans think it takes $2.5 million to be "wealthy" on average. These numbers vary widely by region — $1 million in net worth goes much further in the Midwest than on either coast.
Yes, at its current resale value (not what you paid). Use Kelley Blue Book or Edmunds for a realistic estimate. If you still owe money on the car, enter the full resale value as an asset and the loan balance as a liability. Vehicles are depreciating assets — do not include them at purchase price or you will overstate your net worth for years.