Add up what you own, subtract what you owe, and see your current net worth — free, private, calculated entirely in your browser.
Net worth is the single number that answers a simple question: if you sold everything you own today and paid off everything you owe, what would be left over? It comes from one formula — assets minus liabilities — but the number only means something if you're honest about what belongs in each column. An asset is anything with real, transferable value: cash, an investment account, a retirement account, a home, a paid-off car. A liability is any balance you're obligated to pay back: a mortgage, a student loan, a credit card balance, a personal loan. Subtract the second group from the first and that's your net worth. It can come out negative, and for a lot of people early in their financial lives it does — that's a normal starting point, not a diagnosis of anything gone wrong.
Unlike income, which measures what flows in over a period of time, net worth measures what has actually accumulated. Two people earning identical salaries can end up with very different net worth depending on how long they've been saving, how much debt they're carrying, and whether their money has been sitting idle or growing in retirement and investment accounts. That's why net worth, tracked over time, tells you far more about your financial direction than any single paycheck ever could.
Cash and savings are the easiest category — the balance sitting in your checking and savings accounts, plus anything in a money market account. Retirement accounts (401(k), 403(b), traditional or Roth IRA) count at their current statement value, not the total you've contributed over the years — the balance moves with the market, so use today's number. Brokerage and investment accounts work the same way: use current market value, not what you originally paid for the shares.
Real estate and vehicles are trickier because they're illiquid — you can't turn them into cash by clicking a button. Use a realistic current market value for your home (a recent appraisal, a comparable sale nearby, or a conservative estimate from a home-value tool), not the price you paid years ago. For a vehicle, use what it would actually sell for today, which is almost always less than the purchase price and drops every year it's driven. "Other assets" is a catch-all for things like a business you own, valuable collectibles, or a cash-value life insurance policy — include only items you could realistically convert to cash if you needed to.
This is where most self-calculated net worth numbers go wrong — not because people lie, but because a balance slips their mind. Your mortgage principal (not your monthly payment) is the liability figure. Student loans, federal or private, count at their current outstanding balance. Auto loans work the same way. Credit card debt should reflect your actual current balance, not your credit limit — and if you carry balances on more than one card, add them together. "Other debts" covers personal loans, medical debt, back taxes owed, or money borrowed from family that you're expected to pay back.
Here's an illustrative example — the numbers below are made up purely to show the math, not a target to compare yourself against. Say someone has $6,000 in checking and savings, $40,000 in a 401(k), $10,000 in a taxable brokerage account, and a car worth $14,000 — no home, since they rent. That's $70,000 in total assets. On the liability side, they're carrying $22,000 in student loans, $8,000 left on an auto loan, and $3,000 in credit card debt, for $33,000 in total liabilities. Subtract the two: $70,000 minus $33,000 leaves a net worth of $37,000. Change any single input — pay down the credit card, or watch the 401(k) grow with the market over a year — and the number moves. That's the reason to recalculate periodically instead of treating this as a one-time exercise: the trend matters more than any one snapshot.
The most common error is forgetting a liability entirely — an old collections balance, a co-signed loan, or a "buy now, pay later" balance that doesn't show up unless you go looking for it. Leaving one out, deliberately or accidentally, doesn't change what you actually owe; it just makes the result inaccurate. The opposite mistake is just as common: overvaluing illiquid assets like a home, a car, jewelry, or a timeshare. It's tempting to use the price you'd like to get rather than what a buyer would actually pay today. A more conservative estimate here gives you a more useful — and less disappointing, if you ever need to actually sell — result.
A third mistake is inconsistency over time: using this year's home value alongside last year's investment balance, for example. If you're tracking net worth across months or years, recalculate every input at the same time using the same sources, so the trend line reflects reality rather than mismatched snapshots stitched together.
A single net worth calculation is a snapshot, not a verdict. The more useful habit is recalculating on a regular cadence — quarterly is common, though monthly or annually both work — and watching the direction of the trend rather than fixating on the number itself. A net worth climbing steadily from a negative starting point tells a very different story than a flat or declining number, regardless of what the absolute figure says. It's also worth separating total net worth from "liquid" net worth — cash and brokerage balances you could access quickly, minus short-term liabilities — since a high net worth tied up entirely in a home and a retirement account doesn't help you cover next month's unexpected expense.
This calculator does exactly what it says: arithmetic, performed instantly and privately in your browser. The calculator does not transmit or store anything you enter here — close or refresh the page and the numbers are gone. That's a deliberate design choice, not an oversight, though it does mean the tool won't remember your history between visits unless you keep your own record of past results. More importantly, this is an educational tool, not personalized financial, investment, tax, or legal advice — it can't account for your specific goals, risk tolerance, tax situation, or family circumstances. For a major financial decision — a debt payoff strategy, an investment allocation, a retirement timeline — a qualified financial professional can weigh in on details a simple calculator can't see.