Net worth equals total assets minus total liabilities. That's the entire calculation — there's no hidden weighting, no adjustment for age or income, and no projection involved on the main calculator. You enter current values, the calculator adds one column, subtracts the other, and shows you the result. This page explains exactly what belongs in each column and how each field is meant to be valued, so the number you get actually reflects your real financial position rather than a rough guess.
Cash & savings — the current balance of checking accounts, savings accounts, and cash equivalents like money market accounts. Use today's statement balance, not an average across the year.
Retirement accounts — 401(k), 403(b), traditional IRA, Roth IRA, and similar tax-advantaged accounts, valued at their current market value as of your most recent statement. This is the balance the account is worth today if you looked at your provider's dashboard, not the sum of your contributions over time — contributions grow or shrink with the market, so the current value is what's relevant.
Investments — taxable brokerage accounts, individual stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs held outside a retirement account. Same rule: current market value, not cost basis (what you originally paid).
Home value — the realistic current market value of real estate you own, not the original purchase price and not your mortgage's remaining balance (that belongs in liabilities, separately). A recent appraisal can be a reasonable source, and so can a conservative estimate based on recent comparable sales in your area.
Vehicle value — what the vehicle would realistically sell for today in a private-party sale, which is typically higher than a dealer trade-in offer and lower than the original purchase price. Vehicles depreciate steadily, so this figure should be updated each time you recalculate rather than left at an old estimate.
Other assets — anything with genuine resale or liquidation value that doesn't fit the categories above: a business you own, valuable collectibles, cash-value life insurance, or a valuable piece of equipment. The test is simple — could you actually convert it to cash if you needed to, at roughly the value you're entering?
Mortgage balance — the remaining principal you owe on your home loan today, found on your most recent mortgage statement. This is not your monthly payment and not the original loan amount — it's what's left to pay off.
Student loans — the current outstanding balance across all federal and private student loans combined. If you have multiple loans or servicers, add them together for a single total.
Auto loans — the remaining payoff balance on any vehicle loan, available from your lender's account portal or most recent statement, not the original loan amount.
Credit card debt — your actual current balance carried on all cards combined, not your total available credit limit. If you pay your cards in full every month and carry no balance, this figure is zero.
Other debts — personal loans, medical debt, back taxes owed, money borrowed from family or friends that you're expected to repay, and any co-signed loan where you remain legally responsible even if someone else is making the payments.
Net worth, as calculated here, does not include your future earning potential, expected inheritances, Social Security or pension entitlements you haven't yet received, or the value of skills and education (sometimes called "human capital"). These are real and often significant parts of someone's overall financial picture, but they aren't assets in the balance-sheet sense — they can't be assigned a firm current value or converted to cash today. The calculator also doesn't subtract taxes you'd owe if you liquidated an asset (for example, capital gains tax on an investment sale, or income tax on an early retirement withdrawal), so the result is a gross figure, not what you'd actually walk away with after a full liquidation.
All arithmetic runs locally in your browser using JavaScript that ships with this page. The calculator does not transmit, log, or store any input field — the moment you close or refresh the page, everything you entered is gone. That's a deliberate design choice: a net worth calculation touches sensitive financial details, and the simplest way to keep that information private is to never send it anywhere in the first place.
This is an educational arithmetic tool, not personalized financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. It cannot account for your specific tax situation, your state of residence, joint versus individual ownership questions, or complex asset structures like trusts and business partnerships. For decisions that depend on those details, a qualified financial, tax, or legal professional can review specifics that a general-purpose calculator isn't built to handle.