How to Determine Your Net Worth (with Worksheets)

Your net worth, in simple terms, is the difference in what you own and what you owe. (Assets — liabilities = net worth.)

Let’s start with your assets. Assets are cash or items that can be turned into cash.

Bank accounts, stock investments, etc. are assets. If you don’t have an emergency savings account, then I recommend a high-yield, compound interest rate. Axos offers the highest one I have found here.

Your home is an asset, as long as it has equity, meaning it is worth more — in terms of real market value — than what you owe. If you could sell your house for $200,000, and you only owe $150,000, your equity is $50,000. That equity is an asset.

If your car is paid off, and you could sell it for $5,000, it’s an asset. If you just bought a car with a loan, and you put little or no money down, even though it’s “worth” $20,000 it’s not an asset, because if you sold it today, the proceeds wouldn’t go into your pocket — they’d go to paying off your loan. (This process will help you figure all that out.)

Use the following worksheet to list all your assets. (Remember, actual value is what you can sell the item for, not what it is theoretically “worth.” A silver necklace that cost $200 isn’t worth $200 unless someone will actually pay you that amount for it.)