How to calculate your net worth

Add up what you own: cash and bank balances, investments, retirement accounts, and the realistic resale value of anything substantial like a property or a vehicle. Then subtract what you owe: credit card balances, loans, and any remaining mortgage.

The result can be negative, and for anyone early in a mortgage or carrying student debt that is both common and not in itself alarming. A single reading says very little. The same number taken every few months says a great deal, because the direction of travel is the actual signal.

Net worth becomes useless the moment it is flattered. Value assets at what you could actually sell them for, not what you paid or what you hope. Illiquid things — a car, a property — should be marked cautiously, and personal possessions are generally best left out entirely.

Debt, by contrast, should be counted in full and at its current balance, including anything on a card that you intend to clear this month.

Countorra computes net worth from the balances of the accounts in your workspace, treating credit cards and loans as what you owe. Accounts connected to an institution keep their balances current on their own; anything outside Countorra is outside the figure.

That last point is the one to remember. If a retirement account or a mortgage is not represented in the workspace, the number is a partial one — and it is worth knowing in which direction it is partial.