What is this calculator for?
Net worth is the most honest single number in personal finance. Your salary tells you what flows in. Your spending tells you what flows out. But net worth — assets minus liabilities — tells you what you have actually built, and whether the past year of income and spending moved that number forward or backward. People in $180,000 jobs often have negative net worth. People earning $52,000 can have net worth in the high six figures by their forties. The salary is theater; the net worth is the play.
The Federal Reserve's 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances put US median household net worth at $192,700 and average net worth at $1,063,700 — a gap that tells you the average is dragged up by ultra-high-net-worth outliers and the median is the more useful benchmark. By age, median net worth runs about $39,000 for under-35s, $135,600 for 35-44, $247,200 for 45-54, $364,500 for 55-64, and $409,900 for 65-74. If you're behind those numbers, you're not alone; if you're ahead, the next decade of compounding has a strong tailwind.
This calculator captures both sides of the ledger. Assets: cash, retirement accounts, brokerage accounts, real estate equity, vehicles, business interests, valuable collectibles. Liabilities: mortgage balance, student loans, credit card debt, auto loans, personal loans, anything else you owe. The subtraction gives you your number. The breakdown shows you which buckets are doing the work.
How to use this calculator
Work through assets first. Use current market value, not what you paid. Your house at the 2019 purchase price of $310,000 is now worth $397,000 in most markets — use the higher number. Your 2018 Honda Pilot you paid $34,000 for is now worth $19,200 on KBB private-party — use $19,200. Your 401(k) from your last employer is whatever it shows on the latest statement.
For real estate equity, two ways to count it. The clean way: list market value as an asset, list mortgage balance as a liability. The net effect is the same as listing the equity directly, but separating the two lets you see how much of your net worth is "the leveraged bet on this house." Some advisors prefer to net them at the asset line ("home equity $87,000"); we recommend listing gross because it makes the leverage visible.
For vehicles, be aggressive about depreciation. A 3-year-old car loses 40-50% of its value from new; a 5-year-old car loses 60%. KBB or Edmunds private-party "Good condition" value is more honest than dealer trade-in retail. Many people overstate cars by 20-30% out of optimism.
On the liabilities side, use the current principal balance, not the original loan amount. A 5-year-old $230,000 mortgage might have a $202,000 remaining balance. List credit card debt at the actual current balance, not the credit limit (that's not a debt until you spend it). Include personal loans, BNPL balances, family loans you intend to repay, and the negative balance on any account.
Understanding your results
The headline number is your net worth. If it's positive, your assets exceed your debts. If it's negative, you owe more than you own — common in your 20s if you have student loans and no real assets yet, less common past 40 unless something has gone wrong.
The more useful interpretation comes from the composition. A 35-year-old with $180,000 net worth that breaks down as $115,000 home equity, $48,000 retirement, $12,000 cash, and $5,000 vehicle is in a very different position than a 35-year-old with the same $180,000 split as $20,000 home equity, $145,000 retirement, $5,000 cash, $10,000 vehicle. The first is house-poor and liquidity-thin; the second has tradeable assets that can absorb shocks. Both totals look the same on paper; the underlying risk profiles are not.
The benchmark question that comes up every time: am I on track? A common rule of thumb is "net worth should equal age × annual gross income ÷ 10," credited to The Millionaire Next Door. At 40 earning $90,000, the target is $360,000. This is a stretch goal — only the top quartile or so of households hit it. The 50th percentile by age (per the Fed's SCF) is closer to ½ to ⅓ of the rule-of-thumb target. Both numbers are useful: the rule of thumb tells you what aggressive savers achieve; the SCF median tells you what typical Americans look like.
Tracking matters more than the absolute number. Net worth a year from now should be higher than today by at least the value of what you saved into retirement accounts plus what you paid down on debt principal. If it isn't, either an asset lost value (often a house in a flat market, or a stock portfolio after a drawdown) or your spending exceeded your saving and you funded the difference with debt. Both are diagnosable. A flat or declining net worth across 3+ years on a stable income is the financial equivalent of an unexplained fever — it warrants investigation.
A worked example
Jennifer and Tom are 43 and 45, two kids, household income $156,000 in suburban Chicago. They've been working full-time for about 20 years between them and never sat down to calculate net worth. Here's what shakes out when they actually itemize.
Assets: house at current market value $478,000. Cash and savings $14,500. Tom's 401(k) $187,400. Jennifer's 401(k) $94,200. Jennifer's Roth IRA $38,600. Brokerage account (joint) $24,300. 529 plans for two kids $46,200. Tom's 2019 Acura MDX (KBB private-party) $22,800. Jennifer's 2017 Honda CR-V $14,500. Total assets: $920,500.
Liabilities: mortgage balance $284,300 (originally $340,000, refinanced in 2021). HELOC for a kitchen reno $18,200. Student loan balance (Jennifer, returning to school) $11,400. Credit card balance $4,600 (paid monthly but currently showing). Auto loan on the Acura $12,800. Total liabilities: $331,300.
Net worth: $920,500 − $331,300 = $589,200. The breakdown: home equity $193,700 (33% of net worth), retirement accounts $320,200 (54%), 529s $46,200 (8% — earmarked for kids), cash and brokerage $38,800 (7%), vehicles minus loans $24,500 (4%). The retirement-heavy profile is healthy for the 43-45 age band. Cash at 7% of net worth is borderline thin — they should aim for at least $30K in cash given two kids and a single-income exposure if either job ends.
The age × income ÷ 10 rule says they should be at (44 × $156K) ÷ 10 = $686,400. They're at $589,200, about 14% below the aggressive benchmark — but well above the SCF median of $247K for their age. They are in the "doing meaningfully better than the median, behind the millionaire-next-door pace" zone, which is where most professional-class American families with kids land. Next steps for them are clear: build cash buffer to $30K+, then accelerate retirement contributions when the HELOC clears.
Related resources
For comparing how compounding shapes wealth over decades, see the Compound Interest Calculator. For retirement-specific projections that interact directly with retirement account contributions, the 401(k) Planner. For evaluating the debt side of the balance sheet, the DTI Ratio Calculator and the Credit Card Payoff Calculator. The Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances is the authoritative source for US household net worth distributions by age, income, education, and race — useful when you want to know where you actually rank, not where you feel like you rank.