Net Worth Calculator Guide

Overview

The Net Worth Calculator shows you a single number that captures your financial health: everything you own minus everything you owe. It breaks your finances into categories, visualizes where your wealth is concentrated, projects your retirement readiness, and compares you to US benchmarks.

All inputs support shorthand notation. Type 50K instead of 50,000 or 1.5M instead of 1,500,000. Changes auto-save to your browser. Log in to sync across devices.

Tabs

Summary

The default view. Shows your net worth, total assets, total debt, and debt-to-asset ratio at the top. Below that, two charts side by side:

• Net equity by category (donut chart) shows how your net worth is distributed across liquid assets, retirement accounts, primary home equity, investment property equity, vehicles, and business/other. Property equity is the asset value minus its associated mortgage. Only categories with positive equity appear as slices; negative equity categories appear in the legend only.
• Debt burndown (stacked bar chart) shows your debt payoff timeline by debt type. If you enable debt snowball or set an extra monthly payment, the bars reflect the faster payoff and a dashed gray line shows the original (slower) pace for comparison.

The summary also shows your retirement projection chart (if configured), goal progress bar, and age-group benchmarks. When you first visit with no data entered, example data is shown with a banner prompting you to enter your own numbers.

Assets

Enter the current value of everything you own, organized into five sections:

• Liquid Assets — checking & savings, brokerage/stocks, and crypto. These are tagged "liquid" because you can access them quickly.
• Retirement — 401(k)/403(b), IRA/Roth IRA, and pension value. Tagged "illiquid" since early withdrawals have penalties.
• Primary Home — your home's market value. If you have a home mortgage or HELOC in the Liabilities tab, the total owed is shown here automatically, along with your equity (home value minus mortgage).
• Investment Property — same pattern. Property value with associated mortgage total and equity displayed.
• Vehicles & Other — car value, business ownership, and any other assets.

The donut chart appears below the inputs, reflecting your current data in real time.

Liabilities

Each debt gets its own card with three fields: balance, interest rate, and monthly payment. Default cards are provided for common debt types (home mortgage, auto loan, credit card, student loan). Leave a card blank if you don't have that type of debt.

Click Add another debt to add more. The modal lets you pick a type (home mortgage, HELOC, investment property mortgage, auto loan, student loan, credit card, personal loan, medical debt, or other) and enter details.

Payoff Estimates

Each debt card shows a payoff estimate once you enter a balance and monthly payment: how long until it's paid off, total interest you'll pay, and total cost (principal + interest). If your payment doesn't cover the monthly interest, a warning appears.

Debt Snowball

Toggle this on in the extra payment section. When enabled, once a debt is fully paid off, its monthly payment automatically rolls into the next highest-rate debt. This creates an accelerating payoff effect. Each debt you eliminate frees up more money for the next one. The burndown chart and savings calculations update to reflect this.

Extra Monthly Payment

Enter an additional monthly amount to put toward debt. The calculator uses the avalanche strategy (highest interest rate first) and shows you:

• Total interest with and without the extra payment
• How much interest you save
• How much sooner you're debt-free
• A per-debt breakdown showing interest and time saved for each loan

Property Debt Types

Mortgage and HELOC debts are split by property type:

• Home mortgage / Home HELOC is associated with your primary home. The total appears in the Assets tab under Primary Home.
• Investment property mortgage / Investment property HELOC is associated with your investment property.

This lets the donut chart show accurate equity for each property separately.

Retirement & Goals

This tab combines your profile, goal tracking, and a retirement projection.

Profile & Goal

• Your age is used for the benchmark comparison and retirement projection.
• Net worth target sets a goal. A progress bar shows how close you are, visible here and on the Summary tab.

Retirement Projection

The projection uses your current investable asset balances (from the Assets tab) as starting values and runs a year-by-year simulation forward. It uses the same engine as the full Retirement Calculator.

• Retirement age — when you plan to stop working (default 65).
• Life expectancy — how long to plan for (default 90).
• Monthly contributions — how much you invest each month going forward (default $1,500).
• Monthly spending (retirement) — what you expect to spend per month after retiring (default $5,000).
• Return rate — expected annual investment return before inflation (default 7%).
• Inflation rate — expected annual inflation (default 3%). All projections are in today's dollars.

The projection shows four key metrics: earliest FIRE age, how long your money lasts, projected portfolio at retirement, and the minimum portfolio needed. A stacked bar chart shows the portfolio growing during accumulation and shrinking during drawdown. For more detailed modeling (Social Security, tax-aware withdrawals, multiple account strategies), use the full Retirement Calculator.

Hero Metrics

Four metrics are always visible at the top of the page:

• Net Worth — total assets minus total liabilities. Green when positive, red when negative.
• Total Assets — sum of all asset categories.
• Total Debt — sum of all liabilities (debts plus property mortgages).
• Debt-to-Asset — total debt as a percentage of total assets. Green under 50%, amber 50-80%, red above 80%.

US Net Worth Benchmarks

The "How do you compare?" section on the Summary tab uses data from the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF 2022). It shows both median (50th percentile) and average (mean) net worth for six age groups: Under 25, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, and 65-74.

The average is always much higher than the median because net worth is heavily skewed by wealthy households. Being above the median means you have more wealth than half of Americans in your age group. All bars share the same scale so you can see how wealth grows with age.

Set your age in the Retirement & Goals tab to see your position marked on your age group's bar.

Tips

• Type 5K, 250K, or 1.5M in any dollar field instead of typing out full numbers.
• Focus on the assets you actually have. Leave fields at zero if they don't apply to you.
• Update your numbers monthly to track progress over time.
• Use the debt snowball toggle to see how rolling freed payments accelerates your debt payoff.
• The retirement projection is a quick estimate. For detailed tax-aware modeling, use the full Retirement Calculator.
• The donut chart shows net equity per category. If your mortgage exceeds your home value (underwater), that category won't appear as a slice but will still show in the legend.