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Your net worth is the single best measure of financial progress. Here are the best free and paid apps to track it automatically, plus how to calculate it yourself.
Your salary is not your financial health. Your spending is not your financial health. Your net worth is your financial health. It is the single number that captures everything: what you own minus what you owe.
Net worth rising? You are building wealth, regardless of your income. Net worth stagnant or declining? Something is wrong, even if your paycheck is large. Tracking your net worth monthly is the simplest way to know whether your financial life is moving in the right direction.
According to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, the median net worth for Americans under 35 is roughly $39,000. For ages 35 to 44, it is roughly $135,000. For ages 45 to 54, roughly $247,000. Knowing where you stand relative to these benchmarks gives you context for your progress.
How to calculate your net worth
The formula is simple:
Net worth = Total assets – Total liabilities
Assets (what you own):
- Cash and savings: Checking accounts, high-yield savings accounts, CDs, money market accounts
- Investments: 401(k), Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, HSA, taxable brokerage accounts, 529 plans
- Property: Home value (use Zillow or Redfin as a rough guide), rental properties, vehicles (use Kelley Blue Book value)
- Other: Business equity, crypto holdings, valuable personal property (only if significant and liquid)
Liabilities (what you owe):
- Mortgage: Remaining balance (not the monthly payment)
- Student loans: Total balance across all federal and private loans
- Auto loans: Remaining balance
- Credit card debt: Total balance across all cards. If you pay in full monthly, this is $0 for net worth purposes
- Personal loans: Any outstanding balances
- Other: Medical debt, back taxes, money owed to family
Example:
| Assets | Amount |
|---|---|
| Checking account | $3,000 |
| High-yield savings | $12,000 |
| 401(k) | $45,000 |
| Roth IRA | $18,000 |
| Taxable brokerage | $8,000 |
| Car value | $12,000 |
| Total assets | $98,000 |
| Liabilities | Amount |
|---|---|
| Student loans | $22,000 |
| Auto loan | $8,000 |
| Credit card balance | $0 |
| Total liabilities | $30,000 |
Net worth: $98,000 – $30,000 = $68,000
Calculate your net worth right now:
Net Worth Calculator
Then track it month by month. Use our free Net Worth Tracker Spreadsheet to log assets and liabilities across categories with automatic calculations. Takes under 5 minutes to update monthly.
The best apps to track net worth
1. Empower (formerly Personal Capital): best free option
Price: Free (wealth management service is separate and charges fees on managed assets)
Empower links to your bank accounts, credit cards, investment accounts, loans, and mortgages. It calculates net worth automatically and tracks it over time with charts showing monthly and yearly trends. The investment analysis tools are excellent: portfolio analysis, fee analysis (identifies hidden mutual fund fees), retirement planner, and investment checkup.
Strengths: Completely free for tracking. Clean interface. Tracks net worth history so you can see your progress over months and years.
Weakness: Empower’s business model is wealth management, so you will receive calls from advisors trying to sell their managed investment service. You can ignore these.
Best for: Anyone who wants free, automatic net worth tracking with strong investment analysis tools.
2. Monarch Money: best paid option
Price: $14.99/month or $99.99/year
Monarch combines budgeting, net worth tracking, and financial planning. Links all accounts, tracks net worth over time, categorizes transactions, tracks spending trends, and supports goal setting. The best all-in-one financial app with excellent design and couple support.
Best for: People who want budgeting and net worth tracking in one place. The strongest app for couples tracking combined finances. See our budgeting apps guide for the full comparison.
3. Copilot Money: best for Apple users
Price: $14.99/month or $119.99/year
iOS-only with excellent design. Account aggregation, spending tracking, net worth monitoring, investment performance, and subscription detection. The best-designed financial app on iOS.
Weakness: iOS only, no Android. More expensive than Monarch Money.
Best for: iPhone and Mac users who want a native-feeling experience.
4. YNAB: best for budget-first approach
Price: $14.99/month or $109/year (34-day free trial)
YNAB is primarily a zero-based budgeting app but includes net worth tracking through its account balances feature. Investment account tracking is manual rather than automatic.
Best for: People who want a budget tool that also shows net worth, not a dedicated net worth tracker.
5. Spreadsheet: best for full control
Price: Free
Our free Net Worth Tracker is ready to use immediately. Tracks assets and liabilities across categories, calculates net worth automatically, and lets you add a new column each month to track the trend.
The manual process forces you to look at every account monthly — a feature, not a bug. Most people discover accounts they forgot about or balances that surprise them.
Weaknesses: No automatic account linking. Requires monthly discipline.
Quick comparison
| App | Price | Auto-link | Budgeting | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Empower | Free | Yes | Basic | Free net worth + investment tracking |
| Monarch Money | $99/year | Yes | Excellent | All-in-one financial management |
| Copilot | $120/year | Yes | Good | Apple ecosystem users |
| YNAB | $99/year | Yes | Best in class | Budget-first approach |
| Spreadsheet | Free | No | DIY | Full control, privacy |
Why tracking net worth matters more than tracking spending
Budgeting tracks the flow of money. Net worth tracks the result. You can follow a perfect budget and still have a declining net worth (if your investments lose value). You can be a messy budgeter and still build net worth (if you automate savings and invest consistently).
Net worth is the scoreboard. Everything else, your income, your spending, your savings rate, is the gameplay. Both matter, but the scoreboard tells you if the game plan is working.
The milestones: where do you stand?
Use this interactive tracker to see where you fall and what each milestone means:Net Worth Milestone Tracker
How often to check
Monthly is ideal. Update your net worth on the 1st of each month. This is frequent enough to catch problems but infrequent enough to avoid obsessing over daily market fluctuations.
Do not check daily or weekly. Stock market volatility means your net worth fluctuates daily. A 2% market drop on a $200,000 portfolio is a $4,000 “loss” that means nothing if you are not selling. Checking too frequently invites emotional reactions.
Track the trend, not the number. Some months your net worth will decrease (market drops, large expenses). That is normal. Look at the 6-month and 12-month trend. If the line is going up over time, you are building wealth.
Frequently asked questions
Should I include my home in my net worth?
Yes, but with a caveat. Include the estimated market value as an asset and the remaining mortgage as a liability. Also track your “investable net worth” (net worth minus home equity) since you cannot easily spend your home equity. Both numbers are useful.
Should I include my car?
Yes. Use Kelley Blue Book or Edmunds for the current value. Include the auto loan as a liability. Note that cars depreciate, so the asset value drops each year.
My net worth is negative. Is that bad?
It is common, not bad. If you have student loans or a mortgage and are early in your career, negative net worth is a normal starting point. Track it monthly and focus on making it less negative, then zero, then positive.
Which metric is more important: net worth or savings rate?
Both. Your savings rate determines how fast your net worth grows. Net worth measures the cumulative result. Track both. A 20%+ savings rate combined with a rising net worth trend means you are on track.
How do I track net worth as a couple?
Combine all joint and individual assets and liabilities. Most apps (Monarch Money, Empower) support adding a partner. For a spreadsheet, list all accounts from both partners in one sheet. Having a shared view of your combined net worth is important for financial conversations as a couple.
The bottom line
Your net worth is the most honest measure of your financial life. It does not care about your salary, your title, or your lifestyle. It only cares about the gap between what you own and what you owe.
Pick a tracking method (Empower for free, Monarch for comprehensive, a spreadsheet for full control) and update it on the first of every month. Celebrate the milestones. When the trend is up and to the right, you are building wealth.
The act of tracking, by itself, improves behavior. Seeing your net worth update monthly makes saving more rewarding, spending more conscious, and investing more motivating.
Ready to start tracking?
- Want free and automatic? Sign up for Empower — links all your accounts and tracks net worth at no cost. Takes about 10 minutes to set up.
- Want budgeting plus net worth in one place? Monarch Money is the best all-in-one option with a 7-day free trial.
- Prefer a spreadsheet? Download our free Net Worth Tracker — no signup required, update it monthly in under 5 minutes.
