How to calculate your net worth, and what the Fed's new data says

The Federal Reserve published its 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances in October, and since then the question I see most is some version of "how does my net worth compare?" The Fed's release of 9 October 2026 puts the median family's net worth at $215,900, up 2% after inflation since 2022, and the mean at $1.24 million.

Before anyone compares themselves with those numbers, there is a more useful question: how do you calculate your net worth in the first place? Most people who try it get a number that is either too flattering or too gloomy, because they count the wrong things at the wrong values.

I read a lot of ledgers. The calculation itself is one subtraction. The work is in deciding what goes on each side, and the value is in doing it again next year.

What net worth is#

Net worth is everything you own minus everything you owe, measured on one day.

• Assets: cash, savings, investments, retirement accounts, the resale value of a car, the market value of a home, money people owe you.
• Liabilities: credit card balances, car loans, student loans, a mortgage, buy now, pay later plans, personal loans, tax you owe but have not paid yet.

Income is not on either side. A $90,000 salary adds nothing to net worth until some of it is still there after the bills. That is why two people on the same pay can be years apart: net worth measures what stayed, not what passed through.

How to calculate your net worth in five steps#

Step 1: pick a date#

Use one date for everything, ideally the end of a month after payday and the main bills have cleared. Balances on different days do not add up to a real number. A month-end or year-end snapshot is easy to repeat.

Step 2: list every account and what it holds today#

Write down the balance of each checking, savings and investment account, and each retirement account, as of that date. Use the current balance, not what you put in. A retirement account you funded with $30,000 that is now worth $34,000 counts as $34,000.

If you hold money in more than one currency, convert every balance at the same rate on the same date, and write the rate down so next year's comparison is fair. The rules for budgeting in more than one currency apply here too: pick one base currency and stay with it.

Step 3: value the things, cautiously#

Physical things count at what you could sell them for this week, not what you paid. A car bought for $28,000 three years ago is worth its resale value today. A home counts at a realistic sale price, and the mortgage goes on the other side in full.

Leave out furniture, electronics and clothes unless something is genuinely valuable and saleable. They inflate the number and you are not going to sell your sofa to pay a bill.

Step 4: list every debt#

This is where the number usually turns out too flattering. Include:

• every credit card balance, even the one you pay in full each month (on the snapshot date it is still owed);
• car loans, student loans and personal loans at their current principal;
• buy now, pay later plans, which are easy to forget because they live in separate apps (here is how to track them in one place);
• tax you owe but have not paid, if you are self-employed or expect a bill.

Step 5: subtract#

Total assets minus total liabilities. A negative number is common early on, especially with student loans, and it is a starting point, not a verdict.

A worked example#

Here is one person, aged 38, renting, with accounts in two currencies. Their snapshot this November:

• checking $3,400, high-yield savings $12,000, and a euro account with €2,000, converted at an assumed $1.15 per euro: $2,300;
• a 401(k) worth $48,500;
• a car with a resale value of about $14,000;
• a car loan of $9,800, a credit card balance of $2,350 and a student loan of $21,600.

Assets: $3,400 + $12,000 + $2,300 + $48,500 + $14,000 = $80,200.

Liabilities: $9,800 + $2,350 + $21,600 = $33,750.

Net worth: $80,200 − $33,750 = $46,450.

On its own that number says little. Next to last November's snapshot (same exchange rate, so currency moves do not muddy the change), it says a lot:

Check: $4,000 + $10,500 − $2,500 + $7,250 = $19,250.

Now split the $19,250 into what this person did and what happened to them. Of the 401(k)'s $10,500 rise, $7,200 was contributions (their own plus the employer match) and $3,300 was market growth. So:

• what they did: $4,000 saved in cash + $7,200 contributed + $7,250 of debt principal paid = $18,450;
• what happened to them: $3,300 of market growth − $2,500 of car depreciation = +$800.

$18,450 + $800 = $19,250. Almost all of this year's progress came from habits, not luck. In a bad market year the second line could be negative and the first would still be there. That split is the most useful thing a net worth calculation gives you, and you only get it by doing the calculation twice.

Two more numbers from the same snapshot are worth a glance:

• Cash minus short-term debt: $17,700 − $2,350 = $15,350. This is what you could reach in a bad month without selling anything. Compare it with your emergency fund target.
• Debt as a share of assets: $33,750 ÷ $80,200 ≈ 42%. Watching this fall year on year is a clearer signal than any single balance.

How to read the Fed's net worth by age#

The new survey breaks the median down by age, and the spread is wide. Households headed by someone under 35 have a median of $33,000, down 23% since 2022, while those headed by someone 75 or older have about $504,000, according to CBS News on 9 October 2026. For the 35 to 44 group the median is $155,600, as reported on 28 October 2026.

Our 38-year-old at $46,450 is well below that group's median. Before that becomes a worry, three things to keep in mind:

• The survey counts home equity. For many households in that age group, the home is the largest asset. A renter who invests the difference starts lower and catches up slowly, or not at all, depending on choices the median cannot show.
• A median is one household in the middle. Half the group is below it, and the spread within each age band is enormous.
• The trend is yours; the average is everyone's. A $19,250 rise in a year, mostly from habits, says more about the next ten years than the gap to a national figure.

The same Fed release had a less cheerful number: the share of families spending more than 40% of their income on debt payments rose from 6.5% to 8.6%, the highest since the 2013 survey. If your debt line is not falling, that is the place to start, and the snowball and avalanche comparison shows what an extra payment does.

How often to calculate it#

Once a year is enough to see direction; once a quarter is enough to catch a problem early. Monthly is fine if your accounts are already in one place, but resist reacting to market swings in your retirement balance. It is the long-term line that matters.

Keep the method fixed: same date in the month, same base currency, same rules for valuing the car. If you change a rule, recalculate last year with it too, or the change is just noise.

This is general education about tracking your finances, not advice about your investments or debts.

What to ask an advisor about it#

In Azno, your accounts, debts and goals sit in one ledger, so the snapshot does not need a spreadsheet. Questions you can ask:

• "Add up all my account balances and debts as of 30 November, converted to dollars, and show my net worth with each line." You see every number that went into it, so you can spot an account that is missing.
• "Compare each of my debt balances today with the start of the year and show the total I paid down." That is most of the 'what you did' half of the split.
• "Set a goal to raise my net worth by $15,000 by next November and suggest a monthly amount from my budget." It comes back as a proposal; nothing changes until you approve it.

If you want to run your own snapshot before the year ends, create a free account, add your accounts and debts, and ask for the number. Then do it again next November and see which half of the split moved.