Net Worth Calculator

Net worth is a subtraction, not a score

Net worth is one number: everything you own minus everything you owe. It is a snapshot of a single day, not a verdict on how you handle money, and it moves when markets move even in a month where you change nothing.

Two columns feed it. Assets include checking and savings balances, brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, the current value of a home, vehicles at resale value, and anything else you could turn into cash. Debts include the mortgage balance, home equity loans, credit card balances, student loans, car loans, personal loans, and medical bills you still owe.

The arithmetic is net worth = total assets - total debt. A negative result means the debts are larger than the property, which is common in the first years of a mortgage and right after graduation.

The Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances measures the country with the same definition, which is why the benchmark figures later on this page can be compared with your own total.

Two households, two balance sheets

Household one is 29 and rents. Cash and savings $12,000, retirement account $38,000, a car worth $9,000, no home. Debts: credit cards $3,100, student loans $22,000, car loan $6,500.

Assets: 12,000 + 38,000 + 9,000 = 59,000 dollars. Debts: 3,100 + 22,000 + 6,500 = 31,600 dollars. Net worth: 59,000 - 31,600 = 27,400 dollars. Debt equals 53.6 percent of assets.

Household two is 47 and owns a home. Home $420,000, retirement $260,000, brokerage $60,000, cash $35,000, two cars $24,000. Debts: mortgage $245,000, credit cards $4,800, student loans $12,000, car loans $18,000.

Assets: 420,000 + 260,000 + 60,000 + 35,000 + 24,000 = 799,000 dollars. Debts: 245,000 + 4,800 + 12,000 + 18,000 = 279,800 dollars. Net worth: 799,000 - 279,800 = 519,200 dollars. Debt is 35.0 percent of assets, lower than the renter's 53.6 percent even though the dollar debt is almost nine times larger.

That is the part a single total hides. The ratio says more about how much room a household has than the total does, and it is the number to watch when income drops.

How your number compares with the median family

The Federal Reserve published the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances in October 2026. Median net worth for all families was $215,900, and the mean was $1,241,500. The gap between those two figures tells you most of what you need to know about American wealth: a small group of families holds very large balances, which drags the average far above the midpoint.

Figures are in 2025 dollars, from the Fed's summary report on the 2025 survey.

Two changes since the 2022 survey stand out. Families headed by someone under 35 saw median net worth fall 23 percent, to $33,000. Families headed by someone 75 or older saw theirs rise 37 percent, to $504,900, the highest of any age group.

Household two above holds $519,200, which is $265,500 above the $253,700 median for the 45 to 54 group, or about 105 percent higher. Household one holds $27,400 against the $33,000 median for its group, roughly $5,600 short.

Assets people forget to count

Retirement accounts are the item most often left out, because the balance sits behind a login you rarely open. Include the vested balance of every 401(k), 403(b), IRA and pension lump sum you could cash out.

Leave income tax out of the calculation. You would owe tax on a 401(k) withdrawal, but the Federal Reserve's figures are pre-tax too, so subtracting tax would make your number look worse than the benchmark it is being compared with.

Other items that belong: health savings account balances, savings bonds, the cash value of a whole life policy, the resale value of tools, instruments and jewelry worth more than a few hundred dollars, and money owed to you by someone who will pay.

Items that do not belong: your salary, a future inheritance, the value of a degree, or the replacement cost of a car. A car is worth what a buyer would pay this week, which sits well below what insurance would pay to replace it.

For a home, use the recent sale price of a similar house on the same street rather than your own listing price. A listing price is a hope, and a closing price is a fact.

The debts people understate

Credit card balances get understated because the statement puts the minimum payment in large type and the total in small type. The 2025 survey puts median credit card debt at $3,100 among the 45 percent of families that carry a balance.

Student loans are the other frequent omission, especially for borrowers on an income driven plan who have not looked at the payoff figure in years. Among the 20 percent of families that hold student debt, the median balance was $25,600.

Use the payoff balance, not the original loan amount, for every installment loan. On a car loan that is the number in the lender's app, not the number in the purchase contract.

One more line that rarely makes it onto a balance sheet: buy now, pay later plans and medical payment plans. They may not appear on a credit report the way a card does, but they are still a claim on next month's income, and a household that ignores them will feel richer than it is.

Payment obligations matter as much as balances. Among families with debt, the median payment took 15.4 percent of income in 2025, up 2 percentage points from 2022, and the total debt-to-income ratio rose from 89.4 percent to 94.9 percent.

Home equity is the item that moves the most

Among families that own a home, median net housing value was $230,000 in 2025, up from $218,900 in 2022. The homeownership rate was 66 percent, roughly flat.

Owners and renters sit in different economies. Median net worth for owners was $458,900; for renters it was $10,600. That spread reflects decades of principal payments and price growth rather than a difference in effort, and it explains why one number can feel discouraging at 30 and comfortable at 60.

If you own, track the mortgage balance and the home value as two separate inputs. A $420,000 house with a $245,000 mortgage adds $175,000 to net worth, and a 10 percent drop in local prices removes $42,000 of that in one step.

That borrowing cuts both ways. A 10 percent rise adds the same $42,000, which is why a homeowner's net worth can swing more in a year than the household saves in five.

How often to update, and what the number is for

Once a quarter is enough. Pick a date, pull five balances (cash, investments, retirement, mortgage, other debt), and write the total somewhere you will see it again. Monthly updates mostly track the stock market, which adds noise without adding information.

Watch the trend across a year rather than the level on one day. A household saving $600 a month and paying down $300 of principal should improve by about $10,800 over twelve months before any investment return.

If the number is negative, the fix is usually a payment plan rather than a bigger income. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's debt collection guides explain what collectors can and cannot do, and a nonprofit credit counselor will review a budget at no charge.

One caution before you compare yourself with any published figure: net worth is a planning tool, not a tax document. Nothing here changes what you owe the IRS, and none of it is investment advice.