How to calculate your own net worth, on the Federal Reserve definition

The two sides of the subtraction

On the asset side: the value of a primary residence and any other property, balances in retirement accounts, other financial assets such as brokerage and savings accounts, the value of vehicles, and the value of any business interest. On the liability side: mortgage balances, student loans, vehicle loans, credit balances and any other debt.

Subtract the second from the first and the result is net worth on the day you did the arithmetic. The date matters: a figure computed before a large payment and one computed after it are not the same measurement, which is exactly why the survey states its own reference period.

What goes on each side, following the survey’s categories

Assets	Liabilities
Primary residence and other property	Mortgages secured on that property
Retirement accounts	Student loans
Other financial assets	Vehicle loans
Vehicles	Credit balances
Business interests	Other debts

What to leave out, and why the omissions matter

Future income is not an asset: a salary you expect to earn, however secure, has no place on the calculation. Neither does a defined-benefit pension, for the same reason: it is an entitlement to a future stream rather than a balance you hold today.

Contents and personal effects are conventionally left out unless individually valuable, because a household that inventories its furniture is measuring something the published tables do not. And a business you work in but do not own contributes nothing, however much of your income comes through it.

Where household figures get slippery

Three places, all of them worth deciding consciously. Property valuation: the survey asks what a home would sell for, which is a judgement rather than a fact. Illiquid business interests: a stake in a private business has no market price, and any figure you use is your own estimate. And future entitlements: a defined-benefit pension is not a balance, so it does not enter the subtraction at all even though it is plainly valuable.

Because the published tables have the same three soft spots, a figure computed this way remains comparable with them. Comparability, not precision, is the point of following somebody else’s definition.

The three questions to settle before you start

First, whose household is it? The survey measures a household rather than a person, so a couple’s figure is one observation. Splitting it in half to get a per-person figure is a different measurement and is not comparable with the published tables.

Second, on what date? A net worth figure is a snapshot. Doing the arithmetic before and after a mortgage payment, a bonus or a tax bill produces two different answers, both correct for their own moment.

Third, at what value? Property and private business interests have no market price until they are sold. The survey asks what a home would sell for, which is a judgement, and using the same judgement is what keeps a household figure comparable with the tables.

What to do with the number once you have it

Compare it against a published distribution rather than against another individual. The by-age page gives the median and mean for each age band, and the percentile calculator places a figure between the survey’s published anchor points.

Do the arithmetic twice a year rather than once a month. A household figure moves with property prices and market values, and checking it too often measures noise. Compare against the median rather than the mean. The mean is pulled upward by the top of the distribution: in the 2022 survey it is roughly five and a half times the median, so a household comparing itself against the average is comparing itself against almost nobody.