You may be curious as to how I keep track of my net worth updates. It’s actually highly manual and nothing fancy. I simply log into Yodlee account aggregation via Bank of America’s MyPortfolio and copy-n-paste the appropriate balances into this simple Excel spreadsheet file. Then I make a screenshot and post it online. This way, it only takes a few minutes – I don’t have to log into 12 different websites, I have a permanent copy for my own records, and I don’t have to write any HTML.
The net worth progress bar on the top right of this page is also made manually with a graphics program (I’ve migrated from Microsoft Paint to Macromedia Fireworks). If you are looking for something automatic for your own site, try this progress bar image maker or run a search for “percentage bar javascript”. Hope that helps!
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Thanks for the tip about BoA’s MyPortfolio option. I set mine up last night and now it’s one-stop shopping (actually looking at my overall net worth, it’s a good reason to cut down on shopping!!!).
I signed up for an account aggregation service last week. But I didn’t add any accounts at the time. I added my primary checking account and credit card yesterday (2 different banks) after reading your post. I may add other accounts over time.
For now, it’s great to see both account in one site. The bank that houses my primary checking account has a very weak online banking interface. So I particularly like being able to access that information in a better looking environment.
Hey,
thanks for sharing the excel template.
On the same note, do you use any excel templates for your monthly transactions like expenses for various stuff like groceries, utility bills ……
Thanks.
Should Net Worth include your mortgage (if you have one)? In that case, you will always end up having negative net worth unless you include market value of house in Assets (hopefully, mkt value is more than loan amount).
Or, do you suggest not considering mortgage/house as a part of net worth!
I say do whatever you like.
Many people put the value of their house under Assets and then the mortgage balance under Liabilities. Then the question is where you get the value of your house – online website? tax assessment? your purchase price?
Another way might be simply to put the principal paid off under the Assets column.
I plan on putting a very conservative estimate for my house value under Assets, and then the mortgage balance under Liabilities, and only change the value of my house once or twice a year.
i’ve actually been very good at updating my nw at networthiq.com
it graphs it, etc. i’m sure you know about it, but thought i’d throw it out there. like you i just use yodlee and input the numbers on the 5th or so of the month (after rent and everything is taken out.)
Love your site, great information. I was using MS Money for a while now and I though I would share it with you. Does a pretty good job of tracking Net worth among others.
Thank for writing this. I learn so much from your blog. I will start to keep track of my net worth. Keep up the great work.
Most bank’s aggregate account services are serviced by http://www.Yodlee.com – which has it’s own plain service available on their website. I’ve used it since 2001, and I love it. It was just in Money Magazine last month as a great way to keep all your account information together.
I’ve set up “Full View” via my Fidelity Account; uses Yodlee. Although I just discovered mint (http://www.mint.com/index.html). This is free and tracks all accounts similar to Yodlee plus formats the data nicely using graphs. Has anyone tried Mint?
I signed up with Mint, but only put in a handful of accounts, to check it out. They still have lots of problems with transaction names – I almost had a heart attack when I got an e-mail alert from them, telling me I was charged a $1200.00 transaction fee (which was actually a transfer from one account to another one). But when one of my inactive AmX accounts was charged $90.00 it was great to find out about it on Mint – I might never have noticed it otherwise (until it was too late, maybe). So, for the time being, I will list all my inactive accounts with them, then I will be able to keep an eye on them on the weekly Mint report without having to check each one seperately.
I have used Mint.com for about 4 months now and keep it around just because of how well it aggregates all of my account data. I’ve just hit 6 figures in my net worth and mint.com was how I realized I was getting close to my goal. Helped me keep my eyes on the prize. Wish their budgeting piece was better, and would roll over category balances from one month to the next…but it’s still a good snapshot of where you are and where you could be in a month or two.
That is pretty cool that you share this information.
it is inspiring. and good job up to this point.
“Anil Says:
March 28th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Should Net Worth include your mortgage (if you have one)? In that case, you will always end up having negative net worth unless you include market value of house in Assets (hopefully, mkt value is more than loan amount).
Or, do you suggest not considering mortgage/house as a part of net worth!
Jonathan Says:
March 28th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
I say do whatever you like.
Many people put the value of their house under Assets and then the mortgage balance under Liabilities. Then the question is where you get the value of your house – online website? tax assessment? your purchase price?”
Sorry Jonathan, have to disagree. There’s no “do whatever you like”. Net Worth is like a Balance Sheet. Everything you own minus Everything you owe. For most people their biggest asset (what they own) is their house. So they have to include the value of it, with the mortgage under what they owe. Depending on where you live, that puts most people in the red these days, net worth-wise.
Where to get the value? where appraisers get them, sales of similar property in the area.
I have been managing my family finances by tracking our net worth for years. We calculate our net worth at the end of each month – always the last day of the month before automatic loan payments kick in. It proved to be a quick process and it shows us how we are doing.
First, we used Excel spreadsheets, but now I have finally written a software that is much more convenient to use. It lets me tag different accounts and produce helpful charts (http://mynetworthapp.com).
Visualizing our net worth with all its ups and downs and its distribution among different asset types helps us keep better focus on our financial goals.