Net worth calculator: the number and the two ratios

What the calculator is for

Net worth is everything you own less everything you owe. As a single number it says less than people expect. What makes it useful is watching it over years and looking at two ratios underneath it. The net worth calculator shows the number and both ratios on one screen.

The inputs

Seven fields, four for what you own and three for what you owe:

Two pieces of advice from the note on the page are worth taking before you type. Value property at what it would actually sell for after brokerage, not the highest quote in your building. And enter your EPF balance as it stands today, not a projection of future contributions. Enter the full card balance, not the minimum due.

The outputs

Three boxes: Net worth, Total assets and Debt to assets. The last turns red above 50%. A table below gives total assets, total liabilities, net worth, and a line titled "Of your assets, how much is liquid or investable". A donut chart, "What your assets are made of", splits assets into property, investments, retirement and cash.

Worked example: the defaults

• Total assets: ₹5 lakh + ₹25 lakh + ₹20 lakh + ₹1 crore = ₹1,50,00,000
• Total liabilities: ₹40 lakh + ₹3 lakh + ₹50,000 = ₹43,50,000
• Net worth: ₹1,06,50,000
• Debt to assets: 29%
• Liquid or investable share: 20%

The liquid share counts only cash and the "Mutual funds, shares, FDs" line: ₹30 lakh out of ₹1.5 crore. EPF, PPF and NPS are excluded because they are locked or slow to withdraw, and the home is excluded because you live in it.

Reading the two ratios

The liquid share. This household is worth over a crore on paper, but two-thirds of its assets are the home and another ₹20 lakh is in retirement accounts. If a job ends or a medical bill arrives, the money it can actually reach is ₹30 lakh. A large net worth concentrated in a self-occupied home is not money you can spend. Check that the cash line covers your emergency fund target before counting the rest as investable.

Debt to assets. At 29%, the household has room for a rate rise or a dip in income. The page treats above 50% as the point where that room runs out. The type of debt matters as much as the ratio: a home loan at 8.5% against an appreciating asset is not the same as credit card debt at 40% against nothing.

Two other households, same calculator

The middle column is the same household with the home and its loan left out. It is a discipline worth repeating each time: the second figure is much closer to what you could actually deploy. The third column is a household that has just bought a ₹1 crore home with an ₹80 lakh loan. Its net worth is positive, but debt to assets is above 70% and under 7% of its assets are liquid. Nothing is wrong with that in the first years of a loan, but it is the shape of balance sheet that a lost job hurts most.

What the calculator does not do

• It does not track over time. It is a snapshot. Our post on tracking net worth once a quarter sets out a 30-minute routine and where each number comes from.
• It does not value anything for you. Every figure is what you enter. Market-linked holdings move daily; property quotes are optimistic.
• No tax on unrealised gains. A fund worth ₹25 lakh with ₹10 lakh of gains is worth less after tax if sold.
• "Other assets" share the property line. Gold, a car or a business stake go in with property, so they count as illiquid too.

Where it leads

Net worth feeds into other decisions. Existing savings reduce the life cover you need in the term insurance calculator. The financial freedom calculator asks what this number needs to become, and by when. If the liquid share is too thin, our post on where to keep an emergency fund compares the options. The annual portfolio audit guide is a once-a-year check that starts from the same balance sheet. Fill in the net worth calculator today and note the three figures somewhere you will find them next time. None of this is investment advice.