Household investable assets are the share of your wealth you could reasonably turn into cash and redeploy within about 90 days, without taking a major hit on value. The figure covers bank balances, brokerage holdings, retirement accounts, and a few other categories that trade on real markets. It leaves out your home, your car, and anything else that’s either hard to sell or essential to daily life. Wealth managers use this number, not net worth, to size up where a household actually stands.
What Counts
Liquidity is the test. If you can convert the asset to cash in roughly 90 days through a normal market transaction, it belongs in the total.
Cash and Cash Equivalents
Checking, savings, and money market accounts are fully liquid. Certificates of deposit also qualify, even though cashing one in early carries a penalty. Federal law sets a minimum early-withdrawal penalty of seven days’ simple interest within the first six days, but banks commonly charge more and there’s no cap.1Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. What Are the Penalties for Withdrawing Money Early From a Certificate of Deposit (CD)? The money is still accessible, so CDs count.
Brokerage Accounts
Taxable accounts holding stocks, bonds, ETFs, and mutual funds settle within a couple of business days after you sell. This is the core of most households’ investable total.
Retirement Accounts
401(k)s, traditional IRAs, and Roth IRAs count, even though withdrawals before age 59½ generally trigger a 10% penalty on top of ordinary income tax.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 72 – Annuities; Certain Proceeds of Endowment and Life Insurance Contracts The securities inside the account are liquid, which is why the balance belongs in the total.
Government Securities
Treasury bills, notes, and bonds trade on active secondary markets. Series I savings bonds are a partial exception: you can’t redeem them during the first 12 months, and cashing in before five years costs you the last three months of interest.3TreasuryDirect. I Bonds Once past the initial lockup, they count.
Health Savings Accounts
Many HSA custodians let you invest the balance in mutual funds once you clear a cash minimum. The balance is accessible, though non-medical withdrawals before 65 trigger income tax plus a 20% penalty. After 65, only income tax applies.
529 Education Savings Plans
529 balances sit in mutual-fund-style portfolios and can be withdrawn at any time. Non-qualified withdrawals owe income tax and a 10% penalty on earnings, but the money is reachable, so it counts.
Cryptocurrency
Digital assets on major exchanges can be sold quickly, and the IRS treats them as property for capital gains purposes.4Internal Revenue Service. Digital Assets Exchange withdrawal limits can slow things down on large positions, but ordinary holdings on established platforms meet the liquidity test. Staked or locked tokens don’t count until the lockup ends.
What Doesn’t Count
Your primary residence is the biggest exclusion. Selling takes months, transaction costs run several percent of the sale price, and you still need somewhere to live. Home equity doesn’t behave like a brokerage balance, however large it is on paper.
Vehicles, furniture, jewelry, art, and collectibles drop out for the same reason: no central market, unpredictable sale prices, and often months to find a buyer. Appraised value and realized value tend to be very different numbers.
Private business interests and LLC ownership stakes are typically excluded. Operating agreements restrict transfers, and there’s no public market. Securities bought through private placements under SEC Regulation D carry resale restrictions of at least six months to a year.5Investor.gov. Rule 506 of Regulation D During the restricted window they fail the liquidity test.
Annuities deserve a specific note because they look like investments but often aren’t liquid. Surrender charges during the first six to ten years can run 1% to 7% of the balance. An annuity still inside its surrender period doesn’t belong in the total. Once the surrender period ends, it does.
How to Calculate Your Total
Pull the most recent statements from every qualifying account: bank, brokerage, 401(k), IRA, HSA, 529, government securities, and any crypto holdings. Add the balances. That’s your gross investable total.
Now subtract any debt secured by those accounts. The common one is margin debt. Under Federal Reserve Regulation T, brokers can lend you up to 50% of the purchase price of marginable securities.6FINRA. Margin Regulation If you’ve borrowed $50,000 against a $200,000 portfolio, the net figure from that account is $150,000. Outstanding 401(k) loans and any pledges against securities used as collateral come off the top the same way.
Don’t subtract your mortgage, car loan, or credit card balances here. Those matter for net worth, but they aren’t attached to your investable accounts.
The sequence:
- Add all qualifying account balances.
- Subtract margin debt, 401(k) loans, and anything else borrowed against those specific accounts.
- The result is your household investable assets.
Running the calculation each quarter builds a trend line. One snapshot tells you where you stand; several in a row tell you whether your flexibility is growing or shrinking.
Why the Number Matters
Financial institutions tier households by investable assets, and the tier controls what services open up to you. Mass-affluent households, roughly $100,000 to $500,000, get standard advisory service. Above $1 million, dedicated advisors and more sophisticated planning become available. Above $5 million is generally considered very high net worth, and $30 million or more enters ultra-high-net-worth territory with private banking and institutional-grade strategies.
The number also overlaps with the SEC’s accredited investor test, though the two aren’t identical. Rule 501 requires either net worth above $1 million excluding your primary residence, or income above $200,000 individually ($300,000 with a spouse).7SEC.gov. Accredited Investor Net Worth Standard Because the net worth test excludes your home, a strong investable total usually clears the hurdle, which opens access to private placements, hedge funds, and venture capital.
At the household level, planners commonly suggest keeping liquid holdings equal to at least six months of expenses as a buffer. Your investable total, minus the retirement accounts you’d rather not touch, is the honest measure of how much runway you have if income drops.
Protection and Reporting Notes
Two things change what the same total really represents. The first is creditor protection. Employer plans like 401(k)s carry federal anti-alienation protection; creditors can’t reach the funds except through narrow exceptions like a qualified domestic relations order or an IRS tax claim.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 1056 – Form and Payment of Benefits Traditional and Roth IRAs get federal bankruptcy protection up to $1,711,975 as of 2026, with amounts above that depending on state law. Taxable brokerage and bank accounts generally have no special federal protection. The same investable total can represent very different levels of security depending on where it sits.
The second is foreign reporting. If any of these accounts sit outside the United States, filing thresholds are low. You must file an FBAR with FinCEN if the combined value of your foreign financial accounts exceeds $10,000 at any point during the year.9FinCEN.gov. Reporting Maximum Account Value A separate FATCA filing on Form 8938 applies at higher thresholds: for a U.S. taxpayer living domestically, $50,000 on the last day of the year or $75,000 at any point ($100,000 and $150,000 for joint filers).10Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8938 Count foreign accounts in your total and keep the filings current.