A personal net worth worksheet is a one-page tally: list everything you own at current market value on one side, everything you owe at its payoff balance on the other, and subtract the second total from the first. The result is your net worth on the date you did the math. Below is how to fill in each line without under- or overstating what you have, plus the places where a lender, the IRS, or the SEC will expect the numbers in a specific format.
Listing Your Assets
Work down the asset side category by category. For every line, enter current value, not what you originally paid.
Cash and Bank Accounts
Enter the current balance of every checking, savings, and money market account, plus balances held in online payment platforms like PayPal or Venmo. Use the balance as of the date you’re filling out the worksheet. If you keep physical cash outside a bank, include it. The IRS treats “cash that is not in a bank” as a separate reportable item on its own financial statement.1Internal Revenue Service. Collection Information Statement for Wage Earners and Self-Employed Individuals (Form 433-A)
Investment and Retirement Accounts
Pull the most recent statement for every brokerage account, 401(k), IRA, Roth IRA, and 403(b). Enter the current market value shown on the statement, not what you contributed. Employer-sponsored plans are required to furnish participants with regular account information, so a current statement should be available through your plan’s online portal.2U.S. Department of Labor. FAQs about Retirement Plans and ERISA Individual stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and CDs held outside a retirement account go on their own lines at current market value.
Digital assets belong here too. For cryptocurrency, NFTs, or other virtual holdings, record the market value on the date of the worksheet. Prices move sharply, so pick a consistent time of day (market close or midnight UTC) and note which you used.
Real Estate
Enter the estimated fair market value of every property you own: your home, any rental properties, vacation homes, and raw land. A professional appraisal gives the most defensible number. For a personal worksheet that doesn’t need to satisfy a lender, a free online estimate from Zillow or Redfin is a reasonable starting point; those tools are more accurate for homes currently on the market than for off-market properties.
If a bank is going to rely on the worksheet, skip the online estimate. Get a comparative market analysis from a local real estate agent or a full appraisal from a licensed appraiser.
Vehicles
List every car, truck, motorcycle, boat, and RV. Value each one through Kelley Blue Book or the NADA Guides website. Both produce a private-party value (what a buyer would pay you directly) and a trade-in value (what a dealer would offer). Use the private-party figure. It better reflects what the vehicle is actually worth in an open sale. Note the year, make, model, and the value you used.
Life Insurance Cash Value
Only permanent policies, meaning whole life, universal life, and variable life, build cash value that belongs on the worksheet. Term policies don’t accumulate cash value and should be left off entirely. The figure you want is the cash surrender value: what you’d actually receive if you canceled the policy today, after surrender charges and any outstanding policy loans. Your insurer’s annual statement or online portal shows it. Don’t enter the death benefit. That money isn’t available to you while you’re alive.
Personal Property and Other Assets
Include jewelry, art, collectibles, and antiques. The IRS also treats intangible assets like patents, copyrights, and domain names as reportable property.1Internal Revenue Service. Collection Information Statement for Wage Earners and Self-Employed Individuals (Form 433-A) For most personal worksheets, a conservative resale estimate is fine. For something unusually valuable like a coin collection, fine art, or a patent portfolio, pay for a professional appraisal.
Private Business Interests
If you own part or all of a private business, that stake is an asset. Three rough methods: net assets (total assets minus total liabilities on the company’s books), earnings (a multiple of annual profit or projected future income), or comparable sales (what similar businesses have sold for). IRS Revenue Ruling 59-60 defines fair market value for closely held businesses as the price a willing buyer would pay a willing seller when neither is under pressure. A rough estimate works for a personal worksheet. For anything going to a lender or the SEC, hire a credentialed business appraiser.
Listing Your Liabilities
On the right side, enter the current payoff balance of every debt, not the monthly payment. The payment figure includes interest, and sometimes escrow or insurance, that don’t reflect what you actually owe.
Mortgages and Home Equity Debt
Enter the principal balance on every mortgage, home equity loan, and HELOC. Your most recent mortgage statement shows this figure, usually labeled “principal balance” or “unpaid balance.” For an exact number (per-diem interest makes payoffs move daily), request a formal payoff quote from your servicer. List each property’s debt on its own line so you can compare it against that property’s value.
Auto, Student, and Other Installment Loans
For auto loans, student loans, personal loans, and other installment debt, use the remaining principal balance. Lenders are required to disclose this on periodic statements.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1026.7 – Periodic Statement Look for “outstanding balance” or “remaining principal,” not the next payment due. If you consolidated student loans, enter the consolidated balance, not the originals.
Credit Cards and Revolving Credit
Enter the current balance on every credit card and revolving line of credit. If you’ve made meaningful charges since the last statement closed, pull the real-time balance from the issuer’s website or app. Each card gets its own line.
Taxes Owed and Everything Else
If you owe back taxes to the IRS or a state agency, include the balance. Capture any other debt that didn’t fit above: money owed to family, outstanding medical bills, legal judgments, loans against a life insurance policy. Informal debts count. Leaving them off defeats the point of the exercise.
Doing the Subtraction
Total the asset column. Total the liability column. Subtract liabilities from assets. That number is your net worth.
A positive number means you own more than you owe. A negative number, sometimes called being underwater, means the opposite. Neither is unusual at certain life stages. Someone early in a career carrying heavy student loans and little savings often shows a negative figure, and that shifts as debts come down and savings build. Write the final number and the date at the bottom of the worksheet. The date matters because net worth is a snapshot, not a permanent score.
Joint Assets and Community Property
If you share assets or debts with a spouse, decide up front whether the worksheet reflects your individual position or your combined household. Pick one approach and apply it to every line.
For an individual worksheet covering jointly owned property, a common approach is to list half the value as your asset and half of any related debt as your liability. Same logic for joint bank accounts and shared loans.
Married couples in community property states, which are Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin, have an additional wrinkle.4Internal Revenue Service. Publication 555 (12/2024), Community Property In those states, most assets and debts acquired during the marriage are considered equally owned by both spouses regardless of whose name is on the account. If a lender or regulator asks for your individual net worth and you live in one of these states, you’d generally report half the value of community assets and half of community debts. Property you owned before the marriage, plus anything received as a gift or inheritance during it, is typically separate and goes entirely on your individual worksheet.
When a Formal Version Is Required
Several situations convert a personal worksheet into a required document, each with its own quirks.
SBA Loan and Certification Applications
The Small Business Administration requires a Personal Financial Statement on SBA Form 413 for 7(a) loans, 504 loans, disaster loans, surety bond guarantees, and for the 8(a) business development and women-owned small business certification programs.5U.S. Small Business Administration. Personal Financial Statement The form uses the same categories described above, so a current personal worksheet transfers directly.
SEC Accredited Investor Qualification
To invest in most private securities offerings, one qualifying path is a net worth over $1 million, but the SEC excludes the value of your primary residence from that calculation. You leave the home’s value off the asset side, and you leave mortgage debt up to the home’s fair market value off the liability side. Mortgage debt that exceeds the home’s value does count against you.6eCFR. 17 CFR 230.501 – Definitions and Terms Used in Regulation D If you’re using the worksheet for this purpose, add a separate line that backs out the primary residence so you can see your accredited-investor figure alongside your overall figure.
IRS Collection Negotiations
To set up an installment agreement or submit an offer in compromise for back taxes, the IRS requires Form 433-A, a detailed net worth worksheet with income information attached. The IRS version asks for categories many personal worksheets skip, including digital assets like cryptocurrency, business interests, and intangible property such as patents and domain names.1Internal Revenue Service. Collection Information Statement for Wage Earners and Self-Employed Individuals (Form 433-A) A thorough personal worksheet makes 433-A far less painful if you ever need it.
Mortgage and Personal Loan Applications
Banks and credit unions routinely request a personal financial statement for mortgages, business lines of credit, and large personal loans. The specific form varies by lender, but the categories mirror SBA Form 413. A current worksheet means you can transfer numbers directly instead of scrambling for statements under a deadline.
Keeping It Current
A net worth worksheet loses its value the moment it goes stale. Update it at least once a year. Quarterly is better if your finances are shifting quickly or you’re tracking a specific goal like debt payoff.
Save each previous version as a separate dated file. Comparing snapshots shows trends a single worksheet can’t: whether debt is shrinking, whether investments are outpacing spending, whether a new mortgage pushed the number temporarily negative.
During each refresh, pull current documentation for every balance. Add new accounts or debts, remove anything sold or paid off, and re-check real estate values rather than carrying forward last year’s figure. Same for investment accounts: use current market value, not a balance from six months ago. A worksheet carrying stale data is worse than no worksheet at all, because it creates false confidence in a number that no longer reflects reality.