Your net worth is the single most honest number in your financial life. Not your salary. Not your portfolio balance. Your net worth — everything you own minus everything you owe.
Most people never track it. They check their bank balance, maybe glance at their investments, and call it financial awareness. That's not enough.
The good news: tracking your net worth properly takes about 5 minutes a month, once you have a system.
Why net worth and not just income?
Salary tells you how much money flows in. Net worth tells you how much actually sticks.
Two people earning $80,000 a year can have wildly different net worths at 35 — one with $120,000 in assets, the other with $4,000 in savings and $40,000 in debt. The difference isn't income. It's what they did with it.
Net worth is the scoreboard that actually matters.
The 5-minute monthly method
Step 1 — List every asset (2 min)
Write down the current value of everything you own:
- Registered accounts — TFSA, RRSP, FHSA (log in and check the balance)
- Non-registered investments — brokerage accounts, ETFs, individual stocks
- Crypto — Bitcoin, Ethereum, whatever you hold
- Real estate — estimated market value of any property you own
- Cash & savings — chequing, savings, GICs
- Other — car (use a rough resale value), any other significant assets
Don't overthink precision. A $2,000 rounding error on a $180,000 net worth is noise.
Step 2 — List every liability (1 min)
- Mortgage balance (check your last statement)
- Student loans
- Car loan
- Credit card balances (only what you won't pay off this month)
- Other debt
Step 3 — Do the math (10 seconds)
Net worth = Total assets − Total liabilities.
That's it.
Step 4 — Record it (1 min)
The number alone is useless. The trend is what matters. Write it down somewhere — a spreadsheet, a note, or an app — with the date.
In 6 months you'll have a line. In a year, a trend. In 5 years, a story.
What counts as an asset?
A common question: should you include your car? Your furniture? Your pension?
Practical rule:
- Include things that have a real market value you could access (car, real estate, registered accounts).
- Exclude things that are hard to liquidate and depreciate quickly (furniture, electronics, collectibles unless significant).
- For a defined-benefit pension, it's complex to value — you can leave it out for simplicity or include a rough estimate.
Common mistakes
Checking too often. Monthly is plenty. Daily tracking creates anxiety without insight. Markets move. Your net worth will fluctuate. What matters is the 12-month trend.
Obsessing over individual accounts. A single bad month in your RRSP doesn't mean anything. Look at the total picture.
Forgetting liabilities. A $60,000 TFSA looks great until you remember the $35,000 student loan. Always do both sides.
Rounding everything. You don't need to know your brokerage balance to the cent, but “about $40,000” is too vague. Be close enough to see real movement.
What a healthy trajectory looks like
There's no universal “right” net worth for a given age. But a healthy trajectory for a 28-year-old earning a decent income in Canada might look like:
- 25 — roughly $0 (just getting started, student loans paid off or nearly there)
- 28 — $30,000–60,000 (TFSA maxed or close, RRSP started)
- 32 — $80,000–150,000 (consistent contributions, compound interest starting to show)
- 35 — $150,000–250,000 (real estate may have entered the picture)
These are rough ranges. The specific number matters less than the direction. Is it going up consistently? That's the question.
The real value of tracking
Beyond the number itself, the monthly ritual forces a relationship with your money. You'll notice when a month went sideways. You'll see the compound interest start to work. You'll have data when you're deciding whether you can afford a car, a property, or a career change.
Five minutes a month. That's the price of financial clarity.