HOW TO TRACK YOUR NET WORTH WITH PERSONAL CAPITAL

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Why Track Net Worth?

Right off the bat I want to encourage you to check out my previous post on net worth by clicking here if you need a reminder about what it is or why it matters.

I’ll give a very brief summary here: We use our net worth to show us where our money is, evaluate the security and risk we’ve allowed into our finances, and reallocate as needed to get us on stable financial ground.

That being said, it only makes sense that we keep track of our net worth to ensure that it’s going the right direction over time. For that, I turn to Personal Capital.

What Is Personal Capital

Personal Capital is a powerful suite of online financial tools. You can access these tools and services via a web browser or by downloading their (awesome) app to your device.

My intent in this article is not to take a DEEP dive into all that Personal Capital has to offer. I will briefly point out that their services include a savings planner, retirement planner, education planner, investment checkup, investment fee analyzer, cashflow monitor, and budgeting.

Whew! Oh, that’s the free version.

If you invest with Personal Capital, there are even more tools at your disposal.

These are all great tools! And, at some point I plan to cover them as well. But, as the title suggests, the focus here will be on how to track net worth with Personal Capital’s wonderful Net Worth tool.

Getting Started

The first thing I’ll encourage you to do is head over to the site and look it over. Get your first impressions and see what you think. Then, you’ll need to create an account.

Once you’ve created your account, setting it up to begin tracking your net worth is pretty easy. You’ll simply connect all your financial accounts and manually input any physical assets you want to include.

Here are some examples based on our set up:

You’ll want to include any and all checking and savings accounts in the “Cash” category.

In the “Investment” category, go ahead and link up any retirement and non-retirement investment accounts. If you have an account that can’t be linked for some reason (maybe through your employer) you can input that information manually. You’ll need to keep this updated manually as well.

For “Credit” you’ll want to list debts and credit cards. Hopefully you won’t have much here (or anything!).

You’ll also include your mortgage and any other assets you want to include. Personal Capital can link up to Zillow and pull an estimated home value from there, if you trust that platform.

Personal Capital allows for just about any type of account, debt, or asset you can imagine. Just use that “Other” category to get them in there.

Track Net Worth With Personal Capital

From here, Personal Capital will continually monitor all your accounts (unless you manually input the information).

At the top of the left side bar, you will see your net worth on display, along with the value of all your assets and sum of all your liabilities. (More on assets and liabilities in this article – Click Here.)

That’s really all there is to it! Under the “Net Worth” link located in the drop down menu of the “Overview” tab, you can see a graph of your net worth over time. Hopefully it’s going the right way!

Give It A Try!

All that’s left is to head on over to Personal Capital and set up your account. My wife and I are long time users of their services, and regularly check in for that financial snapshot.

I hope you find them equally beneficial!

Remember, regardless of your money goals, you can “Bank on a Budget” to get you from where you are to where you want to be!

We use our net worth to show us where our money is, evaluate the security and risk we’ve allowed into our finances, and reallocate as needed to get us on stable financial ground.

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Alex

Hello, my name is Alex! I'm a public school teacher who has achieved some big financial goals just by getting control of my money using some simple strategies like using a monthly budget. Now I'd like to share what I've learned with you. Welcome to "Bank on a Budget!"