How to track your net worth in the UK

What counts as net worth

Your net worth is your assets minus your liabilities. In a UK household that usually means the following.

• Assets: current and savings accounts, ISAs, pensions, investments, and property.
• Liabilities: your mortgage, credit cards, loans, and any student loan balance.
• The difference between the two, positive or negative, is your net worth.

Nominal versus today's money

A pound in ten years will not buy what a pound buys now. Looking at your net worth in today's money, adjusted for inflation, gives a more honest sense of progress than the headline number alone. It is worth being able to switch between the two.

How often to update it

Monthly is the sweet spot. Often enough to catch a trend, rarely enough that the noise of day-to-day balances does not distract you. The end of the month, once your statements are in, is the natural moment.

ISA and pension allowances

Two UK allowances are worth watching as you save. Tracking how much of each you have used stops you leaving free tax relief on the table, or accidentally going over.

• The ISA allowance: up to £20,000 a year across your ISAs.
• The pension annual allowance: up to £60,000 a year for most people, including tax relief and any employer contributions.

Turning it into a projection

A net-worth figure tells you where you are. A projection tells you where you are heading. By carrying your contributions and growth assumptions forward, you can see your trajectory years out, and test what a change today does to it.

Doing it in Tweed

Tweed rolls every account, pension and debt into one net-worth figure, shown in nominal or today's money, tracks your ISA and pension allowances as you use them, and projects the whole thing forward so you can see the long game.