Investments and Net Worth

Net worth is simple in theory: assets minus liabilities. In practice, it depends on clean accounts, fresh balances, correct inclusion settings, and investment data that does not double-count cash or stale private values.

Accounts behind net worth

Net worth uses account records across the workspace. Those accounts can come from connected providers, manual entry, imports, or other supported sources.

Review these account types when net worth looks incomplete:

• Bank and cash accounts.
• Brokerage accounts.
• Retirement accounts.
• Credit cards.
• Mortgages.
• Student loans and other debt.
• Real estate.
• Private company equity.
• Crypto.
• Vehicles.
• Collectibles and valuables.
• Other manual assets or liabilities.

An account can be real and still intentionally excluded from net worth. Check account settings before assuming a missing value is a sync problem.

Connected investment accounts

Connected investment accounts can bring in balances, holdings, source details, and sometimes transactions when the provider supports them.

After the first sync, review:

• Account name.
• Institution.
• Current balance.
• Holdings.
• Ticker symbols.
• Quantities.
• Current prices.
• Market values.
• Cost basis when available.
• Price dates.
• Cash or cash-equivalent positions.

Investment sources may update on different schedules than cash accounts. Some values update intraday, some after market close, and some only when the provider sends new data.

Holdings

Holdings describe what a specific account owns. Securities describe the underlying asset. Keeping those concepts separate helps reporting stay accurate when multiple accounts hold the same investment.

For example, two brokerage accounts may each hold the same ETF. The security is shared conceptually, but each account has its own quantity, market value, and cost basis.

Open Holdings from the main sidebar to review positions across investment accounts.

Manual holdings and imported investments

Use manual or imported records for investments that do not update through a provider.

Good examples include:

• Private company equity.
• Angel investments.
• Venture funds.
• Real estate partnerships.
• Crypto held outside a supported provider.
• Manually tracked retirement or pension values.
• Historical investment records.

For manual values, include a valuation date and a note about how the number was chosen. For imports, keep the source file and date range understandable so future changes can be traced.

Private assets and liabilities

Manual assets and liabilities are first-class records. Use them for real estate, vehicles, valuables, collectibles, loans, and other values that do not sync automatically.

For each manual record, make sure:

• The name is clear.
• The value is current enough for the report.
• The ownership percentage is correct.
• The asset or liability is included or excluded from net worth intentionally.
• The valuation date is recent enough for the decision being made.

Investment cash

Investment accounts often include cash or cash-equivalent holdings. Decide how those balances should appear before comparing allocation against targets.

Common approaches:

• Treat investment cash as part of the investment account.
• Treat investment cash as cash on hand.
• Track it separately as a cash-equivalent allocation bucket.

Be consistent. If investment cash is counted once in the brokerage account balance and again as a separate cash holding, net worth or allocation can look inflated.

Liabilities and signs

Debt accounts should reduce net worth. If a liability appears to increase net worth, check the account type, source representation, sign, and manual value.

Common liability records include:

• Credit cards.
• Mortgages.
• Student loans.
• Personal loans.
• Business loans.
• Margin loans.

If a provider reports a balance with an unexpected sign, review how the value appears in Accounts before relying on the dashboard.

Net worth history

Net worth history is built from balance snapshots over time. It becomes more useful after enough daily balance history exists.

Unexpected jumps usually come from:

• A newly connected account.
• A duplicate account.
• A removed or hidden account.
• A large market move.
• A stale manual asset being updated.
• A debt sign issue.
• A provider refresh after stale data.
• A changed inclusion setting.

Review the accounts behind the change before assuming the chart is wrong.

Common net worth issues

• A loan account is missing.
• A manual asset has not been updated recently.
• The same account exists through a provider and an import.
• Investment cash is counted twice.
• A liability balance uses the wrong sign.
• A private asset has no valuation date.
• An account is excluded from net worth.
• A stale provider connection has not refreshed.
• A spreadsheet is scoped to selected accounts while the dashboard uses all included accounts.

Review routine

Use this before a planning meeting or quarterly review:

1. Refresh provider data.
2. Update manual assets and liabilities.
3. Review account inclusion settings.
4. Check holdings and price dates.
5. Review investment cash treatment.
6. Check liability signs.
7. Compare net worth against the last trusted statement or spreadsheet.
8. Add notes for manual valuations.
9. Rerun spreadsheet syncs or custom dashboards that depend on the updated values.