Net Worth Statement Template: Build Yours in 20 Minutes

A net worth statement is one page: everything you own in one column, everything you owe in the other, and the difference at the bottom. This guide hands you a free template and walks the six steps that get yours done in about twenty minutes.

Key takeaways

• Net worth = total assets − total liabilities. One subtraction, one page, one date.
• Value assets at today's market price, not what you paid. Your house is worth what it would sell for this month.
• List the gross value and the debt on separate lines. Do not collapse a house and its mortgage into one equity number.
• Income is not net worth. Your salary is cash flow; it does not belong in either column.
• Date it. A net worth statement without an "as of" date is a number nobody can verify.

What is a net worth statement?

Before you start

Plan on about twenty minutes if you have a checking account, a retirement account, a home, and a car loan. A portfolio of rental properties, several brokerage accounts, or business interests pushes it past an hour, mostly because the values take longer to look up.

Pull these documents first so every number is sitting in front of you instead of behind a login screen:

1. Your latest checking and savings balances.
2. Your latest retirement and brokerage statements (401(k), IRA, taxable brokerage).
3. The current payoff balance on every mortgage, auto loan, student loan, and personal loan.
4. Your current credit card balances.
5. A market value estimate for your home and any other real estate.
6. The cash surrender value of any whole-life or universal-life insurance policy (term policies have none).

The most time-consuming part of a net worth statement is not the math; it is looking up current values. As the Rutgers Cooperative Extension's financial-health program puts it, a net worth statement "shouldn't take more than a few hours to prepare," and "the most time-consuming part is looking up the dollar value of various entries" (Rutgers NJAES).

Step 1. Set your snapshot date

Write an "as of" date at the top before anything else. A net worth statement is a photograph of your finances on one day, and every value below the date has to match it.

• Use today if you are filing or sharing it now.
• Use the last day of last month if you want bank, brokerage, and mortgage statements to reconcile cleanly to month-end balances.
• Do not back-date to a more flattering moment. For any lender use, the statement has to survive being compared against current statements and a credit report.

What "done" looks like: a single date written on the form that you can point every supporting document back to.

Step 2. Total your assets at market value

List what you own, top to bottom, and write each item at its current market value. The order most templates use runs from most liquid to least:

• Cash and equivalents. Checking, savings, money market, CDs, the cash surrender value of life insurance.
• Investments and retirement. Brokerage accounts at yesterday's close, plus 401(k), 403(b), and IRA balances at current value, not your contribution total.
• Real estate. Each property at what it would sell for today.
• Vehicles. Cars, boats, and RVs at trade-in value (Kelley Blue Book or Edmunds), not what you paid.
• Business interests. Your equity in any company you own a stake in.
• Personal property. Only items with real resale value: jewelry, art, collections. Skip the furniture.

Two rules decide most of the accuracy here. First, market value, not purchase price. New Mexico State University's extension guide is blunt about it: "Your assets should be valued at today's prices or current market value, not what you paid for them. Set the value as what you could receive if you sold them today" (NMSU). Second, list the gross value of an asset and put any loan against it on the liability side, never netted together.

That second rule is the one I see borrowers get wrong most often. As a commercial real estate agent, I have watched a buyer hand a lender a net worth statement with "$140,000 home equity" written on a single line. The underwriter bounced it the same day, because a netted equity figure hides the lien. List the house at $390,000 in the asset column and the $250,000 mortgage in the liability column. The $140,000 falls out of the math on its own, and the lender can verify both numbers.

Step 3. Total your debts at today's payoff

Now the other column. List every liability at its current outstanding balance, not the original loan amount:

• Mortgages on every property (current principal balance).
• Home equity lines and any second liens.
• Auto loans.
• Student loans.
• Credit card balances you carry (a card you pay in full each month is not a liability).
• Personal and business loans, including any business debt you have personally guaranteed.
• Unpaid taxes, including a current IRS payment plan.

A liability is the current payoff balance, full stop. If you are married and building a household statement, combine both spouses' assets and debts; if you co-own an asset with someone who is not your spouse, list only your share.

Step 4. Subtract to get your net worth

One subtraction:

Net worth = Total assets − Total liabilities

Here is a worked example for a single filer with a house, a 401(k), and the usual loans:

Net worth is $605,000 − $298,000 = $307,000.

Once you have your number, it helps to know where it sits. The Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances is the standard benchmark. It runs every three years, and the 2022 release is the most recent data available.

What's a good net worth by age?

Net worth climbs with age as people pay down debt and accumulate assets. Median family net worth by age of the household head, from the 2022 survey:

Median is the more useful yardstick than the average. The 2022 mean was $1,063,700, but that figure is dragged upward by the wealthiest households; the median is the household in the middle (Federal Reserve SCF). If you would rather not do the arithmetic by hand, the free net worth calculator returns the same total and a clean breakdown, with no signup.

Step 5. Sanity-check the five common errors

Before you call it done, run the statement against the five mistakes that distort net worth most often:

1. Purchase price instead of market value. A home or car listed at what you paid overstates or understates the number. Use current value.
2. Netting a loan against its asset. Keep gross asset value and the debt on separate lines.
3. Counting income as an asset. Your salary is cash flow. It does not belong in the asset column.
4. Forgetting illiquid assets. Retirement accounts, pensions, and business equity count even though you cannot spend them this week.
5. No date. An undated statement cannot be verified against your accounts. Write the "as of" date.

These are the same checks a lender's analyst runs. Clearing them yourself before anyone else sees the statement is the difference between a clean file and a round of callbacks.

Step 6. Date it, save it, and schedule the next one

Sign and date the statement, save the PDF with the supporting documents in one place, and set a reminder to refresh it. A net worth statement is most useful as a series you can compare over time, not a one-off.

The long-standing extension-program advice is to prepare one at least once a year. Update it quarterly if you are actively paying down debt or preparing to borrow, and immediately after a major financial event. A certified financial planner makes the case for the habit directly:

For the cadence question specifically, the how often to update a personal financial statement post covers the trigger events and the lender freshness windows in more depth.

What "done" looks like

A finished net worth statement has:

• A single "as of" date at the top.
• An assets column at current market value and a liabilities column at current payoff.
• A net worth line where total assets minus total liabilities equals your net worth.
• Supporting statements, all dated to match, saved alongside it.
• A reminder set for the next refresh.

Net worth statement vs. personal financial statement vs. SBA Form 413

The short net worth statement covers most personal uses. The longer documents add detail that specific lenders require. Knowing which one a given situation calls for saves you from filling out the wrong form twice.

When a basic loan or line-of-credit application asks for a net worth statement, the one-page version is usually what they mean. When you move into SBA territory, you need the fuller form. The standardized version the SBA requires is Form 413, and the section-by-section mechanics live in our SBA Form 413 guide. For a side-by-side of the short statement and the accountant's balance sheet, see personal financial statement vs. balance sheet.

Templates and next steps

Pick the starting point that matches what you are doing:

• The net worth statement template is the short, two-column version this guide describes.
• The personal financial statement template walks the fuller form with income and contingent-liability schedules.
• If your lender specifically wants the SBA layout, use the SBA personal financial statement template.
• For real-estate investors tracking equity across a portfolio, the real estate net worth tracker use case maps to the same statement.
• For deeper background on building and reading one, see the personal net worth statement guide.

If you expect to refresh your statement every quarter, doing it by hand in a spreadsheet gets old. StatementsReady syncs your balances read-only through Plaid (Plaid holds your bank login; StatementsReady never stores your credentials), keeps your values current, and exports a clean PDF with the right "as of" date in a few clicks. More posts on tracking and documenting your finances are in the personal finance archive.

FAQ

What is a net worth statement?

A net worth statement is a one-page summary of everything you own (assets) and everything you owe (liabilities) as of a specific date, with the difference written at the bottom as your net worth. The formula is Net Worth = Total Assets − Total Liabilities. It is sometimes called a personal balance sheet or statement of financial position. Unlike a budget, it does not track income or spending; it captures your financial position at a single point in time.

What is the difference between a net worth statement and a personal financial statement or SBA Form 413?

A net worth statement is the short version: two columns and a net worth line. A full personal financial statement (PFS) adds an income schedule, a contingent-liabilities schedule, and detail schedules for real estate, securities, and notes. SBA Form 413 is the standardized PFS the U.S. Small Business Administration requires from every 20%+ owner of a 7(a) or 504 borrower, and it must be dated within 120 days of submission. For personal tracking, financial aid, or a basic line-of-credit application, the short net worth statement is usually enough.

How do I value my house on a net worth statement?

List your home at its current market value (what it would sell for today), not the price you paid for it. Put the full market value in the asset column and the outstanding mortgage balance separately in the liability column. Do not net the two into a single equity figure. A lender wants to see the gross value and the lien against it on separate lines so they can verify each one.

Does my income or salary count toward net worth?

No. Your salary is cash flow, not net worth. A net worth statement measures what you own minus what you owe at a point in time; it does not include future earnings. Income belongs on a separate cash flow statement or budget. The one place income appears in this family of documents is the income schedule on a full personal financial statement like SBA Form 413, which is a separate section from the assets and liabilities.

How often should I update my net worth statement?

At least once a year is the long-standing baseline from university extension programs. Update it quarterly if you are actively paying down debt, building investments, or preparing to borrow, and after any major event such as buying property, selling a business, or a divorce filing. If you are submitting to an SBA lender, the statement must be dated within 120 days of submission, so plan to regenerate it if underwriting runs long.

What is a good net worth for my age?

The Federal Reserve's 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances reports median family net worth of about $39,000 for households under 35, $135,600 for ages 35 to 44, $247,200 for 45 to 54, $364,500 for 55 to 64, and $409,900 for 65 to 74. Median U.S. family net worth across all ages was $192,900. Median is more representative than the mean ($1,063,700), which is pulled upward by the wealthiest households.

Do I need a net worth statement to get a loan?

Often, yes. Loan and line-of-credit applications commonly require a net worth statement, and some high-risk investments require a minimum net worth to qualify. For an SBA-backed business loan you need the fuller SBA Form 413 rather than a one-page net worth statement. For a mortgage, a personal loan, or a private investment, the short net worth statement is frequently what the lender asks for.