Net worth
Everything you own minus everything you owe — one number that summarizes a household balance sheet at a moment in time.
Net worth is a subtraction. Add up assets — cash, savings, investment and retirement accounts, the market value of a home or car — and subtract liabilities: credit card balances, student loans, auto loans, the mortgage. What is left is net worth.
The number moves for two very different reasons. One is behavior: what was saved, what was paid down, what was spent. The other is the market repricing things already owned, which on any given day can swing the number by more than a month of saving. Over a quarter, the behavior signal compounds and the market noise largely cancels.
Age-based benchmarks compress away everything that matters — where a person lives, what they earn, when they started, what they inherited, what they are carrying. The useful reading is the trend across quarters, in the direction of your choosing. It is not a score against anyone.
Plumb is financial education, not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.