Your net worth, month by month

What it does

Net worth is everything you own minus everything you owe. A single month’s figure says little; the trend says a lot. Paying down a card, building savings and letting a balance creep up all show in the line, often before you’d notice them any other way.

Kemback works out your net worth from the accounts you already keep in it, so there’s nothing extra to maintain. Every account is either something you have or something you owe, and Kemback adds them up at the end of each month.

How it works in Kemback

Every account has a kind. Checking, Savings, Cash, Investment and Other asset count as things you have. Credit card, Loan and Other liability count as things you owe. An account’s balance is its opening balance plus its transactions, worked out to the cent.

• On the Overview. The first card on the dashboard is your net worth today, with how much it’s up or down since last month.
• Net worth over time. On Reports, a large figure shows your net worth now and its change since the start of the period you’ve chosen. Below it, a chart draws three lines by month: net worth, assets and liabilities. Choose this month, the last 3 months, year to date, the last 12 months or the last 5 years.
• Balances today. Under the chart, every account is listed in two columns, What you have and What you owe, with its current balance, so you can see exactly what makes up the total.

Transfers between your own accounts move money from one column to another without changing the total, so paying a card from checking lowers both your assets and your debts by the same amount, as it should.

What counts, and what doesn’t

• Things you own outside the bank. Add an Other asset account for a home, a car or anything else of value you want counted, and an Other liability for a debt that isn’t a card or loan account.
• Investment accounts count with their balance. Kemback doesn’t track holdings, lots, cost basis or market prices, so update the balance with a transaction when you want it to reflect a new value.
• Private accounts count only for the member who owns them. In a shared household, each person sees net worth from the accounts visible to them.
• Other currencies. Net worth is calculated in your household’s currency. An account in a different currency isn’t added in, and the chart lists it as not included rather than guessing at an exchange rate.

Why the cents matter

Net worth is a sum of many balances over many months. Kemback keeps every amount in whole cents, never in floating point, and its arithmetic stops with an error rather than silently wrapping. The figure you see is exactly the sum of your accounts, every month.

Where it runs

Net worth works in any browser at kemback.com and in the iPhone app, which is in beta. It’s on the Free plan. Balances come from the transactions you import as OFX, QFX, QIF or CSV files, or enter yourself, until automatic bank sync arrives with the Plus plan.

New to the idea? What is net worth? explains the basics, assets vs liabilities covers what goes in each column, and track your net worth monthly suggests a simple routine. For spending and income by category, see reports.

Questions

How does Kemback calculate net worth?

It takes the balance of each account at the end of each month, adds up the assets (checking, savings, cash, investment and other assets), subtracts the liabilities (credit cards, loans and other liabilities), and shows the difference.

Can I include my house or car?

Yes. Add an Other asset account for something you own, and an Other liability account for something like a personal loan. They count in net worth alongside your bank accounts.

Does Kemback track my investments?

An investment account can be included with its balance, so it counts in your net worth. Kemback doesn't track individual holdings, lots or cost basis.

Does a private account count in my partner's net worth?

No. Each member sees net worth from the accounts they can see, so an account you keep private counts in your figures and not in anyone else's.

How far back does the chart go?

Choose a period on the Reports page, from this month up to the last five years.