NetWorth = Total Assets − Total Liabilities
Every financial advisor will give you this formula. What they won't give you is a complete, India-specific checklist of everything that goes into it.
Most Indian professionals underestimate their NetWorth by 20–40% because they forget accounts, ignore asset appreciation, or simply don't know where to look.
This guide fixes that.
Work through this checklist systematically. Don't skip anything — forgotten assets are still your money.
Common miss: The SBI/PNB account from your hometown that gets a salary transfer from your parents. Check the balance — it adds up.
Common miss: Old folios from an MF distributor or offline investment done by parents. Check CAMS/KFintech with your PAN to find all folios.
Common miss: EPF from a previous employer that was never transferred or withdrawn. These accounts often have significant balances and keep earning interest — but people forget them entirely.
How to estimate property value: Check recent transactions in your society/area on Magicbricks or 99acres. Be conservative — use 10% below the listed price as current market value.
Common miss: Ancestral property or agricultural land that you have a legal share in but have never valued.
Common miss: Gold jewellery is often the single most underestimated asset in Indian households. A middle-class Indian family often has ₹5–25L in gold without realising it.
Note: Pure term insurance has zero asset value — it's a liability hedge, not an asset. Don't include the sum assured in your assets.
This is where most people go wrong.
Your flat isn't worth what you paid in 2016. Your mutual funds aren't worth what you invested. Your gold isn't worth the jewellery bill from your wedding.
Use current market value for everything. This is what your NetWorth actually is.
The only exception: liabilities. Use the outstanding principal balance on every loan — not the original loan amount.
How to find outstanding principal: Log into your bank's net banking → loans → statement. The outstanding principal is different from total amount payable — which includes future interest. Use outstanding principal only.
Common miss: Credit card outstanding. Many people track the minimum due and ignore the full outstanding. If you carry ₹1.5L across 2 credit cards, that's ₹1.5L in liabilities — and at 36–42% annual interest, it's destroying your NetWorth faster than almost any investment can build it.
Now you have two lists. Add everything up.
Total Assets − Total Liabilities = Your NetWorth
This is your number. Write it down. Date it.
Positive NetWorth: You own more than you owe. You're building.
Negative NetWorth: Your liabilities exceed your assets. This is common in the early career years — especially with a home loan and limited investments. The goal is to move it positive, then grow it.
Growing NetWorth: Your number is higher than last year. Compounding is working. Keep going.
Shrinking NetWorth: Your liabilities grew faster than your assets. Time to diagnose why.
This process — done correctly — takes 3–5 hours the first time.
You'll need to log into 6–8 different platforms. Find old statements. Call your bank about that FD. Check the EPFO portal with your UAN. Estimate property values.
And then, the moment you close your spreadsheet, your number is already stale. Mutual fund NAVs change daily. EPF credits happen monthly. Loan outstanding reduces with every EMI.
This is the problem FOLO solves.
FOLO connects to 500+ sources through the RBI-supervised Account Aggregator framework and direct integrations:
You connect once. FOLO calculates your NetWorth automatically and keeps it updated daily.
You still add property, gold and business interests manually — because those don't have live API feeds yet. But everything else: automatic.
The result: A NetWorth number that's accurate, complete and updated daily. Not a spreadsheet that's three weeks stale.
Calculate My NetWorth on FOLO →
Daily: Too frequent. You'll react to noise — a 1% market fall, a single EMI debit. This creates anxiety without insight.
Monthly: The right frequency for most people. Check on the 1st of every month. Note the movement. Understand what drove it.
Quarterly: At minimum. Any less frequent and you lose the feedback loop that drives better decisions.
FOLO updates your number daily so it's always accurate — but build a habit of reviewing it monthly. Look at the trend, not just the number.
Once you know your number, ask yourself:
1. Is it growing? Your NetWorth should grow every year — ideally faster than inflation. If it's not, something is leaking.
2. Is the composition healthy? A NetWorth made up of 80% property and 20% liquid investments is a problem. You're asset-rich but cash-poor. You can't retire on a flat you live in.
3. Is the trajectory on track? At your current growth rate, will you reach your retirement number? Your children's education number? Your FIRE number?
These are the questions your number enables. Not knowing your number means you're making all your financial decisions without the most important input.
FOLO is India's NetWorth app. Connect once, calculate automatically, update daily — free, SEBI registered.
Get FOLO → | Calculate My NetWorth →
