How To Use My Free Net Worth Tracking Spreadsheet (Attached Inside!)

Posted in   Investing   on  May 26, 2023 by  Money Bren0

Nothing in this article is financial advice. The writer is not your financial advisor. Investing contains risk and you can lose money. Consult your own professionals before making investment decisions. This article may contain affiliate links. 

Your Free Net Worth Tracker

The spreadsheet I use every day to track my net worth is available for you to use, free!

Just enter your email below and I'll send it right over.

Tim Ferriss popularised a good saying - "What gets measured, gets managed".

This means if you want to improve something, start measuring it.

  • Trying to lose weight? Weigh yourself daily.
  • Trying to run more kilometres? Record each run.
  • Trying to increase your net worth? Start tracking it!

This means at all times you should know what your net worth is and be tracking its movements.

If you're handy with Excel, you should be capable of making your own net worth tracking spreadsheet.

However, for those of you who don't work with Excel regularly, I've made the net worth tracker I use available to you to use (yes, it's free!)

It's a basic multi-tab sheet with a few formulas to help you fetch stock prices, crypto prices and exchange rates etc, and will graph all your assets for you in a simple net worth tracking dashboard.

In this article, I'll give you all the instructions you need on how to use it, so you can get a clear picture of how much you're worth and how to get this number moving in the right direction (up!).

What You Will Need

First, you will need the spreadsheet.

If you don't have it already, enter your email below and I'll send it right over:

You will need a Google/gmail account, because the sheet runs on Google Sheets (it's free).

Other than that you don't need anything else other than your laptop/computer and an internet connection.

Note: While the sheet technically works on mobile, it's not really practical. You will need a computer - the bigger the screen the better.

Once you open the sheet, you will want to copy it to your own Google account so you have your own copy and can start to edit it.

Click File > Make A Copy:

Basic Instructions

Along the bottom of the sheet, you will see the different tabs, highlighted below in red:

This screenshot shows the Cash tab.

The instructions are the same for each tab.

Fill in the green columns only.

The other columns contain formulas and will populate for you.

In the screenshot above, you can see I've filled out the column with some examples.

Obviously, in each tab you should delete these example entries and enter your own.

If you're not sure how to fill out the column correctly, hover your mouse over the little (i) information symbol, as highlighted in the screenshot below:

This will bring up some basic instructions on what you should enter in that particular column.

Let's go through the many different things this sheet can do to help you track your net worth.

The Net Worth Tracker Tab:

This is the main tab.

You can see at the top it shows your current net worth, and then breaks it down into each component.

To the right you have your asset allocation, which shows what percentage of your assets are held in each asset class.

Underneath, each asset class is also broken down into allocations, such as your stock portfolio, your crypto portfolio and so on.

Finally, you have a graph that tracks your growth in net worth over time.

All this data will come from the other tabs in sheet, which you will need to fill out.

Let's go through them one by one.

Cash Tab

The cash tab refers to any of your assets that are held in cash.

This can include:

  • Bank accounts
  • Term deposits
  • Other cash deposits at brokerages, finance companies etc.
  • Foreign currency at overseas bank accounts
  • Stablecoins
  • P2P deposits
  • Bonds

You can see as examples I've entered a few bank accounts and brokerage accounts and so on.

Delete these and then enter the balances of your own cash assets.

You should enter them in the denominated currency, and then select from the dropdown box which currency the cash is in.

For example, if you have $5,000 USD in a US bank account, enter $5,000 in the second column and select USD from the dropdown box in the third column.

The sheet will convert it into NZD for you and feed it through to your net worth total.

Stocks Tab

The stocks tab is more complex, but still simple to fill out.

In the left hand column, you will need to enter the stock ticker of the stocks you own.

The sheet will fetch and update the stock price for you in real time, but for the sheet to work properly, you will need to enter the ticker in the correct format.

The format is as follows:

To enter an NZ stock, you should type NZE: (which means it's an NZ listed stock) and then the stock ticker.

For example, the ticker for Air New Zealand is AIR, so you would type NZE:AIR.

For Aussie stocks, the prefix is ASX:

So if you want to enter Qantas (stock ticker QAN), you would enter ASX:QAN

For US stocks you don't need a prefix, just enter the code.

For example, the ticker for Apple is AAPL, so just enter AAPL.

You can get all stock tickers from searching for the stock you own on finance.yahoo.com

In the third column, enter the Cost of the stock. This is how much you spent on the stock in total (including fees).

In the fourth column enter the number of stock you own.

The spreadsheet will work out your current holding in NZD, plus your current gain/loss.

Crypto Tab

The sheet is able to fetch prices in real time for only a select few coins (this is a limitation of Google's GOOGLEFINANCE function).

These coins are highlighted in blue in the screenshot above.

This means if you hold these coins, the sheet can easily update the value of your holdings automatically.

Simply enter the quantity of each coin you hold in the green column.

If you hold other coins, you will need to enter them manually, or set up your own script using the Coinmarketcap API.

Real Estate Tab

The real estate sheet is straightforward - you will be asked to enter two values, the CV of your property, and the cost (price you paid).

Then you can choose which value you want the net worth tracker to use.

Usually the CV is more suitable, but there are times when you might think cost is more relevant.

There's no right answer, just choose whichever one makes more sense to you (generally speaking, the one closer to the price you expect the market to fetch today).

To find the CV of your property, the most accurate way would be to have it independently valued, but you can get a free estimate of your property's market value from your council within a few seconds.

Just head to the council rates valuation estimator and check.

For example, if you live in Auckland, you can get a rates estimate of your property's value on their website here.

Debt Tab

This works identically to the Cash tab.

Simply enter your debt amounts and select the currency.

The sheet will convert all your debts to NZD and work out a total carrying value, updated in real time.

Other Assets Tab

This tab is a place for you to record any assets that don't fit into the other tabs.

Some examples might be:

  • Cars
  • Jewellery
  • Watches
  • Collectibles
  • Artwork
  • Precious metals
  • Investments in startups
  • A business you own

Tracker Tab

Use this final tab to record your net worth at regular intervals.

In the two columns, simply record the date and your net worth at the time (take this figure from the first tab).

I would suggest recording your net worth on the first of each month.

Over time you will build a history of your net worth and the sheet will graph it for you so you can see how it's changed over time.

You might also start to see patterns on why it goes up or down which will help you adjust your behaviours to improve your net worth even further.

Why You Should Use A Net Worth Tracker

  • It keeps it at the forefront of your mind. Whenever you're about to buy something you don't need, you will visualise your net worth dropping by that amount in your spreadsheet, and it might change your mind.
  • It will give you a clear understanding of how your net worth changes, so you can start making the right moves to increase it.
  • It gives you a clear idea of where your assets and liabilities are.
  •  It keeps you accountable.

Remember - what gets measured, gets managed.

If you want to increase your net worth, you need to start tracking your progress.

Once you understand the levers that affect your net worth, and what specific actions make it go up and down, you'll be that much closer to growing it to a million and beyond.

Your Free Net Worth Tracker

The spreadsheet I use every day to track my net worth is available for you to use, free!

Just enter your email below and I'll send it right over.

Build Your First Million!

My free net worth tracker that I use daily is available to you, for free.

I've helped hundreds of Kiwis track their net worth, and grow it!

Just enter your email below and I'll send it right over.

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