NetTrack Blog

Tag: net worth tracker

  • Best YNAB Alternatives in 2026

    Best YNAB Alternatives in 2026

    YNAB has the most committed user base in personal finance, and for good reason: zero-based budgeting genuinely changes behavior. But two things send people looking for alternatives — the ~$109/year price, and the realization that YNAB is a budgeting app first, with net worth and investment tracking as afterthoughts.

    The right replacement depends on which of those pushed you out. Here's how to choose.

    The best YNAB alternatives at a glance

    App Best for Price Free tier
    NetTrack Net worth + investments, with budgeting Paid for unlimited accounts Yes
    Actual Budget Free, self-hosted zero-based budgeting Free (self-hosted) Yes
    Monarch Money All-in-one budgeting + households ~$100/year No
    EveryDollar Simple envelope budgeting Free tier; ~$80/year premium Yes
    Copilot Money Design-first Apple users ~$95/year No

    1. NetTrack — best if you outgrew budgeting

    There's a stage most YNAB users reach: the categories are dialed in, spending is under control, and the daily budgeting ritual stops earning its time. What you want now is to watch net worth climb and know whether your investments are actually performing.

    That's NetTrack. It connects your bank, brokerage, retirement, and credit accounts and tracks net worth with full history — plus month-over-month attribution explaining why it changed. It still budgets, envelope-style, so you don't lose the discipline; it just isn't the whole app.

    On investments it goes well beyond anything YNAB attempts: flow-adjusted returns separate market performance from your own contributions, so a month where you deposited $2,000 doesn't masquerade as a gain. Dividend tracking, portfolio analytics, real estate values, and goals with projections round it out, on web, iOS, and Android.

    • Best for: people whose budget is working and whose question is now "am I building wealth?"
    • Pricing: free tier (limited connections); paid plan for unlimited accounts

    2. Actual Budget — best free YNAB clone

    Actual is open-source, local-first, and deliberately modeled on YNAB's envelope method. If you love the methodology and object only to the subscription, this is the closest thing to a drop-in replacement — and it costs nothing if you self-host.

    The trade-off is real: you're running your own sync server, and bank connections take setup. It's the enthusiast option.

    • Best for: technical users who want YNAB's method for free
    • Pricing: free self-hosted; small fee for managed hosting

    3. Monarch Money — best all-in-one

    Monarch does budgeting, goals, investments, and net worth in one polished app with strong household sharing. Its budgeting is flexible rather than strict — closer to guardrails than YNAB's give-every-dollar-a-job discipline, which is either the appeal or the dealbreaker.

    At roughly the same price as YNAB, you're trading methodological rigor for breadth.

    • Best for: couples who want one app for everything
    • Pricing: ~$100/year

    4. EveryDollar — best simple envelope budget

    Ramsey's app implements a straightforward zero-based budget with a much gentler learning curve than YNAB. The free tier requires manual entry; the paid tier adds bank connections. No meaningful investment or net worth tracking.

    • Best for: budgeting beginners who found YNAB overwhelming
    • Pricing: free tier; ~$80/year for connected accounts

    5. Copilot Money — best design on Apple platforms

    Copilot has the best interface in the category and excellent automatic categorization, with solid spending and investment views. It's Apple-only, so mixed-platform households should look elsewhere.

    • Best for: iPhone/Mac users focused on spending insights
    • Pricing: ~$95/year

    How to pick

    Answer one question: what stopped working?

    • The price → Actual Budget, or NetTrack's free tier
    • The daily maintenance → NetTrack or Monarch — automated tracking with lighter-touch budgeting
    • The missing net worth and investment picture → NetTrack
    • The complexity → EveryDollar
    • Your partner won't use it → Monarch or NetTrack, both with household support

    Don't lose the habit

    Whatever you switch to, the reason YNAB works is that it forces a regular check-in with your money. Losing the tool is fine; losing the habit is what causes the backslide.

    If you're moving from budgeting to balance-sheet thinking, how to calculate net worth is the right starting point, and net worth percentile by age will tell you where you currently stand.

    Ready for the bigger picture? Try NetTrack free — connect your accounts and see your true net worth and investment returns in minutes.

  • Net Worth Percentile by Age: Top 50%, 25%, 10%, and 1% in 2026

    Net Worth Percentile by Age: Top 50%, 25%, 10%, and 1% in 2026

    A household net worth of about $1.9 million puts you in the top 10% of American households. The top 1% starts around $13.7 million, the top 25% at roughly $659,000 — and half of all US households sit below $192,700.

    But overall numbers only tell half the story: a 30-year-old with $400,000 is in a very different position than a 60-year-old with the same amount. Here are the percentile thresholds overall and by age, based on the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances.

    US net worth percentiles (all households)

    Percentile Household net worth
    25th (bottom quartile) ~$27,000
    50th (median) ~$192,700
    75th (top 25%) ~$659,000
    90th (top 10%) ~$1.94 million
    95th (top 5%) ~$3.8 million
    99th (top 1%) ~$13.7 million

    Source: Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances (2022, the latest published survey; figures in 2022 dollars).

    Top 10% threshold by age

    Because wealth compounds over a career, the bar for the top 10% rises steeply with age:

    Age group Median net worth Top 10% (90th percentile)
    Under 35 $39,040 ~$390,000
    35–44 $135,300 ~$980,000
    45–54 $246,700 ~$1.76 million
    55–64 $364,270 ~$2.6 million
    65–74 $409,900 ~$3.2 million
    75+ $334,700 ~$2.75 million

    A useful way to read this: a 32-year-old with $400,000 is already in their age group's top 10%, while a 55-year-old with the same amount is only modestly above their cohort's median. Age-adjusted comparison is the honest one.

    What these thresholds actually mean

    • Net worth is household, not individual. A couple's combined assets count as one household, so single-person comparisons should mentally adjust down.
    • The median is the anchor. Half of American households have less than ~$193,000 — if headlines about "average" millionaires make you feel behind, remember the average is distorted by a small number of extremely wealthy households.
    • Percentiles are a snapshot; trajectory is the signal. Moving from the 40th to the 60th percentile over five years matters more than where you happen to stand today.

    For what drives the differences between age groups — compounding, home equity, debt payoff — see our companion piece on the average net worth by age.

    How to find your own percentile

    1. Calculate your net worth — all assets minus all liabilities.
    2. Find your age bracket in the table above and compare against the median first, then the 90th percentile.
    3. Recheck yearly. The interesting question isn't "where am I?" but "which direction am I moving, and how fast?"

    Frequently asked questions

    What net worth is considered rich?
    There's no official line, but the top 10% threshold ($1.9 million per household) is a common benchmark for "wealthy," and the top 1% ($13.7 million) for "rich" in the popular sense.

    Does net worth include home equity?
    Yes — these figures count your home's market value as an asset and the mortgage as a liability. For many households, home equity is the single largest component.

    Where does this data come from?
    The Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, conducted every three years. The 2022 survey (published October 2023) is the latest; results from the 2025 survey are expected in late 2026, and we'll update this page when they're released.

    Curious where you actually stand? NetTrack connects your accounts and calculates your real net worth in minutes — then tracks the trend that matters. Start free.

  • Best Empower (Personal Capital) Alternatives in 2026

    Best Empower (Personal Capital) Alternatives in 2026

    Empower's Personal Dashboard (the app formerly known as Personal Capital) is still one of the best free net worth trackers available. So why are so many people looking for a replacement?

    Three reasons come up again and again: the advisory sales calls that start once your linked balances cross a threshold, account sync issues that leave connections broken for days, and a dashboard that has barely evolved since the Personal Capital days. Empower is a wealth-management firm first — the free dashboard exists to find advisory clients, and it shows.

    If any of that sounds familiar, here are the best Empower alternatives in 2026, and who each one is right for.

    The best Empower alternatives at a glance

    App Best for Price Investment return Sales calls
    NetTrack Net worth + true investment performance Free tier; paid for unlimited accounts Flow-adjusted Never
    Monarch Money All-in-one budgeting + net worth ~$100/year Good Never
    Kubera Complex, multi-asset portfolios ~$199/year Basic Never
    Copilot Money Design-first Apple users ~$95/year Good Never
    Empower (keep it) Free tracking, don't mind outreach Free Good Yes

    1. NetTrack — best overall replacement

    NetTrack is the closest match for what most people actually use Empower for: connecting every account, watching net worth over time, and understanding how their investments are really doing.

    It goes further than Empower on the investment side. NetTrack computes a flow-adjusted return for every account, so deposits and withdrawals don't get counted as gains or losses — a common flaw in dashboards that just chart your balance. You also get net worth attribution (a breakdown of exactly what changed your net worth each month), dividend tracking, real estate tracking, goals with projections, and synced web and mobile apps.

    And because NetTrack makes money from subscriptions — not from managing your assets — there is no advisory upsell and nobody will ever call you.

    • Best for: anyone who used Empower primarily for net worth and investment tracking
    • Pricing: free tier (limited connections); paid plan for unlimited accounts
    • Platforms: web, iOS, Android

    2. Monarch Money — best all-in-one

    If you want budgeting, goals, and net worth in a single polished app, Monarch is the strongest all-rounder, with great support for couples. The trade-off is price — there's no free tier — and its investment analytics are lighter than Empower's.

    • Best for: households that want budgeting and net worth together
    • Pricing: ~$100/year
    • Platforms: web, iOS, Android

    3. Kubera — best for complex portfolios

    Crypto, foreign bank accounts, private equity, collectibles, real estate across countries — Kubera tracks nearly anything with a value. It's the pick for high-net-worth users with assets a mainstream aggregator can't handle, at a premium price.

    • Best for: complex, multi-currency, alternative-asset portfolios
    • Pricing: ~$199/year
    • Platforms: web-first

    4. Copilot Money — best design

    Copilot is the best-looking personal finance app on Apple platforms, with excellent transaction categorization. Net worth and investment tracking are solid but secondary to its spending focus, and there's no Android or full web experience yet.

    • Best for: iPhone/Mac users who care about design and spending insights
    • Pricing: ~$95/year
    • Platforms: iOS, macOS

    When you should just stay with Empower

    Empower still makes sense if you want a completely free tool, you like its retirement planner and fee analyzer, and you genuinely don't mind declining the occasional advisory call. It's a good product — the frustrations are with the business model around it, not the dashboard itself.

    How to switch

    1. Export or screenshot your history. Empower doesn't offer a clean full export, so capture your current net worth and balances before you leave.
    2. Connect accounts in the new app. Aggregation coverage differs — connect your two or three most important institutions first and confirm they sync.
    3. Add manual assets. Recreate your home value, vehicles, and any private holdings.
    4. Run both for a month. Once the new app's numbers match reality, close out the old one.

    Frequently asked questions

    Is Empower Personal Dashboard still free in 2026?
    Yes. The dashboard is free; Empower monetizes it by offering wealth-management services to users with larger balances, which is where the sales outreach comes from.

    What's the best free Empower alternative?
    NetTrack's free tier covers basic net worth tracking with a limited number of connections. If you need many connected accounts for free, Empower itself is still hard to beat — the alternatives charge because subscriptions are their only revenue.

    Which Empower alternative has the best investment tracking?
    NetTrack, for one specific reason: flow-adjusted returns. Most apps show a balance chart that mixes your contributions with market performance. NetTrack separates them, so you can see how your portfolio actually performed.

    Will I get sales calls from these alternatives?
    No. NetTrack, Monarch, Kubera, and Copilot are all subscription businesses. None of them manage assets or sell advisory services.

    Ready to leave the sales calls behind? Try NetTrack free — connect your accounts and see your true net worth and investment returns in minutes.

  • Best Monarch Money Alternatives in 2026

    Best Monarch Money Alternatives in 2026

    Monarch Money became the default Mint replacement for a reason: it does budgeting, goals, and net worth in one polished app. But after its price increase, plenty of users are asking whether ~$100 a year is worth it — especially if they only use a fraction of the feature set.

    That's the key to choosing an alternative: figure out which part of Monarch you actually use. Most people fall into one of three camps — net worth and investments, hands-on budgeting, or bill management. Here's the best option for each in 2026.

    The best Monarch alternatives at a glance

    App Best for Price Free tier
    NetTrack Net worth + investment performance Paid for unlimited accounts Yes
    Empower Free net worth tracking Free Yes
    YNAB Zero-based budgeting ~$109/year No
    Copilot Money Design-first Apple users ~$95/year No
    Rocket Money Bills + subscription management ~$6–12/month Limited

    1. NetTrack — best for net worth and investments

    If you open Monarch mostly to look at your net worth graph and your accounts, NetTrack does that job better — because it's the entire focus of the app.

    NetTrack connects your bank, brokerage, retirement, and credit accounts, tracks net worth with full history, and explains why it changed with month-over-month attribution. On investments it's a clear step up from Monarch: flow-adjusted returns separate market performance from your own deposits, so a month where you contributed $2,000 doesn't masquerade as a 4% gain. Dividend tracking, portfolio analytics, real estate values, goals with projections, and envelope-style budgeting round it out, on web, iOS, and Android.

    • Best for: the big-picture camp — net worth, investments, long-term progress
    • Pricing: free tier (limited connections); paid plan for unlimited accounts

    2. Empower Personal Dashboard — best free option

    Empower (formerly Personal Capital) remains the strongest free net worth and investment dashboard, including a good retirement planner and fee analyzer. The catch is well-known: it's run by a wealth manager, so larger balances attract advisory sales calls, and budgeting is weak.

    • Best for: free net worth tracking, if you can tolerate the outreach
    • Pricing: free

    3. YNAB — best for serious budgeters

    If Monarch's budgets never actually changed your spending, YNAB's zero-based "give every dollar a job" method probably will. It's a philosophy with software attached — more work, more results. Net worth tracking is an afterthought.

    • Best for: people who want to actively control spending
    • Pricing: ~$109/year

    4. Copilot Money — best design on Apple platforms

    Copilot has the best-designed interface in personal finance, with standout automatic categorization. It covers spending, budgets, and investments well — but it's Apple-only, so mixed-platform households should look elsewhere.

    • Best for: iPhone/Mac users focused on spending insights
    • Pricing: ~$95/year

    5. Rocket Money — best for bills and subscriptions

    Rocket Money's strength is finding and cancelling subscriptions and negotiating bills. As a full finance dashboard it's shallow, but as a money-saving utility it pays for itself quickly.

    • Best for: cutting recurring costs
    • Pricing: free tier; premium ~$6–12/month (choose your price)

    How to choose

    • You mostly watch net worth and investments → NetTrack
    • You want free above all → Empower
    • You need to fix your spending → YNAB
    • You're all-in on Apple and love good design → Copilot
    • Your problem is subscriptions and bills → Rocket Money
    • You genuinely use all of Monarch → stay. It's still the best all-in-one.

    Frequently asked questions

    Is there a cheaper app that does everything Monarch does?
    Not really — all-in-one apps with reliable bank syncing cost money to run, so true Monarch clones price similarly. The savings come from picking a focused app that does the part you use.

    What's the best Monarch alternative for couples?
    NetTrack supports households, so partners can track combined net worth together without sharing logins. Monarch is also genuinely strong here — it's one of its best features.

    Can I switch without losing my history?
    Your transaction history generally doesn't transfer between apps, but your balances and holdings sync fresh from your institutions. Most aggregators also backfill some transaction history on first connect.

    Tracking net worth is the part that matters most. Start free with NetTrack and see your whole financial picture in one place.

  • How to Calculate & Grow Your Net Worth: The Complete 2026 Guide

    How to Calculate & Grow Your Net Worth: The Complete 2026 Guide

    Your net worth is the single clearest number for measuring financial progress. It cuts through the noise of income and spending and answers one question: are you actually building wealth?

    The formula is simple — assets minus liabilities — but doing it right means knowing what to count, how to value it, how to benchmark it, and how to keep the number growing. This guide walks through all of it.

    What is net worth?

    Net worth is everything you own (assets) minus everything you owe (liabilities).

    Net Worth = Total Assets − Total Liabilities

    If your assets add up to $250,000 and your debts total $90,000, your net worth is $160,000. It can be positive or negative — a new graduate with student loans and little savings may have a negative net worth, and that’s completely normal. What matters is the direction it moves over time.

    Two flavors are worth knowing:

    • Gross net worth — total assets minus total liabilities (the standard figure).
    • Liquid net worth — only the assets you could turn into cash quickly (cash, investments), minus liabilities. This tells you what you could actually access in an emergency, since your home and car aren’t easy to spend.

    Step 1: Add up your assets

    Assets are anything you own that has real, sellable value. Group them so nothing slips through the cracks:

    Cash and cash equivalents

    • Checking and savings accounts
    • Money market accounts and CDs
    • Cash on hand

    Investments

    • Brokerage accounts (stocks, ETFs, bonds, mutual funds)
    • Retirement accounts (401(k), IRA, Roth IRA, pensions)
    • HSAs and 529 college savings plans
    • Crypto holdings

    Real estate

    • Your primary home (current market value, not what you paid)
    • Rental or investment properties

    Personal property and other

    • Vehicles (use realistic resale value, not sticker price)
    • Valuable collectibles, jewelry, or equipment
    • Business ownership or private equity
    • Money owed to you

    Add these up to get your total assets. Use current market values, and be honest — inflating your home or car value only fools you.

    Step 2: Add up your liabilities

    Liabilities are everything you owe. Use the current outstanding balance, not the original loan amount:

    • Mortgage balance
    • Auto loans
    • Student loans
    • Credit card balances
    • Personal loans and lines of credit
    • Medical or tax debt
    • Any other money you owe

    Add these up to get your total liabilities.

    Step 3: Subtract

    Subtract total liabilities from total assets. That’s your net worth.

    Amount
    Cash & savings$18,000
    Investments & retirement$142,000
    Home (market value)$380,000
    Vehicle$15,000
    Total assets$555,000
    Mortgage$295,000
    Auto loan$9,000
    Student loans$22,000
    Credit cards$3,000
    Total liabilities$329,000
    Net worth$226,000

    What to leave out

    A few things commonly trip people up:

    • Income and salary — net worth is a snapshot of what you have, not what you earn. High earners can have low net worth.
    • Monthly expenses — these affect net worth over time but aren’t part of the calculation itself.
    • Depreciating stuff at retail price — furniture, electronics, and clothing rarely have meaningful resale value. Skip them or use conservative numbers.
    • Term life insurance — it has no cash value (whole-life policies do).

    Common mistakes to avoid

    • Overvaluing your home and car. Use current market value, and remember you’d pay fees to actually sell.
    • Forgetting old retirement accounts. A 401(k) from a job you left three years ago still counts.
    • Ignoring debt behind “good” assets. A $400,000 house with a $380,000 mortgage adds only $20,000 to your net worth.
    • Counting investment gains as your own contributions. When you review how your portfolio is doing, separate the money you added from the money the market earned. Mixing them makes a good month look better than it was — and a bad one worse. (More on this below.)

    How do you compare? Net worth benchmarks

    It’s natural to want a benchmark. Just remember that averages are skewed upward by the ultra-wealthy — the median (the middle household) is a far more realistic yardstick than the average, and both vary widely by age, region, and cost of living.

    Rather than chase someone else’s number, use a personal benchmark. One popular rule of thumb from The Millionaire Next Door is:

    Expected net worth = (Age × Annual pre-tax income) ÷ 10

    So a 40-year-old earning $80,000 would have an expected net worth around $320,000. Hit that and you’re a solid accumulator of wealth; double it and you’re doing exceptionally well. It’s a rough guide, not gospel — but it beats comparing yourself to a headline average.

    The most useful benchmark of all is your own net worth last year. Beating your past self, consistently, is the entire game.

    How to grow your net worth

    There are only two levers, and both matter:

    1. Grow assets. Save and invest consistently. Automate contributions to retirement and brokerage accounts so growth happens without willpower. Time in the market and compounding do the heavy lifting.
    2. Shrink liabilities. Pay down high-interest debt aggressively — credit card balances especially, where the interest often outruns any investment return. Every dollar of debt eliminated raises net worth just as surely as a dollar saved.

    A few habits that compound over the years:

    • Increase your savings rate, not just your income. Raises quietly disappear if spending rises to match them.
    • Keep housing and vehicle costs in check — the two biggest budget lines for most households.
    • Invest for the long term and avoid reacting to short-term market swings.
    • Track your investment returns honestly so you know what’s actually working.

    That last point is where most people — and most apps — get tripped up. If you add $10,000 to your brokerage account and it grows to $60,000 from $48,000, it looks like a $12,000 gain. But $10,000 of that was your own deposit; the market only earned you $2,000. Confusing the two makes it impossible to tell whether your investing is any good. The fix is a flow-adjusted return (also called a money-weighted return), which strips out your deposits and withdrawals to show true performance.

    How often should you calculate it?

    Once a month is the sweet spot. Frequent enough to catch trends, infrequent enough that daily market swings don’t rattle you. Pick a consistent day — the first of the month works well — and log the number each time.

    The magic isn’t in any single calculation. It’s in the trend line. Watched over years, a net worth that climbs up and to the right is the clearest proof you’re on the right track.

    Do it the easy way: track it automatically

    Calculating net worth by hand once is a great exercise. Doing it every month, across a dozen accounts, gets tedious fast — and manual spreadsheets go stale the moment a balance changes.

    That’s what a net worth tracker is for. NetTrack connects your bank, brokerage, and retirement accounts, rolls everything into one net worth figure, and updates it automatically. It also computes the flow-adjusted return described above, so the deposits and withdrawals you make don’t get mistaken for market gains — you see how your portfolio actually performed.

    Frequently asked questions

    What should my net worth be at my age?
    There’s no universal target. As a rough guide, The Millionaire Next Door suggests (age × annual income) ÷ 10. More important than any benchmark is that your net worth is trending upward year over year.

    Is my house part of my net worth?
    Yes — count your home’s current market value as an asset and your remaining mortgage as a liability. The difference (your equity) is what actually adds to net worth. If you want to know what you could access quickly, look at liquid net worth, which excludes your home.

    Does my 401(k) count toward net worth?
    Absolutely. Retirement accounts — 401(k)s, IRAs, pensions, HSAs — are assets and often make up the largest share of a household’s net worth. Include old accounts from past employers, too.

    What’s a good net worth?
    A “good” net worth is one that’s positive, growing, and on track for your goals. Comparing to national averages is misleading because they’re skewed by the ultra-wealthy — benchmark against your own past instead.

    How is net worth different from income?
    Income is what you earn; net worth is what you keep. It’s entirely possible to earn a high salary and have a low (or negative) net worth if spending and debt keep pace. Net worth is the truer measure of financial health.

    The bottom line

    Net worth is assets minus liabilities — simple to calculate, powerful to track. Add up what you own, subtract what you owe, and check the number monthly. Grow it by saving consistently, paying down debt, and measuring your investment returns honestly. Whether you’re climbing out of debt or building toward financial independence, that single figure, watched over time, tells you the truth about your progress.

    Ready to stop doing the math by hand? Track your net worth automatically with NetTrack.