Back
Budgeting
Planning & budgeting
Saving & investing
KiwiSaver
Tackling debt
Protecting wealth
Retirement
Home buying
Life events
Setting goals
Money tracking
Plan your spending with a budget
Getting advice
Studying
Get better with money
What pūtea beliefs do you have?
How to save your money
How to start investing
Find a financial adviser to help you invest
Your investment profile
Compound interest
Net worth
Types of investments
Term deposits
Bonds
Investment funds
Shares
Property investment
How KiwiSaver works and why it's worth joining
How to pick the right KiwiSaver fund
Make the most of KiwiSaver and grow your balance
How KiwiSaver can help you get into your first home
Applying for a KiwiSaver hardship withdrawal
How to use buy now pay later
What you really need to know before you use credit
How to get out of debt quickly
Credit reports
Know your rights
Pros and cons of debt consolidation
Credit cards
Car loans
Personal loans
Hire purchase
Student loans
Getting a fine
What happens if I start to struggle with moni?
How to protect yourself from fraud and being scammed
About insurance
Insurance types
Insuring ourselves
Wills
Enduring powers of attorney
Family trusts
Insuring our homes
Losing a partner
Redundancy
Serious diagnosis
How to cope with the aftermath of fraud
Separation
About NZ Super
This year's NZ Super rates
When you’re thinking of living in a retirement village
How to plan, save and invest for retirement
Manage your money in retirement
Find housing options in retirement
Planning & budgeting
Saving & investing
KiwiSaver
Tackling debt
Protecting wealth
Retirement
Home buying
Life events
Resources
Videos
Podcasts
Just wondering
Help with the cost of living
In need of financial help
Booklets
Glossary
Blogs
View all
Reading time: 3 minutes
Net worth is the difference between the value of what we own and the total amount that we owe.
It’s one way to tell if we’re really getting ahead. Knowing our net worth helps us set goals for our money, make financial plans and track our progress. The most important thing with net worth is not how high it is, but rather which direction it’s headed – may it always be trending up!
Net worth is a way of measuring our wealth. It's the amount of cash we'd have if we sold everything and paid off all our debts today. Overall, our financial goal should be to increase and protect our net worth over time, for ourselves and for our people.
The safest way to improve our net worth is to reduce the amount we owe, rather than relying on the value of the things we own to increase. For example, property values can fall at times. Rising interest rates will also increase the cost of our debt.
As long as we’re either paying down debt or saving and investing, our net worth will head upwards.
Net worth is important when we're thinking about retirement. Most of us want to be debt-free, ideally own a house and have some money to live on when we retire. So before retiring, our main financial goal should be to increase our net worth over time.
Once we retire, however, our goal may be to reduce our net worth, by using up our savings or selling assets to fund our retirement. But we need to make sure we don’t run out of money before we run out of time!
It's easy to work out your current net worth with Sorted’s net worth calculator. Once you figure out the difference between what you own and what you owe, you can set targets for the future.
Knowing your net worth will help you set goals, which you can review every year or so.
These goals could be, for example, to reduce debt, increase savings or to buy an asset like your own home. To set and work on your goals, head to the goal planner.
Guide
It's the first step to sorting our finances: working out where we want to be moneywise and what our priorities…
Guide
You put in so much effort to earn money – isn’t it time you had it work hard for you,…
Guide
The longer your debt lingers, the more expensive it gets overall. That’s because credit typically costs us in fees and…
Visit us on social
© Office of the Retirement Commissioner
Use verification code from your authenticator app. How to use authenticator apps.
Don't have an account? Sign up
Or log in with our social media platforms
A Sorted account gives you a personal dashboard where you can save your tools, track your progress and you'll also receive helpful money tips and guidance straight to your inbox.
Or sign up with our social media platforms
