How to track net worth across brokerages, crypto and a mortgage

Tracking net worth across several brokerages, a crypto exchange, and a mortgage is a bookkeeping problem, not a math problem. Keep one list of every account, each with its side, its current value, where that value comes from, and when it was last checked. Accounts that can be connected update themselves; the rest are updated by hand on a schedule. Value investments and crypto at today's price, property at a realistic estimate, and the mortgage at its remaining principal. The total is only as current as the stalest line, which is why the list has to say when each value was last checked.

Why scattered accounts break the picture

A household ten years into working life has accounts in a lot of places: a brokerage account opened in one year, a Roth IRA at a different firm, a 401(k) with the current employer and another with a former one, a crypto exchange, a hardware wallet, a mortgage whose servicer has changed twice, and the bank. Each has its own login and shows only itself. The old 401(k) sends a statement once a quarter to an address that may be out of date. The wallet's value changes by the hour. The mortgage balance gets looked at when refinancing and at no other time.

None of these accounts is hard to value. The difficulty is that no one place holds all of them, so the list has to be that place.

Build the list

1. Write down every institution you have ever opened an account with, including former employers' retirement plans, old brokerage accounts, and any exchange or wallet that still holds a balance. The forgotten ones are the point of this step.
2. Mark each account's side: asset or liability.
3. Write today's value and its source. A live connection, a statement, the institution's app, a servicer's site, or an estimate.
4. Set an update cadence for each: daily for anything connected, monthly for manual balances, quarterly for a car, yearly for a home.
5. Note the date last checked beside each line, and read the total only after every line is within its cadence.

Value each kind correctly

Brokerage and retirement accounts count at the market value on the day you check, including any cash sitting in the account. Count only the vested balance in an employer plan; unvested contributions aren't yours until they vest.

Crypto counts at holdings times today's price on the exchange you would sell on. An exchange account shows the figure directly. A self-custody wallet needs the holdings multiplied by the price by hand, which is why it is a monthly line rather than a daily one.

The mortgage counts at its remaining principal, which the servicer shows on its site and on each statement. Not the original loan amount, and not a payoff quote, which adds accrued interest and fees. The escrow balance the servicer holds for taxes and insurance is technically yours and small enough to leave out.

The home counts at a realistic current estimate, updated once a year by the same method each time, so that the changes in the figure are changes in the market rather than in your optimism.

Employer stock counts at vested shares times the current price. Unvested shares and options are left out until they vest.

A worked example

One household's list, with the source and cadence for each line.

Net worth is $578,500 minus $334,100, or $244,400. Eight of the twelve lines update themselves. The former employer's 401(k) is the line most likely to be forgotten, and the wallet is the one most likely to be stale, which is why both carry an explicit cadence.

Keep it current

Do a monthly pass. Update every manual line that is due, and check that each connected line has updated recently rather than assuming it has.

Consolidate where you can. A former employer's plan can usually be rolled into an IRA or the current employer's plan, which turns a quarterly statement line into a connected one and removes the account most likely to be forgotten.

Record the transfers. When a mortgage moves to a new servicer, an account is rolled over, or crypto moves from an exchange to a wallet, the old line goes to zero and the new line appears, and the list should show both changes on the same day so nothing is counted twice or dropped.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting the former employer's plan, which can be the largest account a household owns and the one it never logs into.
• Counting unvested shares or contributions as if they were yours.
• Valuing crypto at what you paid rather than at today's price.
• Using the original mortgage amount instead of the remaining principal.
• Double counting a rolled-over account by leaving the old line in place after the new one appears.
• Letting a connection that stopped syncing sit at its last value for months.

Common questions

Should I count crypto at all? Yes, at today's value, if you can sell or withdraw it. It is an asset like any other whose price moves, and leaving it out understates what you own on the days it is up and hides the loss on the days it is down.

How do I value crypto in a self-custody wallet? Holdings times the current price on the exchange you would sell on, updated by hand on the monthly pass. The wallet has no institution to report a balance, so it is a manual line by nature.

Which mortgage figure do I use? The remaining principal, from the servicer's site or the latest statement. A payoff quote includes interest accrued to the payoff date and any fees, and the original loan amount is history.

What about a 401(k) from a job I left years ago? Find it through the plan administrator on your last statement or through the former employer's benefits contact, put its value on the list at the statement date, and consider rolling it into an account you can see every day.

Do I count my employer's stock or options? Vested shares count at market value. Unvested shares and unvested options don't, until they vest, because they can still be lost by leaving.

How Zypper handles this

Zypper turns the list into a set of connections. Investment and brokerage accounts, including 401(k), IRA and Roth IRA, HSA, and 529 plans, crypto exchange accounts, and loans including mortgages can all be connected; investment, brokerage, and loan accounts contribute their balances to net worth, and connected accounts update automatically every day. The connections settings show each institution's status and when it last updated, which is the last-checked column above kept for you, and when a bank reports a new account on an existing connection, Zypper detects it and lets you choose whether to add it. Anything that can't be connected, such as a home, a vehicle, a self-custody wallet, or an account at an institution not yet supported, is a manual account with the balance you set, and if the institution later becomes connectable you can connect it and remove the manual account. Net worth is computed from all of it and charted over time. See Supported account types, Manual accounts, and Adding newly available accounts for the details, or get started with Zypper to bring your own list together.