Every number tells you how well it's known
Your checking balance is exact, down to the cent, because it was built from real transactions. Your house is your estimate, because nothing knows what it's worth until you sell it. Both belong in your net worth. What you should never have to wonder is which kind of number you're looking at.
Two kinds of number, one net worth
Some of your numbers are derived from things that actually happened. Your checking balance is every deposit and payment added up, so it is exact: it matches your bank to the cent, because it was built the same way the bank built it.
Others are your best judgment. Your house is worth what you think it's worth, and so is a private business stake or a collection. Nothing feeds a live price for them, and no one knows the real figure until the day it sells. These belong in your net worth too, because leaving them out would understate what you're worth. But they are a different kind of number, and the difference matters.
Why the label has to travel with the number
It isn't enough to know, somewhere, that your house figure is an estimate. The label has to sit with the number everywhere the number appears, because that is where the decision gets made. A net worth total that blends exact and estimated figures without saying which is which invites you to treat a guess with the same confidence as a bank balance.
So an estimated value carries its mark on the balance sheet, and the mark follows it out to a spreadsheet and onto a printed page. A home and a privately held stake are treated as estimates by default, because that is what they are, and you would have to go out of your way to claim otherwise.
What this buys you
When every number wears its confidence, you can read your net worth the way it deserves to be read. The exact part is the ground you're standing on. The estimated part is the part that moves when you revise a guess, and knowing which is which tells you how much weight the total can bear.
It also keeps you honest with yourself. A good month that came from your checking account is different from a good month that came from marking your house up, and a picture that labels both lets you tell them apart at a glance instead of mistaking one for the other.
Marked Money splits a loan payment for you and keeps the three parts straight afterwards, so paying down a debt stops looking like spending it.
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