Household or individual NW?

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I've seen this mentioned a few times recently, so I'm curious; do you think NW should be calculated per household, or per individual?

 

[njhowie]

I would think it depends on your intended objective/use in calculating the net worth.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Personally, I always look at our household NW, because we have one checking account, and although we have separate 401(k)s and Roth IRAs, I count my inherited IRAs as "ours". More importantly, we pay bills as a household, so expenses aren't easily separated.

I know some couples maintain separate banking and credit card accounts, nothing wrong with that if that's what works for you, so for people like that I suppose separate NW makes more sense.

 

[HenryD]

My rule is household if legally married. Individual otherwise, even if cohabiting. The exactly details of how you calculate NW is really up to you though, and largely meaningless to others.

 

[CRLLS]

We count only household NW. We've been married 47 years next month. I doubt anything will change on that front. Neither of us have any mine-vs-yours children. We are both beneficiaries on our individually owned IRAs. Why separate that which was common property all these years? Under different circumstances, maybe I would be inclined to separate the NW's.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Personally, I always look at our household NW, because we have one checking account, and although we have separate 401(k)s and Roth IRAs, I count my inherited IRAs as "ours". More importantly, we pay bills as a household, so expenses aren't easily separated.

As do we.

 

[audreyh1]

Most studies and all government studies AFAIK use household NW. Works for me.

 

[Jeffman52]

DW and I use household net worth

 

[pacergal]

We use Household here, also.

 

[RunningBum]

Household. I also think any published study should specify whether they mean household or person. It leads to confusion when they don't.

 

[W2R]

I would think it depends on your intended objective/use in calculating the net worth.

+1

 

[H2ODude]

Always have thought of it as household. After 50+ years of marriage separating us out as individual financial entities does not compute.

 

[Car-Guy]

I calculate it as households NW...

 

[REWahoo]

Household. After 52 years of marriage everything kinda blends together.

 

[Aerides]

Household, if you are married/partnered under the same roof.

 

[Gumby]

In the Gumby household, what's hers is hers, and what's mine is also hers. So she has a very high net worth; me not so much.

Nah, not really. We started out together with nothing. In the intervening 36.5 years, everything we've acquired has been the result of a team effort. We've only ever had a joint bank account.

 

[5Miler]

I have been with DGF for 27 years so, although not married, I often forget we aren't. I would have to say household at this point. When someone ask's why we aren't married, we tell them we are still trying to make sure we are compatible.

 

[Ronstar]

Net worth is the sum of all assets minus liabilities. I don't know the value of my non-portfolio assets, so I don't calculate it. I calculate value of my portfolio only. I can guess DW's portfolio value or ask her if need be. But she handles her $ and I handle mine.

 

[davebarnes]

I've seen this mentioned a few times recently, so I'm curious; do you think NW should be calculated per household, or per individual?

Are you preparing for divorce?

 

[karen1972]

Most literature is household income, so I assume that means whoever you are sharing finances with regardless of marital status.

We co-habitate and track both separately and together since we want to be aware of what happens if we part ways.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Net worth is the sum of all assets minus liabilities. I don't know the value of my non-portfolio assets, so I don't calculate it. I calculate value of my portfolio only. I can guess DW's portfolio value or ask her if need be. But she handles her $ and I handle mine.

That's interesting; if you don't mind being specific, what assets do you have that you don't know the value of? I get emails from Zillow telling me the market price on our house has gone up or down, but it hasn't changed significantly at all for a while now. I don't include the value of our vehicles or household goods because the amount they're worth compared to the amount of effort to liquidate them means they probably won't ever be sold, or if they are, it'll be for very little.

I do use Fidelity's "Full View", and have it refresh the balances from all our accounts, including my spouse's. We each have management access on all of each others' accounts, because, for example, I do the Roth backdoor conversion for both of us each month. What's nice is that it includes the Zillow value of the house, and our debts (just credit cards, and the one 0% car loan that's almost gone).

 

[geeky_grrl]

I use individual NW because I'm not married to my long time partner, and even if we were we would keep separate finances. Technically I guess it would be considered my household NW as well because we are separate tax households since we are unmarried.

 

[Sojourner]

I've always calculated NW on an individual basis for myself, but that's because I've been single and living alone for pretty much the entire time I've been wealthy enough to routinely keep track of my NW.

IMHO, it's pretty simple. If you are in a committed, long-term relationship where both people are "all in" together financially, then you should be interested in household NW. Otherwise, individual NW is what matters.

 

[Sunset]

I track individual NW, as we keep finances separate.
This was to keep her money "safe" which is what I wanted.
She has a few accounts/bonds where I'm not sure the value, but just estimate.

I add them up together to get our NW.

 

[Green Papaya]

We have been married for 35 years. We use household NW.