How to Make a Graph of Net Worth

Use a line graph to track your net worth.

No matter what your current net worth, it is a good idea to track your progress throughout the years. You do not have to track your assets and liabilities every single day, but assessing your performance every six months or so is one of the best ways to stay on track and keep working toward your goal. You can create a simple graph to track your net worth, and use that graph to assess your progress at each data point.

Things You'll Need

• Financial statements

Instructions

1. Add up all of the assets you own and subtract your liabilities to calculate your current net worth. For instance, if you have a 401k worth $200,000, a $50,000 IRA, a $300,000 home and $50,000 in personal savings, your total assets are $600,000. If you have a $100,000 mortgage on your home and a $10,000 car loan, your assets minus your liabilities would be $490,000.

2. Lay out the X and Y axis for your graph, using a graphing program or a spreadsheet utility like Microsoft Excel. Microsoft Excel has a powerful graphing feature built into it, so if you have Microsoft Office you can use Excel to create your graph.

3. Place a series of month and year combinations along the X (horizontal) axis of your graph. For instance, if you are starting your net worth graph in January of 2011, you could label the data points 1/11, 3/11, 6/11, 9/11, 12/11, 3/12, 6/12 and so on for the subsequent months and years.

4. Label the Y (vertical) axis of your graph with a series of net worth numbers in reasonable increments, leaving enough room for the net worth to go up or down. For instance, if your current net worth is $300,000, you could label your Y axis from $100,000 to $1,000,000, in increments of $25,000 or $50,000.

References

• Cal Poly Institute: How to Plot Data Using Microsoft Excel; Tom Bensky; 2001