Net worth
Are you actually getting ahead? How to tell, honestly
You work, you save a bit, you pay things off. But if someone asked whether you are better off than last year, could you answer? Here is how to know for sure.
The inani money team · · 3 min read
Ask yourself one question: are you better off than you were this time last year?
Not “do you earn more”. Not “did you save something”. Better off - if you added up everything you own and took away everything you owe, is the number bigger than it was?
Most people cannot answer. Not because they are careless, but because nobody ever showed them how to keep score.
The number that actually matters
Your income is not the score. Plenty of people earn well and end the year with nothing to show for it; plenty of modest earners quietly build something real. The score is your net worth: what you own, minus what you owe. It is the one number that cannot be fooled by a good salary month or a flashy purchase.
And it is not just for wealthy people. If you have a phone, some savings, maybe a car and a loan, you have a net worth - and it is moving every month, whether you are watching it or not.
Why the total alone can mislead you
Suppose your net worth went up this month. Good month? Not necessarily. Maybe you saved nothing, but something you own happened to rise in value. Suppose it went down. Bad month? Maybe you actually saved hard, and the value of something you own dipped anyway.
Two very different stories can hide behind the same total, and if you cannot tell them apart, you learn the wrong lesson. You might quit a habit that was working, or congratulate yourself for luck.
The question is never just “did the number move?” It is “how much of that was me?”
The honest split
inani money keeps score for you, and it splits every month’s change into plain pieces: what you did - money saved, debt paid down - separately from what merely happened to the value of things you own. Anything it cannot explain, it says it cannot explain, rather than quietly folding it in somewhere.
So you get something like: “Up 9,400 this month - 6,000 of that was you.” That is a sentence you can act on. The saving is real, the rest was the weather, and you know not to count on the weather.
It works the other way, too. “Down 2,000 - but you saved 5,000.” That is a month to feel good about, not a month to give up on.
Make it a five-minute habit
You do not need to think about this daily. Once a month, look at three things:
- The direction. Up or down, over months, not weeks. One month is noise; six months is a trend.
- Your share of it. The part you did on purpose. This is the number your habits control, and the one worth judging yourself on.
- The next milestone. Set a target - a cushion, a deposit, a figure by a date - and let the app tell you what this month needs to contribute.
Getting ahead stops being a feeling and becomes a number you watch move. And once you can see it move, you can move it.
See your own honest score - free, on your phone, and your figures never leave your device unless you say so.