How to track shares and ETFs in your net worth (without linking your broker)

Open the brokerage app, grab the total, type it in. That is the whole trick.

People act like investments need a live feed or they do not count. They count. You just do not need to refresh them every time the market burps.

What belongs on the line

Put the current market value of what you hold: shares, ETFs, listed trusts, the boring stuff in your broker. One line per broker is fine if you do not care about tickers. Split them out if you like the detail.

Do not mix:

• Cash sitting in the broker waiting to buy something (that is cash)
• Margin or leveraged loans (those are debts)
• Super (different account, different rules)
• Crypto on an exchange (track it if you hold it, but keep it labelled)

Vested employee shares count. Unvested grants are optional flavour; if they can vanish, say so in the label or leave them out until they land.

How often to update

Weekly is plenty for most people. Monthly is fine if your contributions are automatic and you are not trading.

Update sooner when you:

• Made a big buy or sell
• Received a dividend you actually withdrew
• Cleared or drew margin
• Changed brokers

Skipping a week because the market was down is how ledgers become mood diaries. Type the true total. Close the app.

Cost base is not net worth

Tax lots, cost base, and "am I up" are useful for decisions. Net worth only asks what it is worth today minus what you owe. Folio-style tracking is the second question. Keep the first one in your broker or accountant folder.

If you want both, fine. Do not let cost-base maths stop you from writing one honest balance.

Broker linking is optional theatre

Bank and broker sync sounds tidy until a login breaks, a feed lags, or you realise you handed a password to another company for a number you can copy in ten seconds.

A manual ledger asks for the number you already trust on screen. That is enough for a household snapshot.

Soft next step

If you want a private ledger where brokerage sits next to offset, super, and debts without a live broker login, try Folio at myfirstmillion.app. You enter the balances. It does the graph when you actually open it.