Liquid Net Worth Calculator
Every asset, and what it costs to reach it
Your result will appear here
Fill in the fields on the left and this updates as you type.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- General mathematical model
- Scope and limitations
- Planning estimate only. Enter complete, current figures and keep an appropriate buffer for irregular or unexpected expenses.
- Source links checked
- Jul 30, 2026
Built and regression-tested by Smart Tools Lab. It has not been individually reviewed by a licensed financial, tax, or legal professional.
How to use
- 01
Enter the reachable assets first: cash and savings, the taxable brokerage balance, and what share of that brokerage balance is unrealised gain — only the gain is taxed when you sell.
- 02
Enter the retirement money separately: the pre-tax balance (401(k), traditional IRA, 403(b), TSP) and the Roth balance, with the contributions you put in yourself in the advanced field, because those come out at any age with no tax and no penalty.
- 03
Enter the house at market value with its mortgage, and the vehicles and business equity you could not sell this month.
- 04
Enter short-term debt — cards, personal loans, anything due within a year — then your age and your marginal tax rate. Age is what decides whether the 10% early-withdrawal penalty applies to retirement money.
- 05
Read the headline against total net worth, then the table: every asset at face value, what it costs to reach, and what you actually keep. The gap between the two headline numbers is the answer.
Formula
Liquid net worth = cash + (brokerage − capital gains tax on the unrealised gain) + Roth contributions − short-term debt. The retirement haircut is your marginal rate plus, if you are under 59½, the 10% penalty, applied to the pre-tax balance and to Roth earnings. The home haircut is the selling-cost percentage applied to the market value before the mortgage is repaid: what you keep is home value × (1 − selling cost) − mortgage. Total net worth is every asset at face value less every debt, and the gap between the two headline figures is what you own but cannot reach.
Example
$22,000 of cash, a $96,000 brokerage account that is 35% gain, $214,000 of pre-tax retirement money, a $58,000 Roth of which $31,000 is your own contributions, a $415,000 house against a $251,000 mortgage, $34,000 of vehicles, and $7,400 of card debt — at 41, on a 22% marginal rate. Total net worth is $580,600. Liquid net worth is $136,560: the cash, the brokerage account after $5,040 of capital gains tax, and the Roth contributions, less the card balance. The gap is $444,040, so only 24% of the headline number is reachable. Emptying the retirement accounts as well — $68,480 of tax and penalty on the pre-tax balance, $8,640 on the Roth earnings — would take it to $300,440. Selling the house too, after $33,200 of commission and closing costs, reaches $465,240. Against $5,200 a month of spending, the liquid figure alone covers about 26 months.
Definitions
- Liquid net worth
- What you could actually convert to spendable cash this month, net of the tax it costs, less anything due within a year.
- Unrealised gain
- The part of an investment's value that is profit not yet taxed. Only this part is taxed when you sell — not the whole balance.
- Early-withdrawal penalty
- The 10% charge under IRC §72(t) on retirement money taken before 59½, on top of ordinary income tax. Several exceptions exist and none of them are automatic.
- Roth basis
- The contributions you put into a Roth IRA yourself. They come out at any age, tax and penalty free, ahead of any earnings — which is what makes them liquid.
- Selling cost
- Agent commission plus closing costs on a house sale, typically 6% to 10% of the price, taken before the mortgage is repaid.
Good to know
Net worth counts things; liquidity counts what survives the exit
Net worth is a deliberately simple measure: everything you own at market value, less everything you owe, on a single date. That simplicity is what makes it comparable across households and what makes it a poor guide to what you could actually do this month. A dollar of cash and a dollar of pre-tax 401(k) balance count identically in the first number and are worth wildly different amounts in the second — at a 22% marginal rate under 59½, that 401(k) dollar hands over 68 cents. A dollar of home equity is worth 92 cents after commission and closing, and only after months and a buyer. A dollar of a taxable brokerage account is worth 95 cents and is available in days. Liquid net worth is what remains when you price the exit on every asset instead of pretending there is not one. At this page's defaults, $580,600 of net worth is $136,560 of liquid net worth — 24% — and the $444,040 in between is not imaginary money. It is real, it is yours, and it is in the wrong form for a bad month.
The three haircuts, in order of severity
Pre-tax retirement money is the most expensive, and it is expensive twice over. A withdrawal from a 401(k) or a traditional IRA before 59½ is ordinary income at your marginal rate plus a 10% penalty under IRC §72(t) — 32% at a 22% rate, which turns $214,000 into $145,520. Worse, a large withdrawal is stacked on top of your other income, so the rate you enter may understate what the top slice actually pays. Home equity is next: 6% to 10% of the sale price goes to commission and closing costs before the mortgage is repaid, and at 8% a $415,000 house turns $164,000 of equity into $130,800. That is the cash cost; the real cost is that a sale takes months and you then have to live somewhere. A taxable brokerage account is the mild case — capital gains tax on the gain only, not the balance, so at 35% gain and a 15% rate the toll is 5.3% of the account and the money settles in days. Cash, and Roth contributions you made yourself, cost nothing at all.
The Roth is quietly the most liquid retirement account
Roth IRA distributions come out in a fixed statutory order that most owners never learn: contributions first, then conversions in the order they were made, then earnings last. Your own contributions have already been taxed, so they come back out at any age with no tax and no penalty, regardless of how long the account has existed. Only when you have withdrawn every dollar you ever contributed do you reach conversions, which carry their own five-year clocks, and then earnings, which before 59½ are taxed and penalised like any other retirement money. That ordering makes the contribution figure genuinely liquid, which is why this page asks for it separately from the balance rather than treating the whole Roth as untouchable. Two cautions belong with it. The first is scope: the ordering applies to Roth IRAs, and a Roth 401(k) still sitting inside an employer plan follows its own distribution rules rather than these, so check the plan before assuming the same treatment. The second is the real cost, which is not tax at all: contribution room cannot be restored. Money withdrawn is space in a tax-free account that is gone permanently, and for a young saver that is worth far more than the amount taken.
How much you should actually hold in reachable form
The standard answer is three to six months of essential spending, and like most standard answers it is a starting point rather than a rule. Push toward the upper end, or past it, if you are the only earner in the household, if your income is commission or contract rather than salaried, if you work in a narrow field where a search runs long, or if your household carries a large fixed obligation like a mortgage that cannot be reduced quickly. Push toward the lower end if there are two incomes in unrelated fields, or if a large taxable brokerage account sits behind the cash and you are comfortable selling into whatever market exists at the time. What the target is not is a percentage of net worth: a household with $2,000,000 of home equity and $4,000 of cash is not well positioned by any reading, and a young renter with $30,000 in savings and no other assets is doing fine. The right denominator is monthly spending, and the right numerator is what you could reach without a penalty — which is the number this page exists to produce.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as liquid?
Money that could be in your account this month without a penalty: cash and savings, a taxable brokerage account (net of capital gains tax on the gain), and Roth contributions you made yourself, less any short-term debt. Retirement balances, home equity, vehicles and business equity are all reachable eventually, at a cost — the page prices each of them and reports them separately rather than folding them into the headline.
Why is the pre-tax retirement haircut so large?
Because it is two charges at once. Before 59½, a withdrawal from a 401(k) or a traditional IRA is ordinary income at your marginal rate plus a 10% penalty. At a 22% rate that is 32% gone — $68,480 out of $214,000 — leaving $145,520. Past 59½ the penalty disappears and only the income tax remains, which is a genuine change in your liquidity position and one most people never re-run when they cross it. A large withdrawal can also push you into a higher bracket than the rate you entered.
Why do Roth contributions count as liquid but Roth earnings not?
Because Roth IRA distributions come out in a fixed order — contributions first, then conversions, then earnings — and your own contributions come out at any age with no tax and no penalty, since you already paid tax on them. Earnings withdrawn before 59½ are taxed and penalised like any other retirement money. That ordering is the reason a Roth is quietly the most liquid retirement account there is, and it is why the page asks for the contribution figure separately.
Is selling the house really that expensive?
The cash cost is the smaller part. At 8% of the sale price — agent commission plus closing costs — a $415,000 house gives up $33,200, turning $164,000 of equity into $130,800. But the real illiquidity is time and circumstance: a sale takes months, it is contingent on a buyer, and you then have to live somewhere. Borrowing against the equity keeps the asset but adds a payment. Either way, home equity is the least liquid line on most balance sheets.
Should short-term debt really be subtracted in full?
Yes. A credit card balance is a claim on your cash that arrives whether or not you sell anything, and it carries no haircut and no timing question. It is also worth noting what it says about priorities: at card rates, paying it down is usually the highest-return use of any liquid dollar you have, ahead of almost anything you could do with the brokerage account.
How much liquid net worth should I have?
The usual target is three to six months of spending for a stable two-income household, and more for a single earner, a commission income, or a specialised job market where a search takes longer. At the page's defaults, $136,560 against $5,200 a month is a little over two years of cover with nothing sold that carries a penalty. How that cover would actually drain — with severance, unemployment benefits and a health premium in the picture — is a separate page.
Why is my liquid share so much lower than I expected?
Because ordinary American balance sheets are dominated by two illiquid assets. At the defaults, total net worth is $580,600 and the liquid figure is $136,560 — a 24% share, with $444,040 locked up in the house, the retirement accounts and the vehicles. That is not a sign of anything wrong. It is what a household that owns a home and funds a 401(k) looks like, and it is exactly the number a net worth figure hides.