The NZ net worth tracker for households with more than a bank account

Working out your real net worth sounds simple — add up what you own, subtract what you owe. The catch is that for most NZ households, no one actually sits down to do it until something forces the question: tax time, a mortgage application, or a meeting with an accountant. SortMe CEO and Co-Founder Carl Thompson thinks the gap between what most Kiwis think they're worth and what they actually are is one of the most useful numbers in personal finance — and the reason almost no one knows it is that net worth in 2026 is a software problem, not a spreadsheet problem. Most established NZ households have wealth scattered across a dozen places: a joint bank account, two KiwiSavers in different providers, a Sharesies portfolio, maybe Hatch, a term deposit, two mortgages, three credit cards, and a house. This episode walks through what a real NZ net worth tracker should do in 2026, and why the day-one number almost always surprises people. In this episode:Why "add up what you own, subtract what you owe" is simple in theory and a software problem in practice once you have a KiwiSaver, a Sharesies account, and a mortgageWhat actually counts as an asset and a liability in NZ — including the easy-to-forget ones like Afterpay/BNPL and student loans (still a liability at 0%)The NZ-median household wealth benchmark of roughly $400,000 — and where most established multi-property households sit above itThree reasons net worth matters: tax time and mortgage applications (5 minutes vs. two weeks of statements), concentration risk in residential property, and momentum — whether income increases are quietly leaving as fast as they come inThe four things a real NZ net worth tracker has to do: connect to every major bank automatically, pull KiwiSaver and investment balances (Sharesies, Kernel, InvestNow), handle property values, and track liabilities at live balancesHow SortMe pulls it all together via Akahu (NZ's open banking provider) plus CoreLogic estimates for property — and breaks it into cash, KiwiSaver, shares, property, mortgages, credit cards, and net positionThe two day-one surprises almost every user gets: a KiwiSaver balance bigger than they remembered, and property concentration higher than they'd assumed — and the conversations each one tends to triggerWhy the first useful job of a net worth tracker is closing the gap between what you think you're worth and what you actually areRead the full article: sortme.com/post/nz-net-worth-tracker