# Adding what the banks can't see — property, loans, savings certificates

> Connected accounts are the easy half of net worth. The half that decides the number — the house, the mortgage, the certificates — has to be told once, and then it stays told.

Source: https://trybica.com/guides/net-worth-beyond-your-banks/
Updated: 2026-08-22

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Connecting your bank accounts gets you a balance. It does not get you a net worth, and for most households the difference is very large.

Net worth is everything you own minus everything you owe. Bank balances are usually a small share of both sides. The house is the biggest asset, the mortgage is the biggest debt, and neither of them appears in any account feed.

![A waterfall adding accounts, certificates and a home, subtracting the mortgage, to reach net worth](/guides/net-worth-stack-en.svg)

In the illustration above, connected accounts are two of the five columns. The other three are typed in once and then left alone.

## The four things to add, in order of how much they change the number

**1. The property.** Under **Settings → Assets & liabilities**, add it as an asset with a name, a category and a value. The value is a judgement — use a conservative, defensible figure rather than the optimistic one, and revisit it once a year rather than every time you see a listing on your street. A number that is roughly right and stable is far more useful than one that is precisely wrong and jumpy.

**2. The mortgage.** Add it as a liability: name, lender, outstanding balance, interest rate and monthly payment. This is the entry that most changes the picture, and the one people most often skip because it is unpleasant. A net worth calculated without it is not optimistic, it is fictional.

**3. Certificados de Aforro.** If you hold them, connect your AforroNet account under **Settings** with your username, password and NIF, and the balance is fetched and kept current — including the interest, which is the part nobody tracks by hand. [Tracking Certificados de Aforro alongside your bank accounts](/guides/certificados-de-aforro-tracking/) covers why they are awkward to follow otherwise.

**4. Everything else worth over a few thousand.** The car, cash, a private loan someone owes you, an asset held somewhere no software reaches. Same place as the property, and the same rule: conservative and stable beats precise and volatile.

## Why entering it by hand is fine

There is a reflex that says anything typed in is second-class data. For net worth it is the opposite.

The things you type in are the things that move slowly. A house valuation is meaningful to within a few percent for a year at a time. A mortgage balance falls by a known amount each month. A car depreciates predictably. These are exactly the values where a once-a-year update is enough, and where automation would be solving a problem you do not have.

The things that move fast — accounts, cards, certificates — are the ones that connect. The division of labour lands in the right place.

## What it changes once it is in

Three things become answerable that were not before.

**The number itself.** Most people are wrong about their net worth in both directions: they forget the mortgage, or they forget the property. Having both in one place tends to be a mild surprise, and occasionally a large one.

**Whether a good month was actually good.** Spending less means nothing on its own if the mortgage went up more. Net worth is the only measure that nets those against each other. [How to work out your real net worth](/guides/calculate-net-worth/) covers what belongs on each side and the common double-counts.

**Whether paying down debt is beating saving.** The comparison is only visible when both sides are in the same view — the falling balance on one side, the growing certificates on the other.

## Two things to get right

**Do not double-count.** The classic version: adding the house at full value while also holding money you have earmarked for the mortgage as a separate asset. Each euro belongs in exactly one place.

**Keep the valuation honest and boring.** Update the property once a year, on a date you choose in advance. Revaluing whenever you feel good about the market turns net worth from a measurement into a mood.

## When it is set up

Nothing. That is the point. The connected accounts stay current on their own, the certificates are fetched, and the three or four hand-entered figures need touching about once a year.

What you get in return is the figure that [what a house actually costs per month](/guides/cost-of-owning-a-home/) is really about: the difference between what a property does to your monthly cash flow and what it does to your position. Those two answers frequently disagree, and only one of them is visible from a bank account.