Mylife uses a proprietary aggregation engine to estimate net worth by pulling linked financial accounts, categorizing transactions, and applying real time valuations to assets and liabilities. The estimate is meant to reflect your overall financial position as closely as possible without giving investment or legal advice.
Because balances, market prices, and eligibility rules change constantly, the platform refreshes calculations regularly and flags items that may require manual review. Understanding the mechanics helps you interpret the estimate and decide what steps to take next.
| Component | What is Included | Valuation Method | Update Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank Accounts | Checking, savings, money market | Daily available balance | Daily |
| Investment Accounts | Brokerage, retirement, ETF holdings | End of day market prices | Daily to intraday |
| Loans & Credit Cards | Mortgages, car loans, revolving balances | Outstanding principal reported | Daily to weekly |
| Appreciating Assets | Real estate, vehicles, collectibles | Modeled or user entered value | Weekly to monthly |
| Depreciating Liabilities | Personal loans, medical debt | Principal minus payments | As reported |
How Account Linking Impacts Net Worth Estimation
Secure Aggregation and Permissions
When you connect accounts, the engine reads transaction streams and current balances using read-only credentials. You remain the sole owner of the data, and the platform only stores mappings, not raw credentials.
The scope of access determines which balances and positions are included. Missing accounts or institutions that do not support secure feeds can create gaps that lower the accuracy of the estimate.
Normalization Rules
Raw account data is standardized into consistent labels so assets and liabilities line up correctly across banks, brokerages, and lenders. Transactions are grouped into buckets such as cash, equities, debt, and property.
Category rules are periodically tuned to match local regulations and common product types, which reduces mismatches when institutions change naming or formatting. Manual reclassification is still useful when unusual transactions appear.
How Market Valuation Methods Shape Your Estimate
Real Time Prices vs End Of Day Marks
Public securities are generally priced using end of day quotes, while some accounts may display intraday snapshots that appear more volatile. The platform chooses a valuation time window that balances relevance and stability.
Illiquid assets such as private holdings or property rely on modeled estimates, trend proxies, or user inputs. These values are less precise and should be treated as directional rather than exact.
Currency and Timing Adjustments
Foreign denominated holdings are converted using daily or weekly rates, which can cause swings even when underlying values remain flat. Exchange rate risk is reflected in the resulting net worth figure.
Timestamp alignment matters when liabilities and assets settle on different days. The platform applies cut off rules to decide which transactions count for each reporting date.
Common User Actions That Change Your Net Worth Estimate
Payments, Transfers, and New Accounts
Paying down loans, moving funds between accounts, or opening new products updates the feed and recalculates your position. Large one time movements can temporarily skew trends until the system stabilizes.
Closing unused cards or consolidating balances may simplify tracking and improve estimate reliability, especially when the platform can access full history without manual entry.
Optimizing Your Net Worth Workflow
- Link all relevant banks, investment, and loan accounts to reduce manual gaps.
- Review categorization rules periodically to ensure assets and debts are grouped correctly.
- Set a consistent review cadence aligned with your financial reporting cycle.
- Use manual entries for assets that do not feed into the platform, and update them when circumstances change.
- Monitor flagged items and anomalies to maintain high data quality over time.
FAQ
Reader questions
Why does my net worth estimate fluctuate even when I have not made major moves?
Fluctuations can come from market price changes, timing differences in posting, currency conversion updates, or newly linked accounts that fill previous gaps. The estimate is a snapshot of available data rather than a static number.
Can mylife include assets that I do not want to link directly?
Items held outside linked institutions can be added manually with user entered values and notes. These entries are not refreshed automatically and should be reviewed periodically to keep estimates realistic.
How are liabilities handled when balances change during the month?
Loans and credit cards are tracked using the latest reported balance, with payments and interest applied based on the feed schedule. If a payment posts after the daily cut off, it may appear in the next refresh cycle.
What should I do if the valuation for an account looks incorrect?
Check whether the source institution published updated pricing or reporting rules, and verify that the account mapping is correct. If the mismatch persists, you can flag it for review or enter a manual value until the feed is fixed.