Seeing Your Whole Wealth Picture with Monarch Money

Our core belief is that the most important objective of smart budgeting is not just saving money—it's building net wealth. It's about paying down debt, managing expenses sustainably, and strategically building a financial legacy.

Many budgeting apps do a decent job of tracking daily spending, but few seamlessly connect that to your overall net wealth picture. That’s where a tool like Monarch Money excels, providing a clear, motivating view of your financial life.

Based on our recent overview, here is a breakdown of how Monarch’s Accounts and Investments features work together to give you total financial clarity.

1. The Accounts Tab: Your True Net Worth Dashboard

The Accounts tab in Monarch Money essentially acts as your personal "Net Wealth Tab," consolidating everything you own and everything you owe into one clear snapshot [01:37].

Understanding the Components:

• Net Wealth: This is the core of the tab, showing your Assets minus your Liabilities [02:00].

  • Assets: Everything you own, primarily your cash (checking, savings, emergency fund) and investments (IRAs, brokerage accounts) [02:22].

  • Liabilities: Everything you owe, such as credit card debt, student loans, and mortgages [02:40].

This visualization is a powerful motivator. You can see a breakdown of your assets rising above the zero line, while liabilities, such as credit card debt, are clearly marked "underwater" [04:11]. This clear visual contrast reinforces your goal: driving the assets up and liabilities down to zero [04:25].

The tab also provides a detailed breakdown of your individual accounts, including your crucial emergency fund (aiming for 3-4 months of expenses) and your credit card balances that you’re working to eliminate [07:02].

2. The Investments Tab: Drilling Down on Growth

Once you’ve seen the top-level net worth number, the Investments tab breaks down the holdings within your investment accounts [08:05].

For many of our clients, especially when planning for retirement, we recommend a foundational strategy utilizing low-cost, broad market Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) like VTI (Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund) or VO (Vanguard S&P 500 ETF) [08:41]. This tab allows you to track your portfolio's performance directly against the overall market, ensuring your investment choices are meeting expectations [09:08].

3. The Secret to True Diversification

While Monarch Money is excellent at tracking value, it doesn't always show the individual companies within a broad ETF. As part of a sound financial strategy, you should always know what’s "under the hood" [10:16].

By looking up the details of an ETF like VTI (The Total Stock Market ETF), you discover you are investing in incredible diversification:

• Massive Holdings: VTI holds over 3,500 different US stocks [11:12]. This level of diversification reduces risk by spreading your investment across the entire American market.

• Sector Dominance: The fund is naturally weighted toward the industries that drive the US economy, including Technology, Consumer Discretionary, and Financials [11:55].

• Investing in the Best: When you buy a share of VTI, you are automatically participating in the growth of the largest and most successful companies—including giants like Nvidia, AMD, Tesla, Alphabet, and Microsoft [13:12]. An index fund ensures that as these dominant players grow, your investment grows with them [13:42].

Seeing your net wealth clearly and understanding the components of your investments—down to the specific stocks and sectors—is the key to staying motivated and on track for your long-term financial goals.

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