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Open Net Worth Docs

Your first month

Here’s what a first month typically looks like, with example numbers, so you know what to expect on screen. Your own figures will differ.

Day 1: accounts and starting balances

You add four accounts, by hand or by sending Lucius screenshots (how):

AccountTypeToday’s balance
Everyday checkingCash$4,250.00
SavingsCash$18,000.00
Visa cardCredit$612.40 owed
BrokerageInvestmentholdings added on Investments

Each one starts from today’s balance — no years of history needed. As soon as they’re in, the Dashboard shows your net worth: everything you own minus the $612.40 you owe.

Day 1: pick a budget method

Open Plan → Budget. It asks How do you want to budget? with two methods:

  • 50/30/20 — a quick monthly check of needs, wants and savings. Nothing to maintain.
  • Zero-Based — every dollar gets a job, envelope by envelope (like YNAB).

This walkthrough uses Zero-Based. Select it and click Start with Zero-Based. Then choose Suggest from my spending, Set up manually, or Set up with Lucius to create your envelopes (for example Rent, Groceries, Dining Out, Transport). Not sure which method fits? Click Help me choose. You can switch later.

Day 1: give your money jobs

Ready to Assign shows money in your Cash accounts that has no job yet — here about $22,250.00 (checking plus savings). Assign some:

EnvelopeAssigned
Rent$1,600.00
Groceries$500.00
Dining Out$150.00
Transport$200.00
New laptop (a goal six months out)$300.00

Ready to Assign drops by $2,750.00. What’s left isn’t wasted — it’s simply not assigned yet. Leaving it unassigned is better than forcing it into a category it doesn’t belong in.

The card: each credit card gets its own payment envelope in the budget. The $612.40 you already owe shows there as not yet set aside. If you’ll pay it off this month, assign money to it.

Week 1: spending

You buy groceries for $63.40 and log it against Groceries (or Lucius logs it from your bank email). Groceries’ Available drops from $500.00 to $436.60. You eat out for $28.00 against Dining Out.

Ready to Assign doesn’t move when you spend from a funded envelope — the money already had a job. It only changes when money comes in, when you assign, or when you move money in or out of it.

Week 2: an overspend

You spend $580.00 on flights, categorized to Travel — an envelope you never funded. Travel goes red: −$580.00.

Nothing is moved behind your back. Ready to Assign doesn’t change, and no other envelope is quietly drained. Travel just sits red so you can see it. You have two choices:

  • Cover it now. Click Cover on Travel and take $580.00 from Ready to Assign or from another envelope. Covering from Ready to Assign lowers it by $580.00 right away.
  • Leave it. At month-end, Travel resets to $0.00 and the $580.00 is charged to next month’s Ready to Assign instead — next month starts with $580.00 less to assign.

Either way the overspend is paid for exactly once.

Month-end: the rollover

Money left in an envelope carries forward. Groceries starts next month with $436.60 already in it, and New laptop with $300.00 — they don’t reset to zero. Only overspent (red) envelopes reset, as above.

All month: net worth keeps itself up to date

Every transaction, price update and currency change flows straight into your net worth. If your brokerage gains $340.00 overnight and you pay $200.00 off the card, both show on the Dashboard the next time you look — no “recalculate” button. Net worth explains exactly what counts.

Where to go from here