Guides / Investing: Allocation, Drift and Performance
How do I see my net worth across bank and brokerage accounts?
Add up the latest balance of every account as of the same date: cash and investments are assets, cards and loans are liabilities. Pull bank balances from a sync or statement import, and take brokerage values from the broker itself rather than rebuilding them from tickers. Then judge performance account by account, after fees and commissions, instead of blending everything into one return.
What a combined net worth view has to do
Net worth is assets minus liabilities at one moment in time. Across a bank and a brokerage, the hard part is not the subtraction. It is getting every number from the same day, from a source you trust, without retyping anything.
- Assets: checking, savings, brokerage cash and the market value of your positions.
- Liabilities: credit card balances, loans and anything else you owe.
- One date: a bank balance from last week next to a brokerage value from this morning gives you a total that never existed.
- One rule for what counts: decide up front that practice or paper accounts stay out of your real number.
A spreadsheet can do this, and for a handful of accounts it is fine. The cost is the upkeep. You re-enter balances by hand, and brokerage values move all day, so the sheet is stale the moment you save it.
Where bank and brokerage numbers come from
Banks and brokers expose data differently, so it helps to treat them as two separate problems.
Bank accounts and cards
- An aggregator such as Plaid or SimpleFIN reads balances and transactions after you sign in on the provider's own page.
- Some banks still run an OFX server, which an app can read directly.
- When nothing else is available, you can download an OFX or QFX statement and import it by hand.
The brokerage account
For a brokerage, the most accurate figure is the account value the broker itself reports. Multiplying shares by prices yourself misses cash, accrued costs and anything the broker accounts for differently.
Expect a small timing gap. Bank data usually arrives on a schedule, while a broker value can be fresher, so a net worth total is only as current as its slowest source.
Why performance should be per account and net of costs
A single blended return hides which account is earning its place. A savings account and an actively traded brokerage account behave nothing alike, and averaging them tells you little about either.
Fees and commissions are the other thing that gets lost. A strategy that trades often can look good before costs and ordinary after them. The number that matters is what you kept.
- Look at each account's own curve over time, not just today's balance.
- Compare returns before and after costs, and watch drawdown as well as the ending value.
- Do not read a rise in net worth as performance. Deposits, withdrawals and paydowns move the total without being returns.
Doing this in Manu
Manu is an iPhone app that reads from a Vritam server you run, and it shows net worth across your bank and brokerage accounts as part of its investing features. It is in private beta on TestFlight and needs iOS 26 or later. Your data sits on your server, not in a cloud of ours.
- Connect your banks and cards on your server through Plaid, SimpleFIN or a bank's OFX server, or import OFX or QFX files. Sign-in happens on the provider's page, and Manu never sees or stores your bank username or password.
- Connect your Interactive Brokers account to the same server. Live and paper accounts sit side by side, and Manu never sees your broker credentials.
- On the sign-in screen, enter your server address and login. Both stay in the iOS keychain on the phone.
- Open the investing section to see net worth across the bank and brokerage accounts together.
- Check performance account by account. Values come straight from the broker, with an equity curve you can scrub, and returns are measured net of fees and commissions.
Bank data syncs every six hours, so a bank balance can lag a little behind the broker value. The analytics add drawdown, Sharpe, Sortino, fees, best and worst days and a calendar of daily P&L, all net of costs.
Limits to know before you rely on it
- You need your own server. Manu does not work without a running Vritam server that your phone can reach, whether on your home network, over a VPN or on a host you expose yourself.
- One broker today. Interactive Brokers is the broker, with a live and a paper account. Other brokers are not supported.
- Drift is shown, not fixed. Manu shows the gap between your real split and your target allocation. It does not rebalance for you. See what portfolio drift is.
- Not advice. Manu shows your numbers. It is not investment, tax or financial advice.
If you want one honest total and a per-account return you can trust, and you are comfortable running a server, this fits. If you want something that works from an app store download with no setup, it does not fit yet. The home page explains the rest of the app.
Manu is in private beta. One iPhone app for your accounts, investing and a trading bot you run yourself, all against a server you own.
Frequently asked questions
Should my paper trading account count toward net worth?
No. A paper account holds simulated money, so including it would inflate your real total. Manu keeps live and paper Interactive Brokers accounts side by side so you can tell them apart.
Do I have to give the app my bank or broker login?
Not to Manu. Bank sign-in happens on the provider's own page, and Manu never sees or stores bank usernames, passwords or broker credentials. The phone keeps only your server address and login in the iOS keychain.
Does it work with brokers other than Interactive Brokers?
Not today. Interactive Brokers is the only broker Manu connects to, with live and paper accounts. Banks can come in through Plaid, SimpleFIN, a bank's OFX server or OFX and QFX file imports.
Can I try it without running a server?
No. Manu reads everything from a Vritam server you run, and the phone must be able to reach it. It is a private beta on TestFlight for iPhone on iOS 26 or later, free while in beta, and you request access to get an invite.