Assets vs liabilities, without the jargon
An asset puts money in your pocket or could be sold for money. A liability takes money out until it is cleared. Most confusion comes from things that manage to be both.
The simple version
An asset could be turned into money. A liability is money you have promised to someone else. Your flat is an asset; the home loan on it is a liability; the difference between them is what you actually own of it.
The things that are both
A car is an asset that depreciates while its loan does not. Jewellery is an asset you are unlikely to sell. A second property is an asset that costs you money every month until it is rented. None of these are wrong to own — they just deserve honest accounting.
Where households slip
Counting an asset at its purchase price, forgetting a loan secured against it, or leaving the credit card balance off the list entirely. All three make the statement look better and make decisions worse.
Where FamTally comes in
FamTally does this for you: every asset and loan in one place, tagged to the family member who holds it, valued at today's figures, with net worth tracked as a running number the whole family can see. Add the AI assistant and you can simply ask what changed and why. Free to use.
Stop doing this in a spreadsheet
FamTally keeps your loans, income, expenses, assets, insurance and goals in one place, forecasts five years ahead, and answers questions about your own numbers. Free, and built for Indian families.
Start freeQuestions people ask
Why does this matter for a family?
Because household money is held across several people and several instruments, and the only way to make a good decision is to see all of it at once.
How often should we review it?
Quarterly for the full picture, monthly for anything market-linked. More often than that is entertainment rather than planning.
Do we need an app for this?
A spreadsheet works if someone maintains it. An app helps when more than one person needs to see it, when live values matter, and when you want the history without keeping it by hand.