The Financial Dashboard: How I Track Net Worth, Cash Flow, and Goals Monthly

Good financial outcomes aren't accidental — they're measured, tracked, and adjusted. Just as a developer monitors application performance metrics (response times, error rates, uptime), a financial dashboard monitors personal financial metrics (net worth, savings rate, investment returns, goal progress). The dashboard I've built in Google Sheets takes 30 minutes to update monthly and provides the visibility that prevents financial drift.

Sheet 1: Net Worth Tracker

Structure: Monthly columns (Jan, Feb, Mar...) and asset/liability rows. Assets: savings accounts (all banks), mutual fund current value (from AMC statements), PPF balance, EPF balance, gold (SGBs at current market value), crypto holdings (at current value), fixed deposits, and other assets. Liabilities: outstanding loans, credit card balances, pending bills. Net worth = Total Assets − Total Liabilities.

Key metric: Month-over-month net worth growth. This single number tells you whether you're getting wealthier or poorer. A healthy target: net worth should increase by at least 15-20% of your monthly income (combined savings and investment returns). If net worth is flat or declining, something needs investigation — either spending has increased, investment returns are negative, or debt is growing.

The chart: A line chart showing net worth over time. The upward slope should be accelerating (thanks to compounding). If the slope flattens or declines, it's visually obvious and triggers investigation.

Sheet 2: Cash Flow Tracker

Income: Salary (net of TDS), business income (Kimaya Threads, ServiceCrud, freelance), rental income, investment income (dividends, interest), and other income. Total monthly income. Expenses: Fixed (rent/EMI, insurance, subscriptions, SIPs — yes, investments are "expenses" in cash flow terms), variable (groceries, dining, transport, entertainment), and irregular (medical, travel, gifts, household maintenance).

Key metric: Savings rate = (Income − Expenses) / Income × 100. Target: 30-50% savings rate. Below 30%: lifestyle inflation is outpacing income growth. Above 50%: either income is high or lifestyle is extremely frugal (sustainable only if intentional, not restrictive).

Tracking expenses at the category level reveals patterns invisible to intuition: "I thought I spent ₹5,000/month on food delivery. The tracker shows ₹12,000." This awareness — not budgeting, just awareness — naturally reduces unnecessary spending because the emotional disconnect between "one Swiggy order" and "₹12,000/month on food delivery" becomes concrete rather than abstract.

Sheet 3: Investment Performance

Per fund tracking: For each SIP/investment: fund name, monthly SIP amount, total invested, current value, absolute return (current − invested), percentage return, and XIRR (the true annualized return accounting for timing of investments). XIRR is the only honest performance metric — simple percentage returns don't account for when money was invested.

Portfolio allocation pie chart: Visual breakdown of equity vs. debt vs. gold vs. cash allocation. Compare against target allocation and identify drift. If target is 70/25/5 (equity/debt/gold) and current is 78/18/4, it's time to rebalance toward debt.

Sheet 4: Goal Tracker

Each financial goal as a row: Goal name (twins' education fund, home down payment, FU Fund, retirement), target amount, target date, current progress (amount saved toward this goal), monthly contribution, projected value at target date (using expected return rate), and status (on track / behind / ahead).

The goal tracker prevents the common mistake of "investing without purpose." Every rupee should be allocated to a specific goal with a specific timeline. This prevents premature withdrawal (you're less likely to withdraw from the "twins' education" fund for a discretionary purchase than from an unnamed investment account).

The Monthly Review Process

First Saturday of each month, 30 minutes: update all account balances in the net worth tracker (login to banks, AMCs, and PPF account). Record last month's income and expenses in the cash flow tracker. Update investment values and calculate XIRR. Review goal progress — are you on track? Identify one action item: increase SIP, reduce a spending category, rebalance portfolio, or research a new investment option. One action per month — not a comprehensive financial overhaul, but continuous, incremental improvement.

The financial dashboard is a mirror. Most people avoid looking too closely at their finances — the same way most developers avoid looking at legacy code metrics. But the awareness that tracking creates is the single most effective driver of financial improvement. You discover that you're spending ₹15,000/month on subscriptions you don't use. That your net worth has grown ₹3 lakhs this year. That your investment XIRR is 14.2%, beating your 12% target. Knowledge is the foundation of action. The dashboard provides the knowledge. The monthly review provides the action. Together, they make financial success systematic rather than accidental.