See all your money.
Share none of your passwords.

Net worth sounds like a billionaire thing, but we all have one: savings, investments, property, minus loans. I couldn't tell you mine without checking 3-4 apps and collating the numbers. So this week I went looking for a crystal clear view.

Ash TiwariAsh Tiwari

Download Netwell Mac App

  • macOS on Apple Silicon
  • Menu bar app

What did I notice?

I wanted to see how much I had gained or lost in a month. Every app only showed its own accounts.

  1. 1.I opened each app's performance view. Each one was accurate, and each one saw one slice.
  2. 2.I tried a spreadsheet. It was crappy: just numbers and tables, and I'm a visual person.
  3. 3.A full refresh took me over an hour, so I stopped doing it.
  4. 4.I pay my advisor 1.2% a year, and he only sees my Edward Jones accounts.

Who else has it?

I talked to a few investors before building anything, and looked at what people already pay for. Plenty of people use apps that show everything in one place, so the want is real. Here is who I think has it worst.

People with money in 3 or more places

Every app shows its own corner. Nobody adds them up, so the total is a guess.

People whose advisor sees one firm

They pay for a view of one slice. The rest, nobody reviews.

People holding US dollars in Canada

A month's gain or loss can be the exchange rate, not the investments. Most apps don't say which.

1+ hourper full refresh
52weekly refreshes a year
52+ hoursa year logging in and adding up

What would a fix need?

I wrote down what I wouldn't accept before building, so it was a test I could fail rather than an argument for what I'd already made.

  1. One clear picture

    All my accounts together, as a visual, not a table of numbers.

  2. No passwords

    I didn't want my credentials with a third party.

  3. Nothing leaves unseen

    I want to know exactly where my data goes, and show you.

  • Each app's own performance view

    Fails One clear pictureAccurate about its own corner and blind to the rest.

  • A spreadsheet

    Fails One clear pictureJust numbers and tables, and over an hour to refresh.

  • Apps that connect to your accounts

    Fails No passwordsThey need access to your accounts, and I didn't want to hand my credentials to a third party.

  • A cloud app that reads your statements

    Fails Nothing leaves unseenYour statements are processed on someone else's servers, and I have no idea what it calls downstream.

What's left: a Mac menu bar app

One clear picture
Throw your statements at it. It reads them and shows your whole net worth and where it's spread.
No passwords
You upload your own statements. No logins, nothing connected to your accounts.
Nothing leaves unseen
Statement text goes to Claude through your own sign-in, because I already talk to Claude about my finances. Nothing goes to a server of mine.

What did I build?

Netwell. It sits in the menu bar. Throw your monthly statements at it and it gives you one clear picture of your net worth and where it's spread.

It runs the checks no single app can: one holding that has grown too big, funds that secretly hold the same companies, cash sitting still, currency swings hiding in your total, and numbers that are out of date.

Upload monthly, or when something big changes. Your holdings keep updating with live prices in between.

On my own money it found one stock at 21% of my net worth, and that my September gain was the exchange rate, not my investments.

Netwell in the menu bar showing a net worth of $558,382 in Canadian dollars, a chart, and a breakdown by account.
One picture of everything, and what moved it since you last looked. Sample data, not mine.
The Accounts list in Netwell: Questrade, Wealthsimple and TD accounts with balances, and a warning that one statement is 4 months old.
Every account in one list, with how old each statement is, so you know what each number rests on.
The Netwell Insights tab with three findings: 55% of net worth isn't in Canadian dollars, a chequing statement is 127 days old, and three stock funds share 81% of the same companies.
The checkup finds what no single app can: money outside your home currency, a stale statement, funds that hold the same companies.
Netwell's Profile screen with the display currency, live prices, the Claude account that reads statements, and app lock.
Your own Claude account reads the statements. The data lives in a folder on your Mac, and you can lock the app.

Was it worth it?

The problem is real. Three in four Americans can't estimate their net worth without opening a few apps, and in a Statista survey of 1,722 Canadian bank account holders, only 38% said they feel well informed about their personal financial situation. What I'm not sure about is whether enough people want a secure-on-your-laptop app with monthly uploads. Most apps people pay for are the connected ones, and free tools like Portfolio Performance skip the logins too. I haven't tested those against my statements yet. I'll know once people can try it. So that part is yours.

Try it yourself

Is It Worth Solving?

One problem a week: how I stumbled on it, the bar I set to decide whether it was worth building, what I shipped, and the honest verdict. Sometimes the answer is no.

Got a problem worth a week? hello@idxstudioz.com.

Every entry in the series