The most effective and efficient way of monitoring net worth is to use - really use - personal finance software that integrates all of your asset and liability accounts. I use Quicken. My net worth stares me in the face every time I login to the software. It takes some time to get started and all of your data organized but after that, it's easy.

As for ignoring certain assets or liabilities, why ignore any of it?

In the year and half that I have been keeping track of our net worth I have realized that you can make it as complicated or as simple as you want to. When I do my monthly net worth updates I try to keep it very basic with broad categories. When determining what to and not to include, I don’t keep track of assets that depreciate in value such as cars or any collectibles that are hard to find a value for. To me it is just too much of hassle to keep track of their value and you are not counting on them to generate any long-term wealth.

But I think ultimately it is good to track your net worth progress. You might not want to do it monthly, but rather quarterly or yearly, but I have found it useful to see how certain financial decisions impact your net worth as well as a way to set goals for your finances.

I use Mint.com to track my net worth. Since I live in Las Vegas, my house value plummets on a near daily basis. I don't know what service they use, but they have the most accurate home valuations that I've seen online. I've entered everything I have of value so that it is a realistic picture. Seeing my net worth makes me want to vomit (negative $275,000), but it is a good motivator whenever I check my finances online. Especially when I do my budgeting.

I actually manually pull information from my aggregators and some separate accounts, compile the data into an Excel spreadsheet and publish it on the blog every month.

In my assets I include: all cash accounts according to my subaccounts (this is important for me to monitor and compare against annual needs); all investments (403(b), 401(a), Roth IRA, Loans, TradeKing values); CDs; savings bonds. I also keep outstanding loans in this column for now. Perhaps it should really be a liability until Paid in Full?

A separate section covers my current liabilities: monthly expenses like rent, insurance, most of my expenses are on CC so it's easier for me to track here.

I exclude personal property that would only have to be replaced if anything happened to it (computers, equipment, car - as a depreciating asset I don't find it worth the hassle of trying to figure out resale market price every month).

It's a quick boildown, basically.