Methodology
How does Eudos measure a household's wealth?
Eudos records every account, property, debt and entity on consistent rules, then measures from that record: net worth, the return on the money actually invested, cash flow and estimated tax. Each rule below says what is counted, what isn't, and where the number comes from.
Updated
How is net worth calculated?
Assets at their current value minus debts. A trust, LLC or holding company is kept on its own books, with its own debts, and counted at the household's ownership percentage before the household's view is consolidated. In the household from the essay on building a family office, a quick sum of the properties gives $1,890,000; recording the LLC on its own books and counting the household's 50% share gives $1,422,500.
Where do the values come from?
Bank and brokerage balances and holdings sync through read-only connections. Securities and crypto are priced live. Property values come from an automated valuation estimate, and collectibles and private holdings from the member's own entries and dated appraisals. Each holding keeps its value history, with the date of every change.
How are returns measured?
As IRR, per holding and per portfolio: the money-weighted rate on the money actually put in, with each purchase dated. Rates on dated flows use the spreadsheet XIRR convention, days ÷ 365. Under a year of history the figure is the return to date rather than an annual rate, and under about a month no rate is shown.
What counts as a contribution or withdrawal?
Money that crosses the edge of invested capital, such as cash moved from checking into a brokerage account. A move between two invested accounts is not a flow, and neither are dividends, interest or price changes, which are return. Returns over a window use the Modified Dietz method, so money saved is credited to saving and gains to return.
Why are growth and return shown separately?
Growth counts the money added; return doesn't. In the essay on what your money actually returned, one fund returned 0% for the year, and two sisters who held it earned about +16.9% and −16.9% on their own money, because one added money after a fall and the other withdrew.
How are cash flow, savings rate, runway and lifestyle inflation measured?
Income is counted apart from transfers and loan proceeds, and spending leaves out transfers between the member's own accounts and loan principal, which is debt repaid. The savings rate is income minus spending, divided by income, with pre-tax retirement contributions counted as saving. Cash runway is cash on hand divided by the monthly average of spending and loan payments. Lifestyle inflation is spending growth against income growth, after consumer prices.
How are taxes estimated?
From the year's recorded income, realized gains and the tax already paid in, using the filing status and state the member sets. Federal income tax uses the federal brackets; state tax is one flat rate per state, an approximation; payroll tax is applied to wages and self-employment tax to business income. It is an estimate of what has accrued so far this year, not a tax return.
How is stale or missing data shown?
A value entered by hand that hasn't been updated in 60 days is flagged in the Complete your data bar, and a collectible's appraisal is marked as dated after 24 months. Synced and live-priced values update themselves. The Complete part of the Eudos Score counts what is still missing from the picture.
What does Eudos not do?
It gives no financial, tax or legal advice and makes no recommendations. It cannot place trades or move money: its connections are read-only. It does not appraise property or collectibles; it records the estimates and appraisals it is given.
The Journal's essays follow their own standard for figures: how we check the numbers. How member data is protected is on the security page.