Income tells you what flows in. Net worth tells you the stock. Wealth velocity tells you the rate of change. The single most honest measure of progress.
Two net-worth snapshots and the time between them.
Adding 0.40 years of future spending per year
Slow velocity. You are adding £20,000 per year (25.0%) to net worth, or 0.40 years of future spending per actual year. You are buying yourself independence at that leverage. Track velocity, not paychecks.
Illustrative figures only. Velocity in any single year reflects investment returns as much as savings; track the multi-year average for the honest signal. For your specific situation, consult a qualified adviser.
Worth tracks net worth and surfaces the velocity each year. The trajectory through good markets and bad, the savings rate that drives it, the year each milestone unlocks. Join the waitlist.
Savings rate is contributions divided by income. Wealth velocity is total net worth change (contributions plus investment returns plus asset appreciation). Velocity captures the compound layer. In bull markets, velocity exceeds contributions significantly. In bear markets, velocity can go negative even with a positive savings rate.
A useful rule of thumb is to add at least one year of spending to net worth per year. That puts you on the FIRE trajectory. Below half a year is slow. Above two years is aggressive and usually requires high savings plus a strong market. For tech workers with equity compensation, velocity can swing wildly with company stock performance.
Annually is the right cadence. Quarterly noise dominates real underlying velocity in any single quarter. The honest signal is the rolling annual rate over three to five years.
If you count primary-residence equity in your net worth, then yes by definition. The cleaner read is to track investable wealth velocity separately, since the home is consumption and you cannot spend the equity without selling and moving. Most FIRE planning uses investable net worth, not total.