^ Your assets can produce income. Just because it may be a one-off it can still provide enough value to produce an income directly, or to be reinvested in something that will produce income. Your willingness/goals to sell those assets will affect how much "IPA" you need so it is pretty damn useful to you in life as well. Maybe not for those who plan to subsist solely on dividends...but that's not everybody. So maybe the better thing to say would be "Networth is not useful for me and my goals for FIRE". As someone who plans on receiving as much, if not more income from real estate than dividends, you better believe I'm watching the value of my assets. Not just the value of the rental income, but the total value of the properties when/if I decide to cash in my chips.
I think all you are talking about is the home you live in.
If you plan on selling your home and down grading or renting,
then you can figure at least part of the home equity as an asset.
I plan on living in my home, I don't expect it to generate income.
It is obvious to me that any
other real estate you own is an asset
that could/should produce income.
I have a property I sold on a land contract, now it generates income,
at payoff, I will need to reinvest those assets in another way to generate income.
The land contract property is part of my IPA, my home is not.
If you want to sell your home and the cash you receive will generate more income
than the cost of renting, then you can count the difference as an IPA.