Net Worth by Age: Where Do You Rank?
Type your net worth and age to see how you compare to other U.S. households in your bracket, using Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances data. Free, no sign-up — everything runs in your browser and nothing is stored.
A net worth of $150,000 at age 38 puts you ahead of roughly 52% of u.s. households age 35–44. The median for your age group is about $135,300.
What Each Tier Takes — U.S. households age 35–44
| Tier | Net worth |
|---|---|
| Top 1% | ~$4,200,000 |
| Top 10% | ~$980,000 |
| Top 25% | ~$413,000 |
| Top 50% | ~$135,300 |
Source: Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances (scf-2022.1). Figures are rounded, hence the “~”.
Median U.S. Net Worth by Age
These are the Federal Reserve's published medians — the household exactly in the middle of each age bracket, with half above and half below. Use the median rather than the average: net worth is long-tailed enough that the mean sits far above where a typical household actually is.
| Age of householder | Median net worth | Top 10% starts at |
|---|---|---|
| Under 35 | $39,040 | ~$390,000 |
| 35–44 | $135,300 | ~$980,000 |
| 45–54 | $246,700 | ~$1,760,000 |
| 55–64 | $364,270 | ~$2,600,000 |
| 65–74 | $410,000 | ~$3,200,000 |
| 75+ | $334,700 | ~$2,750,000 |
Source: Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances 2022 (released October 2023). Medians are published Fed figures; percentile cutoffs are SCF-derived and rounded.
Why Net Worth Beats Income as a Scoreboard
Income tells you what came in this year. Net worth tells you what you kept — and what you kept is what eventually pays for retirement, a house, or a year off. Two households earning the same salary can differ by hundreds of thousands in net worth after a decade, entirely because of savings rate and debt cost.
That is also why comparing yourself to a bracket median has limited value. The brackets are wide, they mix renters and homeowners, and they average across every profession and region in the country. A more useful question than “am I normal?” is “is my number moving in the right direction, fast enough?” — which depends on three things you control: how much you save each month, what rate your debt carries, and whether you are leaving an employer match on the table.
The Net Worth Calculator projects your number forward under your own assumptions, and a full Lodestar analysis reads your actual statements and ranks the specific moves that would change the trajectory, with the dollar impact of each.
Questions People Ask
What is the average net worth by age in the United States?
Using Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances data, median household net worth is about $39,000 under age 35, $135,300 for ages 35–44, $246,700 for 45–54, $364,270 for 55–64, $410,000 for 65–74, and $334,700 for 75 and up. Median is the more useful figure than average: averages are dragged upward dramatically by the very wealthy, so the mean is far higher than what a typical household actually holds.
Should I use the median or the average?
The median, almost always. Net worth is extremely long-tailed — a small number of very wealthy households pull the arithmetic mean far above the middle of the distribution. The median household is the one with half of households above and half below, which is what most people mean when they ask what is normal.
How is net worth calculated?
Everything you own minus everything you owe. Assets include cash, checking and savings, retirement accounts, taxable investments, home equity at market value, and vehicles. Liabilities include mortgages, student loans, auto loans, credit-card balances, and any other debt. Home equity is counted at what the property would sell for today, minus the remaining mortgage.
Where does this data come from?
The Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances 2022, released October 2023 — the most authoritative public dataset on U.S. household balance sheets. Medians are the Fed's published figures. The other percentile points are SCF-2022-derived and rounded, which is why every figure is prefixed with a tilde. The dataset will be updated when SCF 2025 is released, expected late 2026.
My net worth is below the median for my age. What should I do?
Comparison is a starting point, not a verdict — age brackets mix wildly different circumstances, and someone who finished an expensive degree at 30 will trail someone who started earning at 18 for years before overtaking them. What matters more than your rank is your trajectory: your savings rate, the interest rate on your debt, and whether you are capturing an employer retirement match. Those three levers move the number faster than anything else.
Is this financial advice?
No. Lodestar Wealth provides education and tools, not investment advice. Benchmark figures are population statistics, not targets or recommendations, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security. For anything with tax consequences, confirm with a CPA.