Net Worth by Age Calculator [With Percentiles]

The Net Worth by Age calculator below provides the net worth percentiles of U.S. households in 2022 for a given age. As a reminder, net worth is defined as all of your assets (home, stocks, vehicles, etc.) minus all of your liabilities (debt, loans, etc.).

Data comes from the Survey of Consumer Finances.

Best Practices

• • Examine the ages around your age for a more comprehensive overview of the data.
    • The higher you go up the net worth scale, the harder it is to get an accurate gauge of wealth, especially once we subset to a specific age. For example, a net worth of $1M would put you at the 98th percentile of all 34 year-old U.S. households, but only put you at the 93rd percentile of all 33 year-old U.S. households. Though this is possible, it’s more likely that there is a sample size issue at the higher end of the distribution once we subset by age. Therefore, I recommend checking the households slightly older and younger than you to get a picture of your financial standing.
  • The net worth figures shown above INCLUDE home equity.
    • One of the most asked questions I get about this data is, “Do these figures include home equity?” The answer is a resounding, “Yes!” Here’s how that works. Imagine you owned a home worth $500,000 and you still had a $300,000 mortgage on it. This would contribute $200,000 to your net worth since the difference between your home’s value and the remaining mortgage is $200,000 [asset – liability = $200,000].
  • Most percentiles are NOT strongly influenced by outliers.
    • One thing that some people get confused about when seeing data like this is how these numbers are influenced by outliers (e.g. very wealthy households). When calculating something like the “average net worth” outliers make a big difference. For example, imagine a bar with 9 people in it who are each worth $100,000. If Elon Musk walks in to the bar (with his net worth over $200 billion), the average net worth in the bar would surge to $20 billion. Unfortunately, this figure tells you little about the typical financial situation of the bar’s patrons. However, percentile calculations (such as the median/50th percentile) would still be useful even with someone such as Elon being present.
    • Therefore, if you are 30 years old with a net worth of $80,000, this would put you at the 50th percentile (median) of net worth among 30 year-old households in the United States. This figure is NOT influenced by superrich 30 year-old households in any significant way. However, if you wanted to find what net worth would get you to the 99th percentile among 30 year-old U.S. households, outliers would influence this figure a bit more. Just something to keep in mind as you look through the data.

If you found this calculator helpful, check out my other calculators along with my book, Just Keep Buying, for proven ways to save money and build your wealth.