How much net worth should you have? Since everyone’s financial goals are different, there’s no magic net worth number that you should have. For example, if you want to live a more lavish lifestyle when you retire, you need to have a higher net worth. However, if you don’t mind living a more frugal lifestyle, you don’t need nearly as much money. In this article, learn what is the average net worth by age.
How Do You Figure Out Your Net Worth?
Regardless of your financial goals, knowing your net worth is important because it keeps you focused on building wealth. Your net worth is simply your assets (things of value) minus your liabilities (money you owe). In other words, the simple formula is:
Net Worth = (what you OWN) – (what you OWE).
You can find out your net worth quickly and easily with a FREE Net Worth Worksheet that you can get in my Resource Library. Don’t be afraid of this number. It is important for you to know where you’re starting in your financial journey so you can make a plan of where you’re going.
I recommend updating this worksheet every 3 months, but at the very least, every year. This is the best way to gauge your situation and keep your finances in check.
When you update your worksheet, you will be able to see if your net worth is growing, steady, or declining. Of course to the goal is to steadily grow your net worth over time.
Net Worth By Age:
What Should My Net Worth Be At Age 30?
According to the U.S. Federal Reserve, in 2016 the mean (average) net worth of households under the age of 35 years old is $76,200 (note: a household can consist of one person). Just to give you an idea how that compares to income, the average income of that household was $56,400.
Keep in mind, some very wealthy households skew the average net worth by age. So I think a more accurate number to look at is the median. The median net worth of the households under the age of 35 years old is $11,100. The median income was $40,500.
This low number makes sense to me because when you turn 30 you might have a lot of expenses. For example, you may have:
- Just gotten married;
- Started a family;
- Purchased a house; or
- Racked up a ton of student loan debt.
According to money guru Laura Adams from Money Girl, a good target for your net worth at age 30 is to have the equivalent of your annual salary.
Although I think this is a good place to start, this is not going to cut it if you want to be financially free. You have to have an above average savings rate and net worth. Sam Dogen from the Financial Samurai recommends you have $250,000 by age 30—and I agree.
If that number intimidates you, don’t be! With compound interest and appreciation on your investments, you will have plenty of help to get there.
What Should My Net Worth Be At Age 35?
Being that I turn 35 this year, I was particularly interested in what my net worth should be at this age. Laura recommends having at least your annual salary saved. Sam recommends you have $429,000 by age 35. Again, if you want to be financially free and/or retire early, you should have closer to what Sam recommends.
I’m happy to say that I have surpassed Sam’s recommendation. Personally, my net worth grew rapidly by:
- Saving aggressively,
- Investing in the stock market, and
- Investing in real estate.
These things have helped me build wealth and increase my net worth every year.
Related Article: How I Saved $300,000 In 4 Years
I personally use Robinhood.com to purchase individual stocks. This website is great because you can buy and sell stocks for free—there are no commissions or fees. Most other brokerage firms charge at least $4.95 fee per trade, and some have hidden fees.
Sign up today and you and I can get a free stock like Apple, Ford, or Sprint. With Robinhood you also don’t need a minimum account balance, so you can get started right away.
If you are new to investing in the stock market and want to learn more, read my article “Best Ways To Invest In The Stock Market For Beginners.”
What Should My Net Worth Be At Age 40?
According to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s study of net worth by age, in 2016, the median net worth of the households age 35-44 years old is $59,800 (the average is $288,700). The median income was $65,800 (the average is $97,100).
Laura recommends you have 2x your annual income by age 40. Sam recommends you have $660,250.
By this age, your net worth should increase because you should be earning more than your 30’s, investing more, and attacking debt.
If you have any high interest debt (debt greater than 8%), you need to get rid of it. You can use this FREE Debt Worksheet, also found in my Resource Library, to get organized and prioritize which bills you will pay first.
Sometimes having too many different bills coming in can certainly be overwhelming and hard to keep track of. Therefore, use my FREE Debt Worksheet to help you keep track of this.
Finally, at this age, besides attacking debt, you should be focused on saving for retirement. You should be maxing out any retirement accounts you have.
Another great FREE tool is Personal Capital’s Retirement Planning Calculator. You should definitely use this tool to map out your financial future. Simply link all your retirement accounts to Personal Capital so you can see all your accounts in one place and track your progress.
What Should My Net Worth Be At Age 50?
According to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s study of net worth by age, in 2016, the median net worth of the households age 45-54 years old is $124,200 (the average is $727,500). The median income was $69,500 (the average is $131,400).
Laura recommends you have 4x your annual income by age 50. Sam recommends you have $1,240,250.
By this age, your net worth should increase because you’re likely earning the most money you have ever earned. You also should have paid down a considerable amount of debt by now.
As you get closer and closer to retirement age, you want to make sure you’re increasing your passive income. Consider investing in things that produce income, like dividend paying stocks or real estate.
If you’re like me, and want to retire before your 50’s and 60’s, you need to start investing as early as possible.
What Should My Net Worth Be At Age 60?
According to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s study of net worth by age, in 2016, the median net worth of the households age 55-64 years old is $187,300 (the average is $1,167,400). The median income was $61,000 (the average is $141,300).
Laura recommends you have 8-10x your annual income. Sam recommends you have $2,180,250.
By age 60, your net worth should be the most it’s ever been thanks to compound interest and appreciation of all your investments. You should be focused on paying off your mortgage or downsizing to a more affordable house. At this stage in your life, you really don’t want to have any debt.
Finally, your asset allocation should be shifting to less risky investments. For example, you want to start shifting some stocks over to bonds.
How to Build Wealth?
So you might have read those numbers and feel like you’re behind the wealth curve for your age. Don’t worry! I’m going to give you some tips on how you can build your wealth to make sure your net worth is on track for your age.
Have A Budget That WORKS
Before trying to achieve any of your other financial goals, it is crucial that you have a functioning budget first. Creating a budget can help you feel more in control of your finances and let you save money for your financial goals. If you want to improve your finances, the first thing you need to do is know where your money is going.
You can use this FREE Monthly Budget Printable to help you if you’re just getting started.
I personally use this budget template every month to track my spending. It’s the system I’m currently using for my budget, and it has helped me save over 50% of my income every month.
You can read more about how I use my budget templates in my article “How I Use My Monthly and Yearly Household Budget Spreadsheet.”
Pay Down Debt FAST
Paying down debt is a very important part of building wealth and increasing your net worth. If you need help making a debt repayment plan check out Tally. Tally is an automated debt manager that makes it easy to save money, manage your cards and pay down balances faster.
Another option is this FREE Debt Repayment Tool called Undebt.it. It is a FREE tool to help you get out of debt. There are SEVEN debt payoff plans you can choose from (including the debt avalanche and debt snowball method). You can even compare the different payoff plans to see which is best for you or make your own custom plan!
They also have debt payoff calculators, which is also FREE. You can keep track of all your payments and your debt payoff progress in one place. I haven’t come across something this good in a while, so make sure you take advantage of it while it’s still free.
You can also sign up for the premium account that has more features for you to take advantage of. The premium account is $12 for the entire year (only $1/month), which is still very affordable.
There’s a 30-day FREE trial if you want to check out the premium account. What I would do is sign up for the free account first, and then click on the free trial to check out the premium features. If you like it, then sign up for the premium account.
Speed Up Paying Off Your Debt
You can also use an app like Qoins to help you automatically pay off your debt even faster. You’ve likely heard of apps that turn your spare change into investments (like Acorns) but Qoins is an app that takes that change and uses it to pay off your debt.
Qoins will send out payments according to the schedule that you’ve set up. They also track how much you’ve paid out towards your loans and see how much of a dent you’ve put in your debt.
I highly recommend Qoins if you want to speed up paying off your debt, while making it as easy and painless as possible.
Invest
Investing is the key to building wealth. If you want to learn more about how to grow your net worth and passive income by investing, you can read my article “Best Ways To Start Investing For Beginners: Investing 101.”
As I stated earlier, investing is one of the reasons why I was able to attain financial freedom at such a young age. I made some good investments that was able to increase my wealth by 6-figures over a few years.
The key to investing successfully however is to make sure you educate yourself before you start investing. This will help you make more informed decisions and reduce your risk. You’re taking the right first step by reading my blog.
I also recommend you sign up for my FREE Resource Library. There you can find a ton of information. I have included some of my favorite books, podcasts, and other FREE resources to help you increase your financial education.
Manage Your Finances Regularly
I recommend you manage your finances in one place. I use Personal Capital to see all my accounts and spending in one place. Personal Capital is a FREE online platform, which I highly recommend you take advantage of. Before using Personal Capital, I would log into over 6 different banks to see how my accounts are doing (i.e. – bank accounts, loans, credit cards, investment accounts).
Another great tool Personal Capital has is its Retirement Planning Calculator. If you want to attain financial freedom, you should definitely use this tool to map out your financial future. Check in regularly to see how your progress is going—and it’s FREE!
Summary
Don’t feel bad if your net worth by age is less than the numbers in this article. You now know what you need to do to get there. Make sure you:
- Have a budget,
- Pay down debt,
- Invest, and
- Manage your finances regularly.
Also keep in mind that you may not need as much money in retirement as recommended. For example, you may plan to live a frugal lifestyle where your monthly expenses are extremely low. If your needs and expenses are fairly low, you do not need to have millions and millions of dollars saved for retirement. So keep the lifestyle you plan to live in retirement in mind when determining if you’re behind the curve.
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