Net Worth by Age: 2026 Benchmarks for US, UK, Australia, and Canada
How does your net worth stack up against the median for your age and country? Honest benchmarks from official sources, plus the formulas and milestones to aim for.
"How am I doing?" is the most common money question that people are too embarrassed to ask out loud. Income comparisons are easy because everyone overshares those. Net worth — the actual measure of your financial life — is private, and the benchmarks are scattered. Here's the honest data, by age and country.
What counts as "net worth"
Net worth is everything you own (assets) minus everything you owe (liabilities):
- Assets: cash, investments, retirement accounts, home equity, vehicles, business interests
- Liabilities: mortgage, student loans, auto loans, credit cards, any other debt
Most surveys include home equity (market value − mortgage) and vehicle value. Some financial planners prefer "investable net worth" — net worth excluding the primary residence and personal vehicles — because those aren't easy to liquidate.
Track your assets and liabilities, see allocation, and benchmark against US Federal Reserve data.
Open the Net Worth Calculator →🇺🇸 United States — 2024 SCF data
The most authoritative US source is the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, last full survey 2022 (with 2024 supplement). Numbers are in 2024 dollars:
| Age | Median | Top 10% | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 35 | $39,000 | ~$350,000 | Many have negative net worth from student loans. |
| 35–44 | $135,600 | ~$1.1M | Career earnings + home equity start to show. |
| 45–54 | $247,200 | ~$2.35M | Peak earning years; retirement accounts grow fast. |
| 55–64 | $364,500 | ~$4.5M | Pre-retirement crunch — 8x salary by 60. |
| 65–74 | $410,000 | ~$5.2M | Drawdown begins; should support 25-30 years. |
| 75+ | $334,700 | ~$4.4M | Decumulation continues; healthcare costs accelerate. |
The "average" is misleading
Mean (average) US net worth is about $1.06M because billionaires drag the number up. The median is the honest middle — half above, half below. Always compare yourself to the median, not the mean.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom — ONS Wealth and Assets Survey
| Age | Median (£) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Under 35 | £35,000 | Help to Buy ISA, workplace pensions; student debt drags down. |
| 35–44 | £185,000 | First-time buyer surge; pension auto-enrolment maturing. |
| 45–54 | £385,000 | Mortgage paydown + DC pension growth. |
| 55–64 | £565,000 | Peak wealth; DB pensions still significant for older workers. |
| 65–74 | £525,000 | Retirement drawdown; State Pension supplements. |
🇦🇺 Australia — ABS Survey of Income and Housing
| Age | Median (A$) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Under 35 | A$80,000 | Superannuation building; HECS-HELP debt drags down. |
| 35–44 | A$385,000 | First home + mortgage + super contributions compounding. |
| 45–54 | A$680,000 | Peak earning + super accumulation. |
| 55–64 | A$895,000 | Pre-retirement; super averaging A$300-400k for couples. |
| 65+ | A$1,100,000 | Includes home + super; Age Pension supplements lower-balance retirees. |
🇨🇦 Canada — StatCan Survey of Financial Security
| Age | Median (C$) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Under 35 | C$48,800 | Student loans + early career; RRSP contributions starting. |
| 35–44 | C$234,400 | Home purchase wave + RRSP growth. |
| 45–54 | C$521,100 | Mortgage paydown + RRSP/TFSA accumulation. |
| 55–64 | C$873,400 | Pre-retirement peak. |
| 65+ | C$762,700 | Drawdown begins; CPP/OAS supplement. |
The "age × income / 10" benchmark
Thomas Stanley's classic formula from The Millionaire Next Door:
Examples:
- 30-year-old earning $80k → expected $240,000
- 40-year-old earning $120k → expected $480,000
- 50-year-old earning $150k → expected $750,000
Stanley called those at 2× the expected number "PAWs" (prodigious accumulators of wealth) and those at half "UAWs" (under-accumulators). It's a rough benchmark but useful as a forcing function: if your number is way below, your savings rate is too low for your income.
Milestones to aim for
The "first $100k" milestone
Charlie Munger famously said the first $100k is the hardest. Once you hit it, an 8% return adds $8k/year — about as much as someone saving $666/month from scratch. The compounding starts to feel meaningful. Most aggressive savers can hit $100k by age 30, $250k by 35, $500k by 40.
The "8x salary by 60" rule (Fidelity)
Fidelity's retirement readiness benchmarks: 1× salary by 30, 3× by 40, 6× by 50, 8× by 60, 10× by 67. These assume retirement at 67 with Social Security supplementing. FIRE-aspirants should target much higher multiples (25× annual expenses for a 4% safe withdrawal rate).
Why the benchmarks are imperfect
A few caveats before you panic or celebrate:
- Cost of living varies wildly. $500k in Mississippi is materially different from $500k in San Francisco.
- Inheritance and gifts skew the data. Some 30-year-olds are at the 90th percentile because of family money, not savings discipline.
- Surveys self-report. Wealthy households often understate; aspirational households sometimes overstate.
- Trajectory matters more than snapshot. Year-over-year change is the metric to watch, not single-point comparison.
Key Takeaways
- US median net worth: $39k (under 35), $135k (35-44), $247k (45-54), $364k (55-64).
- Use median, not mean — billionaires distort the average upward.
- Stanley's rule: expected net worth = (age × income) ÷ 10.
- Fidelity: 1x salary by 30, 3x by 40, 6x by 50, 8x by 60, 10x by 67.
- First $100k is the hardest milestone — compounding accelerates after that.
- Year-over-year trajectory matters more than any single benchmark.