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  • What Net Worth Is Considered Rich in 2026?

    What Net Worth Is Considered Rich in 2026?

    Americans say it takes a net worth of $2.3 million to be considered wealthy, according to Charles Schwab's Modern Wealth Survey. The actual statistical thresholds are different in both directions: $1.94 million already puts you in the top 10% of US households, while the top 1% doesn't start until about $13.7 million.

    So "rich" has two answers — what people believe, and what the data says. Here's both.

    What Americans think it takes

    Generation Net worth to be "wealthy"
    Gen Z $1.7 million
    Millennials ~$2.1 million
    Gen X ~$2.1 million
    Baby Boomers $2.8 million
    All Americans $2.3 million

    Source: Charles Schwab Modern Wealth Survey.

    The same survey puts "financially comfortable" — a far more attainable bar — at around $800,000. Note the generational spread: Boomers set the wealthy line a full $1.1 million higher than Gen Z does, largely because they're pricing in a 30-year retirement they can see from where they stand.

    Worth noting too: the $2.3 million figure came down from $2.5 million the prior year. Expectations recalibrate.

    What the data actually says

    The Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances gives the real thresholds:

    Percentile Household net worth What it means
    50th ~$192,700 Median US household
    75th ~$659,000 Top quarter
    90th ~$1.94 million Top 10%
    95th ~$3.8 million Top 5%
    99th ~$13.7 million Top 1%

    Here's the striking part: the number Americans call "wealthy" — $2.3 million — lands somewhere around the 92nd percentile. People are, roughly speaking, using "top 10%" as their working definition of rich. That's a reasonable instinct, and the data backs it up.

    Rich is age-adjusted

    A $1 million net worth means something very different at 32 than at 62. The top 10% threshold by age group:

    Age group Median net worth Top 10% threshold
    Under 35 $39,040 ~$390,000
    35–44 $135,300 ~$980,000
    45–54 $246,700 ~$1.76 million
    55–64 $364,270 ~$2.6 million
    65–74 $409,900 ~$3.2 million

    A 33-year-old with $500,000 is comfortably in their cohort's top 10% and on a trajectory toward the top few percent nationally. A 63-year-old with the same $500,000 is barely above their cohort's median with a decade of runway left. Same number, opposite situations.

    For the full percentile picture, see our detailed breakdown of net worth percentile by age.

    The better definition: how long can you not work?

    Statistical percentiles tell you where you rank. They don't tell you whether you're free — and freedom is what most people actually mean by "rich."

    The more useful test is your portfolio-to-spending ratio. Using the standard 4% withdrawal rule:

    Annual spending Portfolio for financial independence (25×)
    $50,000 $1.25 million
    $75,000 $1.875 million
    $100,000 $2.5 million
    $150,000 $3.75 million

    This reframes the whole question. Someone spending $50,000 a year with $1.3 million invested is done working — while someone spending $250,000 a year with $3 million is still very much employed, despite ranking higher on every percentile chart.

    Rich isn't a number. It's a ratio between what you have and what your life costs.

    What counts toward your net worth

    If you're checking yourself against these figures, use the same definition the Fed does: everything you own minus everything you owe. Home equity counts. Retirement accounts count. Vehicles count at resale value. Your income does not.

    That last point trips up more people than any other — see net worth vs income for why high earners so often rank lower than they expect. If you're not sure how to add it all up, our guide to calculating net worth walks through it line by line.

    Want to see where you actually land? NetTrack connects your accounts and tracks your real net worth over time — no spreadsheets. Start free.

  • The Average American Debt by Age in 2026

    The Average American Debt by Age in 2026

    The average American carries $104,755 in total debt, according to Experian's most recent consumer debt study. But that single figure hides a life-cycle pattern that matters far more than the average: debt climbs steeply through your thirties, peaks in your late forties and fifties, then falls by roughly half by retirement.

    Here's how much debt each age group actually carries, what it's made of, and how to tell whether yours is a problem.

    Average total debt by generation

    Generation Age range Average total debt
    Generation Z 18–28 $34,328
    Millennials 29–44 $132,280
    Generation X 45–60 $158,105
    Baby Boomers 61–79 $92,619
    Silent Generation 80+ $38,460
    All consumers — $104,755

    Source: Experian consumer debt study (2025 data, most recent release).

    Gen X carries the heaviest load — nearly 5× what Gen Z owes. That's not recklessness; it's timing. Gen X is the generation most likely to be simultaneously paying a mortgage near its peak balance, financing cars for a household of drivers, carrying leftover student loans, and in many cases co-signing for their kids.

    Average debt by type and generation

    Total debt is mostly one thing — a mortgage — so the type-level breakdown is where the useful detail lives:

    Debt type Gen Z Millennials Gen X Boomers Silent
    Mortgage $262,004 $320,027 $286,574 $196,227 $148,514
    Student loan $21,670 $32,911 $38,426 $39,870 $31,153
    Auto loan $20,893 $25,307 $27,836 $22,583 $17,180
    Personal loan $9,466 $16,882 $21,910 $21,972 $17,786
    Credit card $3,493 $6,961 $9,600 $6,795 $3,445

    Three things stand out:

    Millennials have the largest mortgages at $320,027 on average. They're buying at today's prices with today's rates, so their balances start higher than any generation before them — even though Gen X owns more home equity.

    Student loan balances go up with age. Boomers average $39,870, more than Gen Z's $21,670. Interest capitalization, income-driven repayment plans that don't cover accruing interest, and parent PLUS loans mean this debt often grows rather than shrinks.

    Credit card debt peaks with Gen X at $9,600. This is the number to watch. Unlike a mortgage, credit card debt buys no asset — at typical rates above 20%, a $9,600 balance costs roughly $2,000 a year just to carry.

    Not all debt is the same

    The headline number treats a $300,000 mortgage and a $9,000 credit card balance as the same thing. They aren't:

    • Debt that buys an appreciating asset — a mortgage on a home you can afford, a student loan that raised your earning power. These show up on both sides of your balance sheet.
    • Debt that buys a depreciating asset — an auto loan. Neutral at best, and easy to overdo.
    • Debt that buys nothing — credit card balances, personal loans used for consumption. Pure drag.

    This is exactly why net worth, not debt, is the right scoreboard. A household with a $400,000 mortgage against a $600,000 house is in better shape than one with $15,000 in credit card debt and no assets — even though the first has 26× more debt.

    How to tell if your debt is a problem

    Two ratios do most of the work:

    Debt-to-income (DTI). Total monthly debt payments divided by gross monthly income. Under 36% is healthy; lenders start balking above 43%.

    Non-mortgage debt to income. Add up everything except your mortgage. If it exceeds 20% of gross income, it's crowding out saving.

    If you're above either line, the standard playbook still works: cover minimums everywhere, then throw everything extra at the highest-rate balance — almost always a credit card — until it's gone.

    The number that actually matters

    Debt totals are only half of a balance sheet. Paying down $10,000 of a credit card improves your net worth by exactly as much as saving $10,000 — and at 22% interest, it's a far better guaranteed return than you'll get anywhere else.

    Curious how the other half looks? See net worth percentile by age for where households actually land once assets and debts are netted out.

    Want to watch debt fall and net worth rise on the same chart? NetTrack connects your loans, cards, and accounts and tracks the whole picture automatically. Start free.

  • Your Car Is Part of Your Net Worth Now

    Your Car Is Part of Your Net Worth Now

    For most people, a car is one of the biggest things they own — and one of the biggest blind spots in their net worth. You either leave it out entirely, or you type in a number once and let it quietly go stale while the car depreciates underneath it.

    NetTrack 1.6.4 fixes that. Add your car once, and its value stays current on its own.

    Add a vehicle in one step

    On the Add account screen, tap Track a vehicle and enter your VIN — it’s on your registration, insurance card, or the driver-side door jamb. Current mileage and a nickname are optional, but mileage makes the estimate noticeably sharper.

    That’s it. No picking your trim from a dropdown, no guessing at condition tiers — the VIN identifies your exact year, make, model, and trim.

    A real market value, not a guess

    Your vehicle’s value comes from recent listings for cars like yours, adjusted for your mileage. You see the estimate, the range around it, and how it was built — how many listings, and how confident the estimate is.

    The value refreshes automatically every month, so depreciation shows up in your net worth as it happens — no manual updates, no stale numbers. A history chart tracks the value over time, with the same 1M / 3M / YTD / 1Y / All ranges as the rest of the app.

    A few details worth knowing:

    • Update your mileage anytime from the vehicle screen — the next refresh prices against it.
    • Disagree with the estimate? Set your own value. Your number is what counts toward your net worth, while the market estimate keeps updating alongside it so you can see the drift.
    • Your budget stays clean. Vehicle value changes are tracked in net worth, but they stay out of your budget’s Ready to Assign by default — depreciation isn’t money you can spend.

    Available now

    Vehicle tracking is live in NetTrack 1.6.4 on the App Store and on the web, included in NetTrack Pro.

    Got a boat, motorcycle, or something else without a VIN in our coverage? Tell us — we’re deciding what to value next.

  • Split Transactions, Notes, and Bulk Editing Are Here

    Split Transactions, Notes, and Bulk Editing Are Here

    One credit card charge is rarely one kind of spending. The $180 Costco run is groceries and household stuff and a new hoodie. The Amazon order is a gift, office supplies, and a phone case. Until now, NetTrack made you pick a single category and live with the distortion.

    This update fixes that — and makes cleaning up your transactions dramatically faster while we’re at it. Here’s what’s new in NetTrack 1.6.2.

    Split transactions

    You can now break any transaction into pieces, each with its own category and amount. Open a transaction, tap Split transaction, and divide it up — the pieces have to add up to the original, and a live counter shows what’s left to assign (with a one-tap “rest” shortcut for the last piece).

    Once split, the pieces behave like real transactions everywhere: your cash flow, spending reports, and budgets count what actually happened instead of one lump under “Shopping.” The original charge is never modified — it’s kept behind the scenes, and you can unsplit at any time to restore it exactly as it was.

    A few details we sweated so you don’t have to:

    • Day totals in your activity feed still add up to the penny — the pieces replace the original, never double-count it.
    • Your auto-categorization rules won’t fight your splits. A rule like “Costco → Groceries” leaves split pieces alone.
    • Recurring detection still sees the real charge, so splitting a subscription won’t break its history.

    Splits are part of NetTrack Pro, alongside Rules, Recurring, and Budgeting.

    Notes on transactions

    Sometimes the transaction itself doesn’t tell the story. “Split with roommates — they Venmo’d me back.” “Tax deductible — home office.” “Warranty expires July 2028.”

    Every transaction now has a notes field. Add context while it’s fresh, and find it again later — search in the Activity tab matches your notes, not just merchant names. Future-you will thank present-you at tax time.

    Multi-select and bulk editing

    Fixing transactions one at a time was the slowest part of keeping your data clean. Now: long-press any transaction in the Activity tab to enter selection mode, tap to select as many as you like, and apply one action to all of them — recategorize, set the type, add tags, or delete.

    NetTrack's Activity tab in selection mode with three transactions checked and a Categorize / Type / Tag / Delete action bar

    It composes with filters, too. Filter to a merchant or a date range, select everything that’s left, and fix a month of miscategorized transactions in about four taps.

    Available now

    All three features are live in NetTrack 1.6.2 on the App Store. Notes and multi-select are free for everyone; splits are included in NetTrack Pro.

    Got a messy merchant or a workflow that’s still slower than it should be? Tell us — most of this update came directly from user requests.

  • The Average 401(k) Balance by Age in 2026 (And Why the Median Matters More)

    The Average 401(k) Balance by Age in 2026 (And Why the Median Matters More)

    The average American 401(k) balance is about $141,000 as of early 2026, according to Fidelity. Vanguard's numbers, covering 4.6 million accounts through year-end 2025, put the average at $167,970 — but the median is just $44,115. That gap is the most important fact in this article: the typical saver has far less than the "average" suggests, because a minority of large accounts pull the average up.

    Here's how balances break down by age and generation, and how to judge your own number.

    Average 401(k) balance by generation (Fidelity, Q1 2026)

    Generation Average 401(k) balance
    Baby Boomers $260,300
    Gen X $215,600
    Millennials $82,600
    Gen Z $18,000
    All savers $141,000

    Vanguard's How America Saves 2026 report adds the endpoints by age: workers under 25 average $7,259 (median $2,234), while those 65 and older average $330,186 (median $103,202). At every age, the median runs at roughly a quarter to a third of the average.

    One genuinely encouraging trend: the combined employee-plus-employer savings rate hit a record 14.4% in early 2026 — close to Fidelity's recommended 15%.

    Why the median is your benchmark

    Averages answer "how much money is in 401(k)s per person" — a fact about the system. Medians answer "how much does the typical person have" — a fact about people like you. When the average is $168,000 and the median is $44,000, comparing yourself to the average mostly measures how far you are from a small number of very large accounts.

    Am I on track? The salary-multiple test

    A better benchmark than other people's balances is your own salary. Fidelity's widely used guideline: 1× your salary saved by 30, 3× by 40, 6× by 50, 8× by 60, and 10× by 67 — across all retirement accounts, not just your current 401(k). We break this down with examples in How Much Should You Have Saved by 30, 40, and 50?

    Three things that move the number most

    1. Capture the full employer match. It's an immediate 50–100% return on those dollars; leaving it unclaimed is the most expensive common mistake.
    2. Raise your rate 1% per year. Going from 6% to 12% over six years is barely felt per paycheck but roughly doubles your lifetime contributions.
    3. Count every account. Old 401(k)s from previous jobs, IRAs, and HSAs are all part of the real picture — and orphaned accounts are where fees and forgotten cash-heavy allocations hide.

    That last one is where tracking tools earn their keep: your true retirement position is the sum of scattered accounts, which no single provider's dashboard shows you.

    Frequently asked questions

    What's a good 401(k) balance at 40?
    By Fidelity's guideline, about 3× your salary across retirement accounts — $240,000 for an $80,000 earner. The typical American at that age has meaningfully less, so "on the guideline" means comfortably ahead of the median.

    Why is my balance so far below the average for my age?
    Averages are inflated by high earners and long-tenured savers. Compare to the median, and more importantly, to the salary-multiple targets for your own income.

    Do these figures include IRAs?
    No — they're 401(k)-plan data from Fidelity and Vanguard. Your full retirement picture should add IRAs, HSAs, and old employer plans.

    Where does this data come from?
    Fidelity's quarterly retirement analysis (Q1 2026) and Vanguard's How America Saves 2026 report covering year-end 2025. Both update regularly, and we'll refresh this page as new quarters land.

    See all your retirement accounts — current 401(k), old ones, IRAs — in one place with NetTrack, including how they're actually performing. Start free.

  • Net Worth Percentile by Age: Top 50%, 25%, 10%, and 1% in 2026

    Net Worth Percentile by Age: Top 50%, 25%, 10%, and 1% in 2026

    A household net worth of about $1.9 million puts you in the top 10% of American households. The top 1% starts around $13.7 million, the top 25% at roughly $659,000 — and half of all US households sit below $192,700.

    But overall numbers only tell half the story: a 30-year-old with $400,000 is in a very different position than a 60-year-old with the same amount. Here are the percentile thresholds overall and by age, based on the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances.

    US net worth percentiles (all households)

    Percentile Household net worth
    25th (bottom quartile) ~$27,000
    50th (median) ~$192,700
    75th (top 25%) ~$659,000
    90th (top 10%) ~$1.94 million
    95th (top 5%) ~$3.8 million
    99th (top 1%) ~$13.7 million

    Source: Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances (2022, the latest published survey; figures in 2022 dollars).

    Top 10% threshold by age

    Because wealth compounds over a career, the bar for the top 10% rises steeply with age:

    Age group Median net worth Top 10% (90th percentile)
    Under 35 $39,040 ~$390,000
    35–44 $135,300 ~$980,000
    45–54 $246,700 ~$1.76 million
    55–64 $364,270 ~$2.6 million
    65–74 $409,900 ~$3.2 million
    75+ $334,700 ~$2.75 million

    A useful way to read this: a 32-year-old with $400,000 is already in their age group's top 10%, while a 55-year-old with the same amount is only modestly above their cohort's median. Age-adjusted comparison is the honest one.

    What these thresholds actually mean

    • Net worth is household, not individual. A couple's combined assets count as one household, so single-person comparisons should mentally adjust down.
    • The median is the anchor. Half of American households have less than ~$193,000 — if headlines about "average" millionaires make you feel behind, remember the average is distorted by a small number of extremely wealthy households.
    • Percentiles are a snapshot; trajectory is the signal. Moving from the 40th to the 60th percentile over five years matters more than where you happen to stand today.

    For what drives the differences between age groups — compounding, home equity, debt payoff — see our companion piece on the average net worth by age.

    How to find your own percentile

    1. Calculate your net worth — all assets minus all liabilities.
    2. Find your age bracket in the table above and compare against the median first, then the 90th percentile.
    3. Recheck yearly. The interesting question isn't "where am I?" but "which direction am I moving, and how fast?"

    Frequently asked questions

    What net worth is considered rich?
    There's no official line, but the top 10% threshold ($1.9 million per household) is a common benchmark for "wealthy," and the top 1% ($13.7 million) for "rich" in the popular sense.

    Does net worth include home equity?
    Yes — these figures count your home's market value as an asset and the mortgage as a liability. For many households, home equity is the single largest component.

    Where does this data come from?
    The Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, conducted every three years. The 2022 survey (published October 2023) is the latest; results from the 2025 survey are expected in late 2026, and we'll update this page when they're released.

    Curious where you actually stand? NetTrack connects your accounts and calculates your real net worth in minutes — then tracks the trend that matters. Start free.

  • How Much Should You Have Saved by 30, 40, and 50? (2026 Benchmarks)

    How Much Should You Have Saved by 30, 40, and 50? (2026 Benchmarks)

    The most widely used benchmark, from Fidelity, is simple: you should have 1× your annual salary saved by age 30, 3× by 40, 6× by 50, 8× by 60, and 10× by 67 — counting all retirement and investment accounts together.

    For someone earning $80,000, that means roughly $80,000 saved by 30, $240,000 by 40, and $480,000 by 50. Here's the full breakdown, why the targets accelerate, and what to do if you're behind.

    Savings targets by age

    Age Target (× salary) At $60k salary At $80k salary At $100k salary
    30 1× $60,000 $80,000 $100,000
    35 2× $120,000 $160,000 $200,000
    40 3× $180,000 $240,000 $300,000
    45 4× $240,000 $320,000 $400,000
    50 6× $360,000 $480,000 $600,000
    55 7× $420,000 $560,000 $700,000
    60 8× $480,000 $640,000 $800,000
    67 10× $600,000 $800,000 $1,000,000

    Based on Fidelity's retirement savings guidelines, which assume retiring at 67 and maintaining your pre-retirement lifestyle.

    Two clarifications people often miss:

    • "Saved" means invested, not in a savings account. These targets assume market growth doing much of the work — 401(k)s, IRAs, HSAs, and brokerage accounts all count.
    • The multiple is of your current salary. Get a big raise and your target jumps too; that's the guideline working as intended, since your lifestyle (and the retirement that must fund it) got more expensive.

    Why the targets accelerate

    Notice the jump: one salary in your first decade of work, then two more by 40, then three more by 50. That's compounding math, not expectation inflation — money invested at 25 has 40 years to grow, so early savings do disproportionate work. The corollary cuts both ways: being behind at 30 is cheap to fix; being behind at 50 is not.

    Behind the curve? In good company — and here's the playbook

    Most Americans are behind these benchmarks — the median 401(k) balance is about $44,000, far below where the multiples say a mid-career saver should be. If that's you:

    1. Get the full employer match first. It's the highest-return money available to you.
    2. Use catch-up contributions if you're 50+. The IRS allows meaningfully higher 401(k) and IRA limits from age 50.
    3. Automate an annual 1% increase. Most plans can do this automatically; you won't feel it, and it compounds your savings rate.
    4. Attack high-interest debt in parallel. A credit card at 24% outruns any market return; clearing it is a guaranteed win.
    5. Know your real number. Scattered accounts make people underestimate (or overestimate) where they stand — the benchmark only helps if you're comparing it against your true total.

    How this fits with other benchmarks

    Salary multiples measure retirement readiness. For the broader picture — home equity, debts, everything — the yardstick is net worth; see the average net worth by age and what puts you in the top 10%. The two views together answer both "can I retire?" and "am I building wealth?"

    Frequently asked questions

    Are Fidelity's multiples too aggressive?
    They're calibrated for maintaining your lifestyle from 67 onward. If you expect lower expenses, Social Security covering a bigger share, or working past 67, you can land safely below 10×. Planning to retire early? You'll need more, sooner.

    Should I count my home equity?
    Not for these targets — you can't spend the house you live in. Home equity belongs in your net worth, not your retirement-savings multiple.

    What if my income just increased a lot?
    Your multiple drops overnight, and that's fine. Treat the new target as a direction, not a pass/fail grade — and avoid letting lifestyle inflate to the new income while you close the gap.

    The hardest part is knowing your true total across every account. NetTrack adds it up automatically and shows whether the number is moving fast enough. Start free.

  • Best Empower (Personal Capital) Alternatives in 2026

    Best Empower (Personal Capital) Alternatives in 2026

    Empower's Personal Dashboard (the app formerly known as Personal Capital) is still one of the best free net worth trackers available. So why are so many people looking for a replacement?

    Three reasons come up again and again: the advisory sales calls that start once your linked balances cross a threshold, account sync issues that leave connections broken for days, and a dashboard that has barely evolved since the Personal Capital days. Empower is a wealth-management firm first — the free dashboard exists to find advisory clients, and it shows.

    If any of that sounds familiar, here are the best Empower alternatives in 2026, and who each one is right for.

    The best Empower alternatives at a glance

    App Best for Price Investment return Sales calls
    NetTrack Net worth + true investment performance Free tier; paid for unlimited accounts Flow-adjusted Never
    Monarch Money All-in-one budgeting + net worth ~$100/year Good Never
    Kubera Complex, multi-asset portfolios ~$199/year Basic Never
    Copilot Money Design-first Apple users ~$95/year Good Never
    Empower (keep it) Free tracking, don't mind outreach Free Good Yes

    1. NetTrack — best overall replacement

    NetTrack is the closest match for what most people actually use Empower for: connecting every account, watching net worth over time, and understanding how their investments are really doing.

    It goes further than Empower on the investment side. NetTrack computes a flow-adjusted return for every account, so deposits and withdrawals don't get counted as gains or losses — a common flaw in dashboards that just chart your balance. You also get net worth attribution (a breakdown of exactly what changed your net worth each month), dividend tracking, real estate tracking, goals with projections, and synced web and mobile apps.

    And because NetTrack makes money from subscriptions — not from managing your assets — there is no advisory upsell and nobody will ever call you.

    • Best for: anyone who used Empower primarily for net worth and investment tracking
    • Pricing: free tier (limited connections); paid plan for unlimited accounts
    • Platforms: web, iOS, Android

    2. Monarch Money — best all-in-one

    If you want budgeting, goals, and net worth in a single polished app, Monarch is the strongest all-rounder, with great support for couples. The trade-off is price — there's no free tier — and its investment analytics are lighter than Empower's.

    • Best for: households that want budgeting and net worth together
    • Pricing: ~$100/year
    • Platforms: web, iOS, Android

    3. Kubera — best for complex portfolios

    Crypto, foreign bank accounts, private equity, collectibles, real estate across countries — Kubera tracks nearly anything with a value. It's the pick for high-net-worth users with assets a mainstream aggregator can't handle, at a premium price.

    • Best for: complex, multi-currency, alternative-asset portfolios
    • Pricing: ~$199/year
    • Platforms: web-first

    4. Copilot Money — best design

    Copilot is the best-looking personal finance app on Apple platforms, with excellent transaction categorization. Net worth and investment tracking are solid but secondary to its spending focus, and there's no Android or full web experience yet.

    • Best for: iPhone/Mac users who care about design and spending insights
    • Pricing: ~$95/year
    • Platforms: iOS, macOS

    When you should just stay with Empower

    Empower still makes sense if you want a completely free tool, you like its retirement planner and fee analyzer, and you genuinely don't mind declining the occasional advisory call. It's a good product — the frustrations are with the business model around it, not the dashboard itself.

    How to switch

    1. Export or screenshot your history. Empower doesn't offer a clean full export, so capture your current net worth and balances before you leave.
    2. Connect accounts in the new app. Aggregation coverage differs — connect your two or three most important institutions first and confirm they sync.
    3. Add manual assets. Recreate your home value, vehicles, and any private holdings.
    4. Run both for a month. Once the new app's numbers match reality, close out the old one.

    Frequently asked questions

    Is Empower Personal Dashboard still free in 2026?
    Yes. The dashboard is free; Empower monetizes it by offering wealth-management services to users with larger balances, which is where the sales outreach comes from.

    What's the best free Empower alternative?
    NetTrack's free tier covers basic net worth tracking with a limited number of connections. If you need many connected accounts for free, Empower itself is still hard to beat — the alternatives charge because subscriptions are their only revenue.

    Which Empower alternative has the best investment tracking?
    NetTrack, for one specific reason: flow-adjusted returns. Most apps show a balance chart that mixes your contributions with market performance. NetTrack separates them, so you can see how your portfolio actually performed.

    Will I get sales calls from these alternatives?
    No. NetTrack, Monarch, Kubera, and Copilot are all subscription businesses. None of them manage assets or sell advisory services.

    Ready to leave the sales calls behind? Try NetTrack free — connect your accounts and see your true net worth and investment returns in minutes.

  • Best Monarch Money Alternatives in 2026

    Best Monarch Money Alternatives in 2026

    Monarch Money became the default Mint replacement for a reason: it does budgeting, goals, and net worth in one polished app. But after its price increase, plenty of users are asking whether ~$100 a year is worth it — especially if they only use a fraction of the feature set.

    That's the key to choosing an alternative: figure out which part of Monarch you actually use. Most people fall into one of three camps — net worth and investments, hands-on budgeting, or bill management. Here's the best option for each in 2026.

    The best Monarch alternatives at a glance

    App Best for Price Free tier
    NetTrack Net worth + investment performance Paid for unlimited accounts Yes
    Empower Free net worth tracking Free Yes
    YNAB Zero-based budgeting ~$109/year No
    Copilot Money Design-first Apple users ~$95/year No
    Rocket Money Bills + subscription management ~$6–12/month Limited

    1. NetTrack — best for net worth and investments

    If you open Monarch mostly to look at your net worth graph and your accounts, NetTrack does that job better — because it's the entire focus of the app.

    NetTrack connects your bank, brokerage, retirement, and credit accounts, tracks net worth with full history, and explains why it changed with month-over-month attribution. On investments it's a clear step up from Monarch: flow-adjusted returns separate market performance from your own deposits, so a month where you contributed $2,000 doesn't masquerade as a 4% gain. Dividend tracking, portfolio analytics, real estate values, goals with projections, and envelope-style budgeting round it out, on web, iOS, and Android.

    • Best for: the big-picture camp — net worth, investments, long-term progress
    • Pricing: free tier (limited connections); paid plan for unlimited accounts

    2. Empower Personal Dashboard — best free option

    Empower (formerly Personal Capital) remains the strongest free net worth and investment dashboard, including a good retirement planner and fee analyzer. The catch is well-known: it's run by a wealth manager, so larger balances attract advisory sales calls, and budgeting is weak.

    • Best for: free net worth tracking, if you can tolerate the outreach
    • Pricing: free

    3. YNAB — best for serious budgeters

    If Monarch's budgets never actually changed your spending, YNAB's zero-based "give every dollar a job" method probably will. It's a philosophy with software attached — more work, more results. Net worth tracking is an afterthought.

    • Best for: people who want to actively control spending
    • Pricing: ~$109/year

    4. Copilot Money — best design on Apple platforms

    Copilot has the best-designed interface in personal finance, with standout automatic categorization. It covers spending, budgets, and investments well — but it's Apple-only, so mixed-platform households should look elsewhere.

    • Best for: iPhone/Mac users focused on spending insights
    • Pricing: ~$95/year

    5. Rocket Money — best for bills and subscriptions

    Rocket Money's strength is finding and cancelling subscriptions and negotiating bills. As a full finance dashboard it's shallow, but as a money-saving utility it pays for itself quickly.

    • Best for: cutting recurring costs
    • Pricing: free tier; premium ~$6–12/month (choose your price)

    How to choose

    • You mostly watch net worth and investments → NetTrack
    • You want free above all → Empower
    • You need to fix your spending → YNAB
    • You're all-in on Apple and love good design → Copilot
    • Your problem is subscriptions and bills → Rocket Money
    • You genuinely use all of Monarch → stay. It's still the best all-in-one.

    Frequently asked questions

    Is there a cheaper app that does everything Monarch does?
    Not really — all-in-one apps with reliable bank syncing cost money to run, so true Monarch clones price similarly. The savings come from picking a focused app that does the part you use.

    What's the best Monarch alternative for couples?
    NetTrack supports households, so partners can track combined net worth together without sharing logins. Monarch is also genuinely strong here — it's one of its best features.

    Can I switch without losing my history?
    Your transaction history generally doesn't transfer between apps, but your balances and holdings sync fresh from your institutions. Most aggregators also backfill some transaction history on first connect.

    Tracking net worth is the part that matters most. Start free with NetTrack and see your whole financial picture in one place.