The average American family has $333,940 saved in retirement accounts. The median family has $87,000 — less than a third as much. Both figures come from the same Federal Reserve survey, and the gap between them is the single most useful thing in this article: a minority of very large accounts drags the average far above what a typical household actually has.
Here are the real numbers by age, and how to judge yours.
Average and median retirement savings by age
Age group
Median balance
Average balance
Under 35
$18,880
$49,130
35–44
$45,000
$141,520
45–54
$115,000
$313,220
55–64
$185,000
$537,560
65–74
$200,000
$609,230
75+
$130,000
$462,410
All families
$87,000
$333,940
Source: Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances (2022, the latest published survey). Figures cover families who have a retirement account — 401(k)s, IRAs, and similar — so households with nothing saved aren't dragging these down.
Two patterns worth reading closely:
The average runs 2.5–3× the median at every single age. That ratio is remarkably stable, and it means comparing yourself to any "average retirement savings" headline will make you feel behind when you may not be. Use the median column.
Balances peak at 65–74, then fall. That drop isn't a failure — it's the plan working. Retirees spend down what they built, and required minimum distributions force withdrawals starting at 73.
Why these numbers look higher than 401(k)-only stats
You'll see lower figures elsewhere — Vanguard puts the median 401(k) balance around $44,000. That's not a contradiction. The Fed counts every retirement account a household owns: both spouses' 401(k)s, old plans from previous employers, rollover IRAs, Roth IRAs, the works. A single-plan statistic only sees one slice.
If you're benchmarking, the Fed's household-level figures are the fairer comparison — because your retirement will be funded by all of your accounts, not one of them. See average 401(k) balance by age for the plan-level view.
What you should actually have saved
Averages describe the crowd. Targets describe the goal — and the crowd is not on track. The standard benchmark, from Fidelity, is a multiple of your salary:
Age
Target
Median household reality
30
1× salary
Well short
40
3× salary
Well short
50
6× salary
Well short
60
8× salary
Well short
67
10× salary
Well short
At a $75,000 salary that means $75,000 by 30, $225,000 by 40, and $450,000 by 50. Compare that to the medians above and the conclusion is uncomfortable but clear: the typical American is roughly half of where the guidelines say they should be.
Being behind the benchmark at 45 is recoverable; being behind at 62 is harder. The levers, in order of impact:
Capture the full employer match. An instant 50–100% return. Nothing else competes.
Raise your contribution rate by 1% a year. Painless in practice, and compounding does the rest. The combined employee-plus-employer savings rate hit a record 14.4% recently — close to the 15% that's typically recommended.
Use catch-up contributions at 50+. The IRS deliberately lets older savers put in more.
Postpone Social Security. Delaying from 62 to 70 raises your benefit by roughly 75% — the cheapest longevity insurance available.
Cut the retirement number itself. Spending $60,000 a year instead of $80,000 lowers the target portfolio by $500,000 under the 4% rule. Reducing the goal counts as progress.
Retirement savings aren't your whole picture
Your retirement accounts are one asset class on a larger balance sheet. Home equity, taxable brokerage accounts, cash, and debts all belong in the same view — that's your net worth, and it's what actually determines when you can stop working.
A household with $150,000 in a 401(k) and $250,000 in home equity is in a very different position than one with $150,000 and a mortgage underwater — even though the retirement column reads identically.
Want every account — retirement, brokerage, cash, and property — in one running total? NetTrack tracks it automatically and shows exactly what changed each month. Start free.
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.
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.
Your net worth is the single clearest number for measuring financial progress. It cuts through the noise of income and spending and answers one question: are you actually building wealth?
The formula is simple — assets minus liabilities — but doing it right means knowing what to count, how to value it, how to benchmark it, and how to keep the number growing. This guide walks through all of it.
What is net worth?
Net worth is everything you own (assets) minus everything you owe (liabilities).
Net Worth = Total Assets − Total Liabilities
If your assets add up to $250,000 and your debts total $90,000, your net worth is $160,000. It can be positive or negative — a new graduate with student loans and little savings may have a negative net worth, and that’s completely normal. What matters is the direction it moves over time.
Two flavors are worth knowing:
Gross net worth — total assets minus total liabilities (the standard figure).
Liquid net worth — only the assets you could turn into cash quickly (cash, investments), minus liabilities. This tells you what you could actually access in an emergency, since your home and car aren’t easy to spend.
Step 1: Add up your assets
Assets are anything you own that has real, sellable value. Group them so nothing slips through the cracks:
Your primary home (current market value, not what you paid)
Rental or investment properties
Personal property and other
Vehicles (use realistic resale value, not sticker price)
Valuable collectibles, jewelry, or equipment
Business ownership or private equity
Money owed to you
Add these up to get your total assets. Use current market values, and be honest — inflating your home or car value only fools you.
Step 2: Add up your liabilities
Liabilities are everything you owe. Use the current outstanding balance, not the original loan amount:
Mortgage balance
Auto loans
Student loans
Credit card balances
Personal loans and lines of credit
Medical or tax debt
Any other money you owe
Add these up to get your total liabilities.
Step 3: Subtract
Subtract total liabilities from total assets. That’s your net worth.
Amount
Cash & savings
$18,000
Investments & retirement
$142,000
Home (market value)
$380,000
Vehicle
$15,000
Total assets
$555,000
Mortgage
$295,000
Auto loan
$9,000
Student loans
$22,000
Credit cards
$3,000
Total liabilities
$329,000
Net worth
$226,000
What to leave out
A few things commonly trip people up:
Income and salary — net worth is a snapshot of what you have, not what you earn. High earners can have low net worth.
Monthly expenses — these affect net worth over time but aren’t part of the calculation itself.
Depreciating stuff at retail price — furniture, electronics, and clothing rarely have meaningful resale value. Skip them or use conservative numbers.
Term life insurance — it has no cash value (whole-life policies do).
Common mistakes to avoid
Overvaluing your home and car. Use current market value, and remember you’d pay fees to actually sell.
Forgetting old retirement accounts. A 401(k) from a job you left three years ago still counts.
Ignoring debt behind “good” assets. A $400,000 house with a $380,000 mortgage adds only $20,000 to your net worth.
Counting investment gains as your own contributions. When you review how your portfolio is doing, separate the money you added from the money the market earned. Mixing them makes a good month look better than it was — and a bad one worse. (More on this below.)
How do you compare? Net worth benchmarks
It’s natural to want a benchmark. Just remember that averages are skewed upward by the ultra-wealthy — the median (the middle household) is a far more realistic yardstick than the average, and both vary widely by age, region, and cost of living.
Rather than chase someone else’s number, use a personal benchmark. One popular rule of thumb from The Millionaire Next Door is:
So a 40-year-old earning $80,000 would have an expected net worth around $320,000. Hit that and you’re a solid accumulator of wealth; double it and you’re doing exceptionally well. It’s a rough guide, not gospel — but it beats comparing yourself to a headline average.
The most useful benchmark of all is your own net worth last year. Beating your past self, consistently, is the entire game.
How to grow your net worth
There are only two levers, and both matter:
Grow assets. Save and invest consistently. Automate contributions to retirement and brokerage accounts so growth happens without willpower. Time in the market and compounding do the heavy lifting.
Shrink liabilities. Pay down high-interest debt aggressively — credit card balances especially, where the interest often outruns any investment return. Every dollar of debt eliminated raises net worth just as surely as a dollar saved.
A few habits that compound over the years:
Increase your savings rate, not just your income. Raises quietly disappear if spending rises to match them.
Keep housing and vehicle costs in check — the two biggest budget lines for most households.
Invest for the long term and avoid reacting to short-term market swings.
Track your investment returns honestly so you know what’s actually working.
That last point is where most people — and most apps — get tripped up. If you add $10,000 to your brokerage account and it grows to $60,000 from $48,000, it looks like a $12,000 gain. But $10,000 of that was your own deposit; the market only earned you $2,000. Confusing the two makes it impossible to tell whether your investing is any good. The fix is a flow-adjusted return (also called a money-weighted return), which strips out your deposits and withdrawals to show true performance.
How often should you calculate it?
Once a month is the sweet spot. Frequent enough to catch trends, infrequent enough that daily market swings don’t rattle you. Pick a consistent day — the first of the month works well — and log the number each time.
The magic isn’t in any single calculation. It’s in the trend line. Watched over years, a net worth that climbs up and to the right is the clearest proof you’re on the right track.
Do it the easy way: track it automatically
Calculating net worth by hand once is a great exercise. Doing it every month, across a dozen accounts, gets tedious fast — and manual spreadsheets go stale the moment a balance changes.
That’s what a net worth tracker is for. NetTrack connects your bank, brokerage, and retirement accounts, rolls everything into one net worth figure, and updates it automatically. It also computes the flow-adjusted return described above, so the deposits and withdrawals you make don’t get mistaken for market gains — you see how your portfolio actually performed.
Frequently asked questions
What should my net worth be at my age?
There’s no universal target. As a rough guide, The Millionaire Next Door suggests (age × annual income) ÷ 10. More important than any benchmark is that your net worth is trending upward year over year.
Is my house part of my net worth?
Yes — count your home’s current market value as an asset and your remaining mortgage as a liability. The difference (your equity) is what actually adds to net worth. If you want to know what you could access quickly, look at liquid net worth, which excludes your home.
Does my 401(k) count toward net worth?
Absolutely. Retirement accounts — 401(k)s, IRAs, pensions, HSAs — are assets and often make up the largest share of a household’s net worth. Include old accounts from past employers, too.
What’s a good net worth?
A “good” net worth is one that’s positive, growing, and on track for your goals. Comparing to national averages is misleading because they’re skewed by the ultra-wealthy — benchmark against your own past instead.
How is net worth different from income?
Income is what you earn; net worth is what you keep. It’s entirely possible to earn a high salary and have a low (or negative) net worth if spending and debt keep pace. Net worth is the truer measure of financial health.
The bottom line
Net worth is assets minus liabilities — simple to calculate, powerful to track. Add up what you own, subtract what you owe, and check the number monthly. Grow it by saving consistently, paying down debt, and measuring your investment returns honestly. Whether you’re climbing out of debt or building toward financial independence, that single figure, watched over time, tells you the truth about your progress.
We just shipped a batch of updates that make NetTrack feel more rewarding to use — and give you a direct line to the people building it. Here’s what’s new.
Milestones — every financial win, celebrated
Tracking net worth is motivating on its own, but the big moments deserve more than a number ticking up. Milestones automatically marks them and gives you a badge for each:
Net-worth records — every time you cross a new threshold
Debt paydown — milestones on the way down, all the way to debt-free
Savings goals — progress at 25%, 50%, 75%, and the moment you hit 100%
When you cross one, NetTrack celebrates it — and the badge is yours to keep.
You’ll find your badges right on the Home screen. Tap on your Net Worth to open the statistics sheet, and you’ll see the Milestones banner. Tap on it to open the full screen.
Turn on milestone alerts in Settings → Notifications to get a heads-up the moment you hit one.
Try it out
Update to the latest version of NetTrack, then:
Check your Home screen for new milestone badges.
Head to Settings to message the team or browse Ideas.
Drop us a feature request — we’re reading every one.
