Posted on August 14th, 2026.

Most people have no idea if they are doing well with money. They know what they earn. They have a rough sense of what they owe. But ask them where they stand next to everyone else their age and they go quiet.

There is a number that answers that question. It is called net worth, and the Federal Reserve tracks it for every age group in the country. Once you see it, you can stop guessing.

What net worth actually means

Net worth is what you own minus what you owe.

Add up everything on one side. Cash in the bank. Retirement accounts. Investment accounts. The value of your home. Your vehicles. Then add up everything on the other side. Mortgage. Car loans. Student loans. Credit card balances. Subtract the second number from the first. That is your net worth. It can be negative. For a lot of younger households it is, and that is normal.

Average net worth by age in the United States

These figures come from the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, run every three years. The 2022 survey is the most recent published data. The 2025 survey is underway and results are expected in late 2026.

Look at those two columns. Then look at the gap.

Why the average lies to you

The average net worth of an American household is over a million dollars. Almost nobody feels like that is true. It is true anyway, and it is also useless. Here is why. The average adds up every household and divides by the number of households. Drop a few billionaires into the pool and the average jumps. Nothing changed for the family down the street. The number just moved.

The median works differently. Line up every household from poorest to richest and take the one standing in the middle. Half have more. Half have less. At age 45 to 54 the average is $971,270. The median is $247,200. That is a difference of nearly three quarters of a million dollars, and it exists because wealth in this country piles up at the top. So if you are 45 with $300,000 to your name, the average makes you feel like you are drowning. The median says you are ahead of half the people your age.

Same person. Same money. Two very different stories. Use the median. The average is a headline, not a benchmark.

What the numbers show as you age

A few patterns are worth sitting with.

• Wealth builds slowly, then quickly. The median under 35 is $39,000. By 35 to 44 it is $135,600. That is more than triple in one decade. It happens because compound growth needs time before it does anything impressive.

• The middle years are the grind. Between 40 and 44 the median actually dips slightly compared to the late 30s. Bigger mortgages. Childcare. Career moves that cost money before they pay. If you feel stuck in your early 40s, the data says you have company.

• It peaks around 70, then falls. The median tops out at $409,900 in the 65 to 74 bracket and drops to $335,600 after 75. That decline is mostly by design. Retirees spend what they spent decades building.

• A quarter of households in their 40s have under $25,000. Not a quarter of struggling households. A quarter of all of them.

Where do you rank

The median tells you if you are above or below the middle. Percentiles tell you exactly where you sit. If your net worth puts you at the 75th percentile for your age, you are ahead of three out of four households in your bracket. At the 90th percentile you are in the top ten percent for your age. The jump between those upper rungs is steep. Getting from the 75th to the 90th percentile usually takes more than getting from the 25th to the 75th. Wealth speeds up once assets start producing on their own.

What about Minnesota

The Federal Reserve publishes national figures, not state ones. Minnesota households tend to run somewhat ahead of the national median, helped by high homeownership and steady incomes across the Twin Cities metro. But home equity is not spendable money. A household in Rosemount with a paid down mortgage can look strong on paper and still feel tight every month. Use the national numbers as your yardstick. Then be honest about how much of your figure you could actually reach if you needed it.

What to do with your number

Work it out. Take twenty minutes and add up both sides. Most people have never done it once. Then check it against your age bracket above. If you are behind, you have information you did not have this morning. If you are ahead, you know your habits are working.

Either way, one number on one day tells you very little. What matters is which direction it moves. Track it every few months and watch the line, not the dot. And know what the line does not capture. Social Security is not in these figures. Neither is most pension value. Two households with the same net worth can face completely different retirements once guaranteed income comes back into the picture.

Understanding the number is the starting point

Knowing where you stand is useful. Knowing what to do next is harder. That is the part most people never get taught. Not in school, not at work, and rarely at home. Haul-Across Perspectives runs live sessions every week on money, the economy, and where the financial system is heading. Real conversations with people working through the same questions.

If you want to understand the forces moving your number, join the community and come sit in on a session.

Figures from the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, 2022, released October 2023. This article is educational and is not financial advice.