Every few months someone sends me a net worth by age chart and asks whether they are behind. My answer is always the same. A benchmark describes where other households happen to sit, it does not deliver a verdict on your life, and starting from zero is a starting point rather than a failing grade.
That said, the numbers are worth knowing. They show you the shape of a normal wealth curve, they give you a sense of scale, and they stop you anchoring on whatever a stranger posted on social media last week. Below is the net worth by age data the Federal Reserve actually publishes, what the figures mean, and why the standard benchmarks are a poor fit for anyone who works for themselves.
What net worth means and how to calculate yours
Net worth is one subtraction. Add up everything you own, add up everything you owe, and take the second number away from the first.
Assets include cash in checking and savings, retirement accounts, taxable brokerage balances, the market value of your home, the resale value of vehicles, and the net value of any business you own. Liabilities include your mortgage, student loans, credit card balances, auto loans, and any business debt you have personally guaranteed.
The Federal Reserve uses that same definition in its Survey of Consumer Finances, which is the dataset behind almost every net worth by age table you will see quoted. One detail matters when you compare yourself to it. The survey measures a family unit, not an individual, so a two-earner household is counted as one observation.
Three practical notes before you run your own number and set it beside a net worth by age benchmark. Value your home at what it would realistically sell for today, not at what you paid or what you hope. Count only the equity in financed assets, so a car worth $18,000 with a $12,000 loan against it contributes $6,000. And be honest about the business, which is the part most self-employed people get wrong.
Net worth by age according to the latest Federal Reserve data
The most recent published wave of the Survey of Consumer Finances is the 2022 survey, released in October 2023. The Federal Reserve began fielding the 2025 wave in March 2025 and has said summary results will be published in late 2026, so as of September 2026 the 2022 figures are still the current official numbers. Anything presented as newer than that is almost certainly an estimate from a private source rather than Federal Reserve data.
The table below is drawn from Table 2 of the Federal Reserve report Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2019 to 2022. All figures are in 2022 dollars and are grouped by the age of the survey reference person.
| Age of reference person | Median net worth | Mean net worth |
|---|---|---|
| Under 35 | $39,000 | $183,500 |
| 35 to 44 | $135,600 | $549,600 |
| 45 to 54 | $247,200 | $975,800 |
| 55 to 64 | $364,500 | $1,566,900 |
| 65 to 74 | $409,900 | $1,794,600 |
| 75 or older | $335,600 | $1,624,100 |
| All families | $192,900 | $1,063,700 |
Two patterns jump out of any net worth by age table. Wealth climbs steadily through the working years, peaks in the 65 to 74 bracket, and then declines as retirees spend down what they built. That downward step after 75 is not a crisis, it is the expected end of a life cycle.
The other pattern is the gap between the two columns, and it is the single most important thing to understand about this data.
Why the median and the mean tell completely different stories
Every net worth by age table shows both figures, and the two columns are answering different questions. The median is the midpoint. Line every family in an age bracket up from poorest to richest and the median is whoever stands in the middle, which means half of families sit below it and half above.
The mean is the simple average, and averages are extremely sensitive to extreme values. A handful of very wealthy households in a bracket pulls the mean upward without moving the median at all.
Look at the 55 to 64 bracket. The median is $364,500 and the mean is $1,566,900, more than four times higher. The typical household in that age group has nowhere near $1.5 million, and reading the mean as a target would leave most people convinced they had failed at something.
For any personal comparison, use the median column. The mean is useful for measuring how concentrated wealth is, and the size of the gap between the two columns is itself the story. It is not useful as a benchmark for your own household.
One more caveat. These are national figures that mix Manhattan with rural Missouri, and housing equity is a large share of most households’ balance sheets. Where you live changes the number enormously.
Why net worth by age is a weak yardstick for self-employed people
Here is where I part company with most net worth by age articles. The benchmark quietly assumes a household with predictable wages, an employer retirement plan, and a balance sheet that does not include a business. Change any of those and the comparison starts to mislead you.
Business equity is illiquid and hard to value honestly
In the 2022 survey, 14.6 percent of families held business equity. The conditional median value was $90,000 and the conditional mean was $1,622,500, which is the same median and mean spread showing up again inside a single asset class.
The figure that should stop you, though, is this one. Among families that owned businesses in 2022, 52 percent owned nonemployer firms, which are mostly sole proprietorships and self-employed contractors, and the Federal Reserve reports that the median nonemployer business owner reported no net value for their business at all.
That is not a failure. A solo consulting practice with no inventory, no premises, and no staff has real income and very little sale value, because the asset walking out of the door every evening is you. Putting a speculative six-figure valuation on it to flatter your own balance sheet is the most common self-inflicted error I see.
The conservative approach is to count business equity at what someone would actually pay you for it. For many solo operators, that is the value of equipment and receivables minus business debt, and not a dollar more. Do it that way and your position against a net worth by age median will look worse on paper and be far more useful in practice.
Lumpy income means your net worth moves in steps
Salaried households add to net worth in a fairly smooth line, because a fixed amount arrives every two weeks and a fixed amount leaves. Self-employed net worth does not behave that way.
A strong quarter followed by a dead one produces a balance sheet that jumps, flatlines, then dips while you cover fixed expenses from reserves. Measure yourself against a net worth by age median in the middle of a slow stretch and you will draw the wrong conclusion about a business that is fine.
The fix is to measure less often and to measure on the same date each time. I would rather see someone check twice a year than monthly, because the monthly noise tells you nothing useful. Building a monthly budget with variable freelance income does more for the trend line than any amount of tracking.
There is no employer match quietly building a balance
A large part of the wealth accumulation baked into any net worth by age table happens without the household thinking about it. Payroll deductions go out automatically, and in many cases an employer contribution lands on top.
Retirement accounts were held by 54.3 percent of families in the 2022 survey, with a conditional median balance of $86,900. Nobody sets that up for you when you work for yourself. Every dollar in a SEP IRA, solo 401(k), or SIMPLE IRA is a dollar you had to consciously move, in a month when you could have spent it instead.
This is the single biggest structural disadvantage in the comparison, and it is also the most fixable. Understanding the self employed retirement plans available to you, and automating a contribution the way payroll would, closes most of the gap over time. The compound interest calculator on investor.gov is a reasonable place to see what a consistent monthly contribution does over a couple of decades.
A tax reserve in your account is not net worth
This one costs people real accuracy, and it is the quickest way to flatter yourself against a net worth by age benchmark without noticing. Money sitting in a business account earmarked for taxes is already owed, so counting it as an asset inflates your net worth by the exact amount of a liability you have not recorded.
Self-employment tax runs at 15.3 percent of net earnings, covering Social Security and Medicare, and that sits on top of income tax. The IRS guidance on estimated taxes explains how the quarterly payment schedule works.
Treat the reserve as a liability on your balance sheet from the moment the income lands. Knowing which self employment tax deductions you can legitimately claim will change the size of that reserve, but it does not change the principle that the money is not yours.
What to actually do with your net worth by age number
Calculate it once, write it down with the date, and then largely ignore the comparison. A net worth by age benchmark is context, not a target, and treating it as a scoreboard produces anxiety rather than decisions.
What is worth watching is your own trend. Is the number higher than it was six months ago, and if not, do you know why. A year of flat net worth during a deliberate reinvestment phase is a very different situation from a year of flat net worth caused by drift.
Pay attention to the composition as well as the total. A balance sheet where most of the value sits in an illiquid business is fragile in a way that the headline figure hides, and diversifying out of it over time is what the habits that build real wealth have in common.
Three concrete steps, in order. List your assets and liabilities today and get an honest starting figure. Record the tax reserve as a liability so the number stops lying to you. Then set one automatic monthly transfer into a retirement account, at whatever amount survives your worst month.
None of this is investment advice, and I am not a licensed advisor. The rules around retirement accounts and self-employment tax are specific to your situation, and a licensed tax professional or financial advisor is the right call before you make a decision that matters.
Starting from zero is a starting point, not a verdict
The under 35 bracket in the 2022 data has a median net worth of $39,000, and a great many people in it are sitting at or below zero because of student debt. The same table shows that bracket climbing to $135,600 by the mid forties and $247,200 by the mid fifties.
Read a net worth by age table horizontally rather than vertically, and it stops being a judgment and becomes a timeline. The households in the older brackets were mostly in the younger brackets once, with the same gap between where they were and where the chart said they should be.
Starting from zero means nothing is working against you yet. No compounding debt, no sunk cost in a business that is not working, no lifestyle you have to unwind first. That is a clean slate, and the only number that matters from here is the direction of travel.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most recent net worth by age data available?
The 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances, published by the Federal Reserve in October 2023, is the most recent published wave and the source of the net worth by age figures above. The 2025 survey was fielded during 2025 and summary results are expected in late 2026, so any figure presented as more current than the 2022 survey is an estimate from a private source rather than Federal Reserve data.
Should I compare myself to the median or the mean?
Use the median column of any net worth by age table. It is the midpoint of the distribution, so half of families fall below it and half above. The mean is dragged upward by a small number of very wealthy households, which is why the mean in the 55 to 64 bracket is more than four times the median.
How should I value my business when calculating net worth?
Value it at what a buyer would realistically pay, which for most solo operators is equipment and receivables minus business debt. The Federal Reserve found that the median owner of a nonemployer firm reported no net value for the business at all, so a conservative figure is normal rather than pessimistic.
Does money set aside for taxes count toward net worth?
No. A tax reserve is money you already owe, so it belongs on the liability side of your balance sheet from the moment the income arrives. Counting it as an asset overstates your position by the full amount of the reserve.
Why is net worth by age a poor benchmark for self-employed people?
Because the data reflects households with steady wages and employer retirement plans. Self-employed balance sheets carry illiquid business equity, move in steps rather than a smooth line, carry a tax reserve, and receive no employer contributions, so the comparison measures four different things at once.
How often should I recalculate my net worth?
Twice a year is enough for most self-employed people, measured on the same dates each time. Monthly tracking mostly captures the noise of irregular invoicing rather than any real change in your position.
Is a negative net worth in your twenties or thirties a problem?
It is common, and it is usually a debt structure question rather than an income question. The relevant issue is whether the balance is moving in the right direction and whether the interest rates on your liabilities are manageable, not how far you sit from a national median.
