Assets minus debts in nine boxes, plus your debt-to-asset ratio, liquid savings, wealth outside your home and the Federal Reserve median net worth for your age group.
What is the median net worth of a 40-year-old in the U.S.?
Assets minus debts in nine boxes, plus your debt-to-asset ratio, liquid savings, wealth outside your home and the Federal Reserve median net worth for your age group.
The Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances does not publish a figure for each year of age. It groups families by the age of the person who heads them, and for the group a 40-year-old belongs to, 35 to 44, the median net worth is $155,600: half of these families have more, half have less. The mean for the same group is $681,900, pulled up by the wealthiest households, and the median for all U.S. families is $215,900. The figures include home equity and count a couple as one household. The calculator below is set to the 35 to 44 group; type what you own and what you owe to see how far you are from the median.
Net Worth Calculator
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Net worth: what you own minus what you owe, next to U.S. families your age
Everything you own at today's prices, minus every balance you still owe: that one subtraction is your net worth. This net worth calculator takes six kinds of assets and three kinds of debt, returns the total and four ratios that say more than the total alone, and, if you pick an age group, sets the result against the median for U.S. families of that age from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances. A household with $715,000 in assets and $262,000 in debt, for example, is worth $453,000, about 1.8 times the median for ages 45 to 54.
Filling in a personal balance sheet
- Home and other real estate - what the property would sell for now, judged from recent sales of similar homes nearby, not the purchase price.
- Vehicles - today's resale value of cars, motorcycles, boats and trailers.
- Cash, checking, savings and CDs - the combined balances.
- Investments - brokerage accounts, funds, bonds and crypto at today's value.
- 401(k), IRA and other retirement accounts - the current balance, before any tax you would owe on withdrawal.
- Other assets - a stake in a business, valuables with a real resale market, money others will repay you.
- Mortgage and home equity debt, car, student and personal loans, credit cards and other debt - the balance still owed on each, from the latest statement.
- Monthly spending and age group - both optional. Spending turns liquid assets into months; the age group adds the comparison with the survey. Then read the main tile, the four ratios, the comparison and the breakdown table.
What counts as net worth
Net worth is a snapshot, not an income. It changes when a market moves, when a loan payment cuts a balance, or when a car loses value, even if your paycheck stays the same. That is why the calculator asks for market values on the asset side and balances still owed on the debt side: a mortgage taken out for $300,000 that is now down to $250,000 counts as $250,000.
Your home belongs in the total. The Federal Reserve's survey counts it too. The catch is that you cannot spend a house without selling it or borrowing against it, so the calculator also shows net worth outside real estate: the total minus the home's value plus the mortgage. For a family whose wealth is mostly home equity, that second number can be a fraction of the first.
Retirement accounts count as well, but they are kept out of liquid assets. The IRS applies a 10% additional tax to certain early distributions from retirement plans, generally those taken before age 59½, and income tax may come on top. Liquid assets here are only cash and investments, the money you could reach in days without that cost.
One more definition matters when you compare yourself with the survey. Its unit is the family, meaning one household: a married couple with joint finances is one family with one net worth. If you share finances, enter both partners' assets and debts and compare the result as a household.
Median and mean net worth by age
The table below is the one the calculator uses for the age comparison. It comes from Table 2 of the Federal Reserve's bulletin on the Survey of Consumer Finances, in the survey's own dollars, by the age of the family's reference person. The median is the middle family; the mean is the plain average.
| Age of the reference person | Median | Mean | Mean / median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 35 | $33,000 | $135,400 | 4.1 |
| 35 to 44 | $155,600 | $681,900 | 4.4 |
| 45 to 54 | $253,700 | $1,244,500 | 4.9 |
| 55 to 64 | $411,900 | $1,878,000 | 4.6 |
| 65 to 74 | $431,300 | $1,897,600 | 4.4 |
| 75 or older | $504,900 | $1,962,200 | 3.9 |
| All families | $215,900 | $1,241,500 | 5.8 |
Percentiles of net worth and the homeowner gap
The second comparison in the result places your figure among all U.S. families, whatever their age. The cut points come from Table A.2 of the same bulletin; the owner and renter medians from Table 2.
| Group | Net worth | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| 25th percentile | $27,900 | a quarter of families have less |
| Median (50th) | $215,900 | half have less, half more |
| 75th percentile | $812,800 | three quarters have less |
| 90th percentile | $2,539,200 | nine in ten have less |
| Median, homeowners | $458,900 | home equity included |
| Median, renters and others | $10,600 | about 43 times less than owners |
What a typical family holds, line by line
The survey also reports each asset separately: how many families hold it at all, and the median value among those who do. Table 3 of the Federal Reserve bulletin gives the figures below. The last column shows the box in this calculator where each line belongs.
| Asset | Families holding it | Median, among holders | Box in the calculator |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checking, savings and other transaction accounts | 98.7% | $8,200 | cash |
| Certificates of deposit | 10.7% | $35,000 | cash |
| Retirement accounts | 54.9% | $106,000 | 401(k), IRA |
| Stocks held directly | 19.0% | $30,000 | investments |
| Pooled investment funds | 11.1% | $200,000 | investments |
| Vehicles | 84.2% | $26,000 | vehicles |
| Primary residence | 65.6% | $375,000 | home |
| Other residential property | 13.8% | $280,000 | home and other real estate |
| Business equity | 15.4% | $75,400 | other assets |
Two lines explain most of the age table above. Only about half of families, 54.9%, have a retirement account at all, and about two in three, 65.6%, own the home they live in. For the families that do hold them, they are also the two largest lines: a median of $106,000 in retirement accounts and $375,000 for the home.
A note on method. The Survey of Consumer Finances runs every three years, and the latest wave interviewed 4,367 families. It is designed to reach very wealthy households as well, which is one reason its mean sits so far above its median. The medians in this calculator come from the latest published wave.
Six households, side by side
| Household | Net worth | Debt / assets | Outside real estate | Against the age median |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 35, renting: $8,000 cash, $5,000 invested, $12,000 in a 401(k), a $15,000 car; $28,000 in car and student loans, $3,000 on cards | $9,000 | 77.5% | $9,000 | $24,000 below $33,000 |
| Under 35, fresh out of graduate school: $4,000 cash, a $9,000 car; $85,000 in loans, $2,500 on cards | -$74,500 | 673.1% | -$74,500 | $107,500 below |
| 35 to 44, a big new mortgage: a $650,000 home, $10,000 cash, $40,000 retirement, a $20,000 car; $410,000 mortgage, $20,000 loans, $6,000 cards | $284,000 | 60.6% | $44,000 | 1.8 times $155,600 |
| 45 to 54: a $420,000 home, $25,000 in vehicles, $30,000 cash, $60,000 invested, $180,000 retirement; $250,000 mortgage, $12,000 loans | $453,000 | 36.6% | $283,000 | 1.8 times $253,700 |
| 55 to 64: a $500,000 home, $30,000 car, $40,000 cash, $150,000 invested, $650,000 retirement; $60,000 left on the mortgage | $1,310,000 | 4.4% | $870,000 | 3.2 times $411,900 |
| 65 to 74, debt-free: a $350,000 home, $50,000 cash, $200,000 invested, $400,000 retirement | $1,000,000 | 0.0% | $650,000 | 2.3 times $431,300 |
The third and fourth rows have the same ratio to their age median, yet the younger family has $44,000 outside its home and 1.6 months of spending in liquid assets at $6,000 a month, while the older one has $283,000 and 13.8 months at $6,500. Same headline, very different cushion.
Patterns in the survey numbers
Reading the four ratios
| Tile | How it is worked out | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Debt-to-asset ratio | total debts / total assets | how much of what you own is financed by others; above 100% the net worth is negative |
| Liquid assets | cash + investments | money you can reach without selling property or paying an early withdrawal tax |
| Net worth outside real estate | net worth - home value + mortgage | wealth that does not depend on the housing market |
| Months of spending | liquid assets / monthly spending, rounded down | how long you could live on savings without income |
The calculator does not grade these ratios, because there is no single official threshold for a household. The comparison with the survey is a description of where other families stand, not a target, and it says nothing about income, location or family size.
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Calculator verified by the LiczGrupa.pl team
Content, formulas and results have been reviewed for accuracy and relevance by our team of specialists.
Reviewed by: Krystian Szyszka