The medians to beat
From the Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances — median household net worth by age:
| Age | Median |
|---|---|
| 18–24 | $10,222 |
| 25–29 | $31,470 |
| 30–34 | $88,631 |
| 35–39 | $138,588 |
| 40–44 | $134,382 |
| 45–49 | $213,586 |
| 50–54 | $266,140 |
| 55–59 | $321,074 |
| 60–64 | $392,860 |
| 65–69 | $393,480 |
| 70–74 | $438,700 |
| 75+ | $332,690* |
Source: Federal Reserve, Survey of Consumer Finances 2022. *75+ blends two published bands.
Three checks that beat any benchmark
- Positive and growing. The single most important property of a net worth number is its direction. A rising number year over year beats a high-but-shrinking one every time.
- Debt shrinking as a share of assets. Watch the debt-to-assets ratio, not just the balances. A $200,000 net worth with debt at 68% of assets is more fragile than the same number at 30%.
- It buys you options. Net worth is stored freedom: the emergency fund that keeps a layoff from becoming debt, the retirement balance that sets the date. If the number is climbing, it is working.
Benchmarks to ignore
Rules of thumb like “1x your salary by 30” are unsourced folklore dressed as math — they ignore debt, housing markets, and when you started earning. The one institutional guideline worth knowing is savings-specific: Fidelity’s well-known retirement guideline aims for roughly 10x salary in retirement savings by 67. That is a retirement-savings target, not a net worth law, and your age median above is the better mirror.