Glossary · Investing and personal finance
Net worth
Net worth is everything you own minus everything you owe: your assets (savings, investments, home) minus your debts (mortgage, loans, cards).
Also called: household wealth, personal net worth, wealth
In 2022: half of households had more, half less (Federal Reserve).
US households, 2022.
Net worth, Q2 2026.
In plain words
List everything you own that has a price: money in the bank, investments, retirement accounts, your car, your share of a house. Then list everything you owe: student loans, credit cards, the mortgage. Subtract the second list from the first. The result is your net worth.
It can be negative, and it often is for young people with student loans and few savings. It is a better single measure of financial health than income: a high earner who spends everything and borrows more can be worth less than a teacher who saves steadily.
Wealth is spread very unevenly. In the US the top 1% of households held 32% of all household net worth in Q2 2026; the bottom half held 2.3%.
Example
Adding it up
- Assets: home $300,000 + retirement account $50,000 + savings $20,000 + car $15,000 = $385,000.
- Debts: mortgage $220,000 + car loan $10,000 + credit card $3,000 = $233,000.
- Net worth: $385,000 − $233,000 = $152,000.
Paying $1,000 off the mortgage does not change net worth that day (cash down, debt down by the same amount); saving, earning and rising asset prices do.
One level deeper
Averages mislead here. Total US household net worth was about $186T in Q2 2026, or $1,373,175 per household on average. A few very rich households pull the average far up: the median household, the one in the middle, had about $241K in 2022.
Net worth follows a life cycle: low or negative early, rising through the working years as debts are paid off and savings grow, peaking around retirement, then slowly spent. In the Fed’s data, households headed by someone aged 55 to 69 had an average of $2,177,204, 6.72 times the average of those under 40.
The statistics count homes, investments and retirement accounts at market value, so a stock market boom raises measured net worth quickly and a crash cuts it. For most households the biggest pieces are their home and retirement savings; the richest hold mostly company shares and businesses.
Average net worth of US households by age
Average net worth by the age of the head of the household. The richest families pull every average up, so the typical household in each group has much less, but the climb with age is the life cycle of saving.
The numbers behind the chart
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Under 40 | $324K |
| 40 to 54 | $1.05M |
| 55 to 69 | $2.18M |
| 70 and older | $2.11M |
Why it matters
It measures what income cannot: how much security a household has if the paychecks stop.
Tracked once a year, it shows whether you are actually getting ahead, combining saving, paying down debt and investment growth in one number.
How it is shared out is at the center of debates about inequality, taxes and retirement security.
A common mistake
Myth: A big house and a new car mean a high net worth.
In fact: Only the part you own outright counts. A $600,000 house with a $550,000 mortgage adds $50,000, and a car bought with a loan can add nothing or less, because cars lose value faster than car loans are paid down.
Questions people ask
What is the average net worth by age?
In the Fed’s data for Q2 2026, households under 40 had an average of $323,822, and those aged 55 to 69 an average of $2,177,204. These averages are pulled up by the very rich; typical households have much less.
Does net worth include your home?
Yes: its market value counts as an asset and the mortgage as a debt. Some people also track their net worth without the home, because a house is hard to spend.
What net worth puts you in the top 1%?
In the Fed’s data, about $11M in 2022. The top 1% of US households held 32% of all household wealth in Q2 2026.
Read more on BigCapital
About the numbers
- The numbers on this page are recalculated from the data every night; the sources are listed at the end of the page.
- US households by age of the head: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Distributional Financial Accounts of the United States (DFA), levels by age.
- US households by wealth percentile: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Distributional Financial Accounts of the United States (DFA), levels by wealth.
- The Distributional Financial Accounts combine the Fed’s quarterly Financial Accounts with its triennial Survey of Consumer Finances; the thresholds (median, top 1%) are published only for survey years.
- This page explains a term. It is not investment advice.