What should my net worth be at 30?

Your net worth should be around $39,000 at 30 years old, as that is the median reported by the Federal Reserve. Your net worth is your overall financial value, calculated by subtracting your liabilities (e.g. credit card debt, mortgages, student loans) from your assets (e.g. savings, investments, real estate).

Typical Net Worth by Age  

Source: Federal Reserve

Key Things to Remember When Comparing Your Net Worth

Comparing your net worth to the median net worth for your age group can help you determine whether you are doing relatively well financially or falling behind your peers. However, it is important to use the median net worth value rather than the average since the median amount can give you a more accurate picture of the typical net worth for your age. The average can be skewed by outliers – people who have a way higher or way lower net worth than most.

In addition, it’s important to remember that your net worth may vary from the norm due to a number of factors, including your income. For example, a rule of thumb is for your net worth to be one times your annual income. So, if your income is $50,000 a year, your net worth should be $50,000 at 30 years old.

Ideally, your net worth will increase as you get older and earn more income. That said, if your net worth is not where you were hoping it to be at 30 years old, there are things you can do to increase it.

How to Increase Your Net Worth

Make a budget to save more.

To increase your net worth, you will need to increase your assets, such as the amount of money you have in your savings. To build up your savings, you need to spend less money overall. To do that you should make a budget that lays out your income and expenses, as well as exactly how you will split up your funds among your bills.

Adjust your spending.

You should identify non-essential areas where you can reduce your spending. The less you can spend on things like dining out, vacations, and streaming services, the more money you will have to build your net worth.

Automate your savings.

Set up recurring transfers from your checking account to your savings every time you get paid. This is called pay-yourself budgeting, and it prioritizes saving money before you get the chance to spend it, so you can grow your net worth over time. Automating your savings also prevents you from having to remember to manually transfer the money every month.

Pay down debt.

To determine your net worth, you have to subtract your debts from your assets. The more debt you have, the lower your net worth will be. You can increase your net worth by coming up with a plan to pay off your debt. WalletHub offers personalized debt payoff plans for free, and these plans can help you find the quickest and cheapest way to become debt-free.

Build an emergency fund.

An emergency fund is money you set aside to cover unexpected expenses. Having this money available may prevent you from going into debt to pay for a major unexpected expense, such as replacing your car’s transmission or getting a new roof after a storm. Financial experts recommend having three to six months’ worth of your living expenses in your emergency fund.

Invest more of your money.

Investing can build your net worth and help you save money for the future. When you invest, you can take advantage of compounding, which lets you supercharge your earnings by accruing dividends or interest on reinvested returns, on top of your principal investment.

Plus, you’ll earn more money over time compared to leaving your money in a savings account. The average rate of return for investing in the S&P 500 is 10%, while the interest rate on a savings account has had a historical average of 0.29%.

Investing does come with risks, so you should diversify your holdings by putting your money in different types of investments, such as real estate and bonds, to reduce risk.

Use a net-worth tracker app.

You can use an app like WalletHub to make it easier to track your net worth. You can sync your financial accounts in order to automatically track your balances on things like bank accounts, investments, credit cards, and loans, allowing you to always see your current net worth. Some apps also have charts and graphs that help you analyze trends in your net worth and see how it has changed over time.

To learn of some app options, check out WalletHub’s picks for the best net-worth tacker apps.