How does your financial life compare to everyone else's?

It depends on the age and the country, and the distance between median and mean is enormous. BLS Current Population Survey data has US median weekly earnings climbing from roughly $40,000 a year at age 20 to 24, to about $65,000 at 35 to 44, peaking near $70,000 at 45 to 54, then easing back towards retirement. Mean figures run 30 to 40 percent higher because high earners drag the average up, which is why a quoted 'average salary' so often feels unreachable. At 30, earning $75,000 puts you above the median for your cohort. By 40, six figures is roughly the top 25 percent. Industry moves the number as much as age does, with tech and finance medians at 35 sitting close to general medians at 50, while education and hospitality medians at 50 sit close to general medians at 25. Our salary age curve calculator gives your exact percentile by age, and the six figure salary tool works out whether $100,000 means what you think it does in your city.

The Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances 2022 puts median household net worth at roughly $192,000 across all ages, a figure that means very little on its own because age dominates it. Under 35 the median is around $39,000, rising to $135,000 at 35 to 44, $247,000 at 45 to 54, $364,000 at 55 to 64, and $410,000 at 65 to 74. Mean net worth runs two to four times higher at every age, since a handful of very rich households distort the average. Wealth is log-normal at best rather than normally distributed, with the top 10 percent holding roughly 70 percent of everything. So a good net worth at 40 might be $250,000 while the average reads $550,000, which is why anyone benchmarking against the mean feels permanently behind. Home equity is the largest single component above age 35, so homeowners and renters on identical incomes sit decades apart on the curve. Our net worth by age calculator shows your percentile against your exact cohort rather than the inflated mean. The net worth statistics roundup gathers the wider finance figures in one place.

Fidelity's widely cited benchmark says 1x your salary by 30, 3x by 40, 6x by 50 and 10x by 67. Reality sits far below that. Federal Reserve SCF data shows median retirement account balances of roughly $18,000 for households under 35, $45,000 at ages 35 to 44, $115,000 at 45 to 54 and $185,000 at 55 to 64, and even at retirement age the median 401(k) and IRA balance for households 65 to 74 is around $200,000. That gap is what Northwestern Mutual keeps picking up when its surveys find a $1 million 'magic number' most people never reach. Both figures earn their keep, with the aspiration setting a target and the median setting the context. Liquid emergency savings tell a harder story again, since roughly 37 percent of US adults cannot cover an unexpected $400 expense from cash, per the Fed's 2023 Economic Well-Being report. Our average savings by age tool shows what people in your bracket actually hold, and the savings calculator projects your own trajectory.

Roughly 18 to 20 percent of individual US workers earn $100,000 or more, depending on the year and the source, rising to about 37 percent at household level because dual incomes are common in that bracket. Pew Research puts 'upper income', meaning more than double the median household income, at about 21 percent of US adults. Geography moves it more than anything else, since $100,000 in Mississippi buys what $135,000 buys in San Francisco while $100,000 in Manhattan feels closer to $50,000, and BLS regional price parities confirm a 30 to 40 percent cost-of-living spread across major metros. Inflation has eaten the symbolism as well, with $100,000 in 2024 dollars carrying roughly the purchasing power of $55,000 in 2000. Our six figure salary tool walks through what $100k actually buys in your city, and the income class calculator applies Pew's definitions to your household composition.

The 30 percent rule says housing costs should not exceed 30 percent of gross income, and by that standard roughly half of American renters are 'cost burdened', with about a quarter 'severely cost burdened' above 50 percent, per the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. That rule was set for federal housing aid in 1981. It has not aged well. In high-cost metros, paying 35 to 40 percent of gross income on rent is now structurally unavoidable for many median-income households. A more useful comparison is your rent burden against people on your income in your city. Our rent burden calculator shows your housing cost percentile by income decile, and cost of living by city normalises your spend against BEA Regional Price Parities so the comparison is like for like.

The average American household carrying credit card debt holds roughly $7,200 in revolving balances, per Federal Reserve and TransUnion data, while the median is closer to $3,000 because a small minority with very large balances pulls the mean up sharply. Absolute balance is the wrong thing to watch. Utilisation above 30 percent of available credit damages your credit score, and with average APRs above 22 percent in 2024 a $5,000 balance carried for two years costs roughly $2,200 in interest alone, more than most household emergency funds hold. Our credit card debt calculator puts your balance against your income bracket, which is the comparison that matters.

Federal Reserve SCF 2022 puts the median household net worth for under-35s at around $39,000, and the spread underneath that is enormous. At the 25th percentile there is under $5,000 in liquid assets; at the 75th, over $135,000. Hitting $100,000 by age 30 puts you in roughly the top 25 percent of your cohort, and $250,000 in the top 10 percent. Student debt bends all of it, with 30 percent of millennials and Gen Z carrying balances that push their net worth negative on paper even on high incomes. Someone at 30 with $80,000 of income, $20,000 in retirement savings, $5,000 in cash and $30,000 of remaining student debt sits at minus $5,000 by accounting and on a perfectly normal trajectory. Our net worth by age calculator handles that and shows your percentile honestly rather than punishing you for carrying productive debt.

Geography matters more than almost anything else here. BLS Occupational Employment Statistics and Census ACS data show median household income running from roughly $50,000 in the lowest-cost metros to over $130,000 in San Jose and San Francisco. A $90,000 salary is comfortably top quartile in Cleveland and merely median in Seattle, and in Manhattan it barely covers a one-bedroom and a 401(k) contribution. Pew Research adjusts its income class definitions for household size and local cost of living, which is how two households on identical incomes land in different classes. Remote work has muddled it further, with high earners relocating out of coastal metros and pushing local housing costs up faster than local wages have risen. Our income by state and city tool applies Census ACS percentiles for your specific metro, and the cost of living by city tool shows what your nominal salary actually buys across markets.