Your 30s are an interesting point in your financial life. You’re no longer a newcomer to the workforce and you’ve probably seen your income grow over the last decade. But you may also be struggling under the weight of a lot of debt that could limit your ability to grow your wealth.
There are plenty of ways to track your wealth over time, like watching your savings account balance. But one of the most popular ways is to measure your net worth. Here’s how to do that and how your net worth compares to other 30-year-olds.
Here’s how much the average adult in their 30s is worth
Net worth is simply a measure of your assets minus your liabilities. Assets include things you own, like a home, a car, retirement savings, bank accounts, and personal property. Liabilities are debts, like mortgages, auto loans, personal loans, and credit card debt. Net worth changes and typically increases over time, though in some cases, it can be negative.
The average net worth for an adult in their 30s is $302,028, according to a recent Empower survey. But this isn’t the best representation of a typical 30-something’s wealth. Averages are easily skewed by a few high earners, which often results in them being much higher than the median — the middle point in a data set.
The median net worth among adults in their 30s is just $35,448, according to the Empower survey. Keep in mind that this is a generalization across an entire decade. The typical net worth for a 30-year-old is probably lower than this, while a 39-year-old might have quite a bit more.
If you’re wondering where your net worth “should” be in your 30s, there isn’t an easy answer. A higher net worth is more desirable, but net worth isn’t like retirement where you aim for a specific target. There are steps you can take to improve yours, though.
How to increase your net worth
There are two key ways to increase your net worth: You can either increase your assets or reduce your liabilities. Here’s a closer look at each.
5 ways to increase your assets
Increasing your assets could look like any of the following:
- Putting more money in savings
- Increasing your retirement account contributions
- Purchasing a home or other assets that will appreciate in value
- Investing in certificates of deposit (CDs)
- Stashing money in a health savings account (HSA)
These actions might not be easy if you don’t have a lot of extra cash each month. So you may first have to take steps like negotiating a raise, finding a better-paying job, or starting a side hustle to gain the cash you need to make the above moves.
3 ways to reduce your liabilities
Reducing your liabilities could involve any of these moves:
- Paying down a mortgage or credit card debt
- Limiting how much you charge to a credit card
- Taking out a personal loan to more efficiently pay off a payday loan or high-interest credit card debt
Again, this is easier when you have spare cash. You may need to explore ways to boost your income or reduce your expenses to pull this off.
If you can do one or both of the above things, you should see your net worth tick upward over time. Tracking this progress, perhaps on a spreadsheet or in a financial app, can give you an idea of how you’re managing your money. Digging into the tips listed above may also help you identify areas where you’d like to change how you’re approaching your finances.