Average Net Worth for Baby Boomers: How Wealth Differs Across This Generation

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Baby boomers hold more than half of all U.S. household wealth, close to $90 trillion by the end of 2025 according to the Federal Reserve’s Distributional Financial Accounts. Spread across boomer households, that is more than $1.6 million on average. The typical boomer has far less. The median, which is the household in the exact middle, is closer to $370,000. Much of the headline wealth sits in a relatively small share of very rich households. For the typical household, it is concentrated in two assets that are hard to spend directly: the home and retirement accounts.

What net worth measures

Net worth is everything a household owns minus everything it owes. Assets include cash, savings and checking balances, brokerage and retirement accounts, the market value of a home and other real estate, vehicles and valuables. Liabilities include mortgages, home equity loans, car loans, credit card balances, medical debt and taxes owed.

Net worth = total assets − total liabilities

Hypothetical example: a retired couple owns a house worth $350,000 with $50,000 left on the mortgage, has $180,000 in IRAs and $20,000 in savings, and owes $5,000 on a credit card. Their assets total $550,000 and their liabilities total $55,000, so their net worth is $495,000.

The figure is a snapshot of one moment. It does not tell you whether that couple can cover 25 years of retirement or absorb a large medical bill. In this example, $300,000 of the $495,000 is home equity, which they can only spend by selling, downsizing or borrowing against the house.

Average and median net worth of baby boomers

The Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) is the most reliable source for U.S. net worth by age. It runs every three years, and the most recent completed survey covers 2022. It reports results for six age groups of the household head: under 35, 35 to 44, 45 to 54, 55 to 64, 65 to 74, and 75 or older. Each band reflects households of that age in 2022, not the same people tracked over time.

Boomers are now roughly 61 to 80 years old, so three of those groups are relevant. Use the band you fall into today:

Source: Federal Reserve, Survey of Consumer Finances, 2022.

Two details affect how you read this table.

The age bands are not the same as the generation. In 2022, boomers were about 58 to 76. The 55 to 64 group therefore includes some of the oldest Gen X households, and the 75 and older group includes members of the Silent Generation. The generation-wide $90 trillion total comes from a different Fed dataset, the Distributional Financial Accounts, which groups households by generation.

The figures are per household, not per person. A married couple counts as one household with one net worth. A single retiree and a couple with the same combined wealth appear identical in the data, even though the couple’s money has to support two people.

Why the average net worth for baby boomers is misleading

An average adds up every household’s net worth and divides by the number of households. A few extremely wealthy households can raise that figure far above what most people have. The median ignores how large the top values are. It is simply the point where half of households fall above and half below.

Hypothetical example: five retired households have net worths of $50,000, $200,000, $400,000, $600,000 and $8 million. The median is $400,000. The average is $1.85 million, higher than what four of the five households hold. Remove the $8 million household and the average drops to $312,500, while the median moves only to $300,000.

The same thing happens in the SCF data. For 65- to 74-year-olds, the average of $1.78 million is more than four times the median of $410,000, a sign of how concentrated wealth is at the top of this generation.

To compare yourself with your peers, use the median for your age band. A 65- to 74-year-old household with more than $410,000 is above the 2022 midpoint for that group. Matching the $1.78 million average would place it well up the distribution. The average answers a different question: how much total wealth the age group holds, divided evenly.

What boomer wealth is made of

For the typical household, home equity and retirement accounts make up most of the wealth. The typical 65- to 74-year-old household owns a home worth about $320,000 and holds about $200,000 in retirement savings. Together, those two items exceed the group’s $410,000 median net worth once mortgages and other debts are subtracted, leaving little outside the house and the retirement plan.

This affects how the wealth can be used:

• Home equity produces no income unless the owner sells, rents out property, takes a home equity loan or line of credit, or uses a reverse mortgage. Selling a home also means paying for somewhere else to live.
• Retirement accounts are spendable, but withdrawals from traditional 401(k)s and IRAs are usually taxed as ordinary income. That makes a $200,000 traditional IRA worth less in spending money than $200,000 in a savings account.
• Pensions and Social Security support many retirees but are not counted as assets in a standard net worth figure. A retiree with a modest net worth and a guaranteed employer pension may be more secure than one with a larger net worth and no pension.

Why boomers built more wealth than the averages suggest is typical

Boomers came of age during the economic expansion after World War II. Several conditions helped many of them build wealth:

1. More affordable housing. Homes cost less relative to income when many boomers bought, and decades of price gains raised the value of the houses they kept.
2. Employer pensions. Many boomers worked for employers that offered defined-benefit pensions funded by the company.
3. Long stretches of stock market growth. Boomers who invested over several decades benefited from long periods of rising equity prices, which compound returns amplified.
4. Time. Wealth accumulates with age, and boomers are now at the stage where it peaks.

Why wealth differs so much within the generation

The same generation includes households with several million dollars and households with almost nothing. Common reasons for the gap include:

• Homeownership versus renting. A boomer who has rented for life has no home equity, the single largest asset for the typical household.
• Retirement savings. Some boomers saved for decades, others had little or no access to workplace plans, and some withdrew savings early during job losses or emergencies.
• Healthcare and caregiving. High medical costs or years spent caring for a spouse or parent can drain savings and cut working years short.
• Where they live. Home values differ widely by region. Typical home prices in San Francisco are many times those in Dayton, Ohio, so a $350,000 home is near the bottom of one market and well above the typical home in the other.

Why net worth rises with age, then drops

Net worth usually climbs through a working life and then declines. Several forces push it upward during working years:

• Earnings tend to increase over a career, leaving more room to save.
• Investments compound over decades.
• Mortgage payments reduce debt while home values typically rise, building equity from both directions.

By their 60s, many boomers have paid off their homes and built up sizable retirement balances. The SCF table reflects that peak: both the average and the median are highest for the 65 to 74 group.

After retirement, many households shift from building wealth to spending it. Paychecks stop, and savings must cover living costs. Three pressures speed up the decline:

• Healthcare costs, which tend to rise with age and can include long-term care that Medicare generally does not cover.
• Inflation, which reduces what a fixed sum or fixed income buys each year.
• Longer life expectancies, which stretch the same savings over more years.

The 75 and older figures show the decline: the median falls to $334,700, below both younger bands. Part of that gap also reflects generational differences. Many households in that band in 2022 belonged to an older generation with a different economic history, so the drop is not purely the result of spending down.

How much money boomers retire with

As an illustration, a 65- to 74-year-old household with the typical $200,000 in retirement accounts that withdrew 4% in its first year of retirement would take $8,000. That is a rule-of-thumb assumption, not a guaranteed safe rate. Social Security and any pension would need to cover most other expenses.

This is why a high generational total can sit alongside widespread financial strain. The $90 trillion figure is real, but it is concentrated at the top and, for the middle, tied up in assets that do not pay the monthly bills.

The Bottom Line

Boomer households comparing themselves with peers should use the median for their age band, since a small number of very rich households pull the averages far higher. For the typical household, most wealth sits in a home and retirement accounts, so net worth alone overstates spending power. Retirees need to plan income around taxed withdrawals, home equity that is hard to tap, and Social Security or a pension.