Key Takeaways
- Baby boomers control over half of U.S. household wealth, but much of it is tied up in home equity and retirement accounts.
- The median net worth for baby boomers is significantly lower than the average, highlighting wealth disparities within the generation.
- Rising healthcare costs, inflation, and longer life expectancies can strain retirement savings, reducing available cash for many boomers.
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Baby boomers control more than half of all U.S. household wealth—almost $90 trillion by the end of 2025. That works out to more than $1.6 million per boomer on average. But that masks significant disparities among individuals, with the median closer to $370,000.
Born between 1946 and 1964, boomers entered adulthood during the post–World War II economic expansion. Housing was much more affordable, and many either had a guaranteed, employer-funded pension or started investing to take advantage of decades of stock gains.
Still, even with these advantages, the median figure can be misleading, since much of this generation’s wealth is locked up in the value of their homes and retirement accounts, not cash that can be spent.
What Is Net Worth—and Why It Matters
Net worth is calculated by tallying up the value of all assets, such as cash, money in savings or investment accounts, home equity, and valuables, then subtracting from that number any liabilities, such as credit card balances, loans, mortgages, medical debt, and taxes.
While net worth provides a point-in-time snapshot of an individual’s or household’s overall financial health, it won’t necessarily tell you whether you can retire comfortably or survive a financial shock.
Average Net Worth of Baby Boomers
The Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, last conducted in 2022, is the most reliable source for net worth data of Americans by age. (The Fed’s next installment of the triennial survey is due later this year.)
The Fed breaks net worth down into six age groups: 35 and younger, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, 65-74, and 75 or older. Given that baby boomers currently range in age from 61 to 80, three of these groupings are relevant.
| Age | Average net worth | Median net worth |
| 55-64 | $1.56 million | $364,270 |
| 65-74 | $1.78 million | $410,000 |
| 75+ | $1.62 million | $334,700 |
Averages get pulled up by a small percentage of ultra-wealthy households. The median, meanwhile, is the midpoint, with half falling above that level and half below. The median therefore gives you a better sense of where the typical boomer stands.
Home equity and retirement accounts are behind much of that wealth. The typical 65-to-74-year-old owns a $320,000 home and has $200,000 in retirement savings.
Some boomers, however, are renting and have little saved. Others face high healthcare costs or caregiving responsibilities, or live in regions where home values lag far behind coastal cities. A $350,000 house in San Francisco (average home value: $1.2 million) and a $350,000 house in Dayton, Ohio (average home value: about $131,000) represent very different types of homes.
Why Net Worth Rises as People Age—Then Drops
Net worth typically climbs as people get older, then falls later in life.
Earnings from work tend to rise over the course of a career, while compound interest helps retirement savings grow over decades. Many people also build wealth as they pay down mortgages and benefit from rising home values.
By their 60s, many baby boomers own their homes outright and have accumulated sizable retirement accounts after decades in the workforce. But once retirement begins, many households shift from building wealth to gradually spending it down.
Healthcare costs, inflation, and longer life expectancies can all put pressure on retirement savings over time. Because much of boomer wealth is tied to home equity and investment accounts, high net worth figures do not always translate to large amounts of readily available cash.