Let's not sugar coat it - we're all a bit voyeuristic when it comes to other people's money. How much do you think they make? How much do you think they have? How did they afford that car? Can you believe that so and so is buying a house? So let's focus on one metric - net worth. And let's talk about millennials - which is likely you, and is me too. Why millennials? Well, the media seems to portray millennials as broke, unable to pay their student loans, and never able to buy a house. Millennials are supposedly delaying marriage and all sorts of stuff because they are poor and burdened by debt. I don't think that's the case. With anything financially related, there is never an easy answer. But I think there are just as many millennials crushing it financially. I know first hand that some millennials are already millionaires. Maybe the trouble is how we define millennials? Maybe there's a bigger picture here we need to consider. Maybe we just need to ignore the mainstream media when it comes to wealth. Let's break it down and then look at the average net worth for millennials. To keep is easy, the average millennial net worth is $10,400. But that is really skewed given the age ranges. See our charts below. Note: I originally wrote this article in 2016, and there was no data available to figure out millennial net worth. Over the last few years, several surveys have polled millennials, with the most recent one being Deloitte. In their survey, they found millennials have an average net worth of $8,000 - just shy of our estimate of $10,000. Regardless of $8,000 or $10,000, I strongly urge you to think about the high achiever net worth - trust me, I know plenty of millennials who are way above average and it's possible.

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Who Are Millennials? Millennials are technically anyone born between 1982 and 2002 (always subject to change - with more people calling those born after 2000 Xennials). Basically, these people are roughly 18 to 38 today. That's roughly 81 million Americans. We more fully break down the millennial age range here. What makes them unique as a generation? Well, millennials likely were little kids in a time before computers and cell phones were everywhere. They likely remember getting their first computer and cell phone, and it was a big deal. The likely encountered technology for the first time at school - playing Oregon Trail on a green computer screen. When it comes to money, millennials do have some of the highest student loan debt rates of any generation in history. The average millennial has $30,000 in student loans. See this article on the average student loan debt by graduate class/year. Depending on when the millennial graduated college, they could have entered a terrible or awesome job market. Remember, some millennials graduated from college before the financial crisis of 2007, some during it, and some after it. When you graduated from college played a huge role in your earnings right out of school.

Millennials are also all dealing with life events at different times as well - from buying a house to getting married, some did it before the recession and some after. As a result, even some older millennials can still be behind. Plus, older millennials who may have started the recovery just got hit with a pandemic, which has resulted in the largest number of unemployed Americans since the Great Depression. So, it's really a mixed bag when it comes to millennials. They're hard to define financially. But one thing's for sure - they're not dumb when it comes to their money. They are combining technology and money like never before (mobile banking, financial apps, etc), and they want their money to work for them. However, the traditional banking and finance sector hasn't caught up, and millennials really don't like engaging with traditional brick and mortar finance. As such, there is a divide here. When looking at net worth for millennials, these are all factors to consider.

Factors To Consider About Millennial Net Worth When I think of the main factors that fall into millennial net worth, here's what we need to consider. First, we need to consider when millennials graduated. If millennials are roughly 18 to 38 today, some haven't even graduated college yet. However, if you're 38 today, you likely graduated from college 17 years ago - or 2003. That was before the last financial crisis. Second, we need to look at the average salaries of graduates by year. NACE has a great survey that they conduct to look at the average salary of college graduates each year. Here's how that looks:

Age Starting Salary 38 (Class of 2003) $40,818 37 (Class of 2004) $43,124 36 (Class of 2005) $41,376 35 (Class of 2006) $42,881 34 (Class of 2007) $43,094 33 (Class of 2008) $42,414 32 (Class of 2009) $41,546 31 (Class of 2010) $40,766 30 (Class of 2011) $41,701 29 (Class of 2012) $44,259 28 (Class of 2013) $45,327 27 (Class of 2014) $48,127 26 (Class of 2015) $50,561 25 (Class of 2016) $52,569 24 (Class of 2017) $51,022 23 (Class of 2018) $50,994 22 (Class of 2019) $50,004

Third, we need to discuss student loans. Student loans are a huge factor in millennial net worth, so we want to consider the average amount of student loan debt millennials had when the graduated (data here). Just look at the chart below - just within the "millennial generation", student loan debt has doubled, on average. For current students, I estimated how much student loan debt they'd have currently - with next years graduates on track to set records again.

Age Average Student Loan Debt 38 (Class of 2003) $18,271 37 (Class of 2004) $18,608 36 (Class of 2005) $19,669 35 (Class of 2006) $20,790 34 (Class of 2007) $21,975 33 (Class of 2008) $23,228 32 (Class of 2009) $24,664 31 (Class of 2010) $26,125 30 (Class of 2011) $27,707 29 (Class of 2012) $29,384 28 (Class of 2013) $29,455 27 (Class of 2014) $29,526 26 (Class of 2015) $29,597 25 (Class of 2016) $29,669 24 (Class of 2017) $29,740 23 (Class of 2018) $29,812 22 (Class of 2019) $29,900

Finally, we do have to make some assumptions about saving. Remember, net worth is all about assets minus debt. But income plays a huge role and how much income is saved and how much debt is payed off really makes a difference. For the "average" millennial, I'm going to look at average savings rates for the calculation. For the above average millennial, we're going to factor in IRA and 401k savings, as well as home equity.

Year Average Annual Savings Rate 2003 4.8% 2004 4.6% 2005 2.6% 2006 3.3% 2007 3.0% 2008 4.9% 2009 6.1% 2010 5.6% 2011 6.0% 2012 7.6% 2013 4.8% 2014 4.8% 2015 5.1% 2016 6.4% 2017 7.0% 2018 7.6% 2019 8.1%

The Net Worth of Millennials By Age As we compare the net worth of millennials by age, I want to look at average and stretch goals. I think it's important to always consider the average, but I also want to leave you with a stretch goal to get yourself in the top 1%. Remember, net worth is assets minus liabilities. As we discussed earlier, the main assets we're focusing on is savings, based on income. The main liability is student loan debt. Also, you have to remember that we've seen exceptional growth over the last few years due to a growing economy and bull market. These have helped compound growth at faster levels than can likely be expected in the future. Finally, I want to re-emphasize that these are just my estimates. The Federal Reserve data lumps everyone under 35 into one bucket, so while we have some starting points, things can always skew one way or another. However, I think it's a great starting point for discussion, so let's jump into it. Average Millennial Net Worth By Age

Age Average Net Worth 38 (Class of 2003) $33,173 37 (Class of 2004) $25,152 36 (Class of 2005) $20,612 35 (Class of 2006) $16,132 34 (Class of 2007) $11,494 33 (Class of 2008) $6,690 32 (Class of 2009) $4,159 31 (Class of 2010) $2,093 30 (Class of 2011) -$1,989 29 (Class of 2012) -$6,043 28 (Class of 2013) -$10,168 27 (Class of 2014) -$14,447 26 (Class of 2015) -$18,988 25 (Class of 2016) -$23,704 24 (Class of 2017) -$28,706 23 (Class of 2018) -$33,984 22 (Class of 2019) -$38,915

I tried to make these estimates line up with the real data as best as possible, but most real data points exclude negative net worth for millennials buried in student loan debt. For reference, the median of millennial net worth is $10,400. The true geometric average of millennial net worth is actually $75,500 - but that number is heavily skewed by outliers like Mark Zuckerberg. So, what that means is, if you want to be "better" than average, the 50% mark is $10,500 overall. Here you can see my best estimate of the 50% mark by age. Notes: This assumes that students don't work or work marginally during school, maintain an average amount of student loan debt, and get average employment after graduation. It's why you see the net worth jump a lot right after graduation - income! Also, the older millennials have benefited from a bull economy, seeing their small nest egg growing more over the last few years. High Achiever Millennial Net Worth By Age Now that you've seen what average is, what does it take to be above average? Well, anything better than the chart above is above-average. But I want to give you a stretch goal. I call this the high achiever millennial net worth by age. How do you get here? A few key areas: Eliminate Your Student Loan Debt (Read: How To Eliminate Your Student Loan Debt)

Boost Your Income by 25% (Read: How ﻿T﻿o Boost Your Income)

Save at least 25% of your income - can be through both personal savings or through employer matches (don't think 25% is possible? Here's an example of saving 75% of your monthly income)

Age High Achiever Net Worth 38 (Class of 2003) $435,405 37 (Class of 2004) $415,341 36 (Class of 2005) $373,844 35 (Class of 2006) $341,174 34 (Class of 2007) $329,624 33 (Class of 2008) $308,441 32 (Class of 2009) $287,593 31 (Class of 2010) $267,169 30 (Class of 2011) $231,957 29 (Class of 2012) $215,082 28 (Class of 2013) $193,302 27 (Class of 2014) $166,425 26 (Class of 2015) $142,767 25 (Class of 2016) $104,765 24 (Class of 2017) $72,706 23 (Class of 2018) $41,518 22 (Class of 2019) $28,915

What are some of your thoughts on this? Do you think an 2 year old can have $28,915 saved up and graduate college debt free? I think it's definitely possible - especially the high achievers that started working at 16 (or earlier) and saved a bunch. I think that these high achiever net worth amounts are very do-able. They are a stretch, but not unheard of. And these amounts will clearly make you above average. Notes: There's a huge jump around the 30 year old range, and that's all due to the Great Recession. The compounding just didn't kick in and there wasn't a big nest egg to start going into it.

Millennial Net Worth FAQ Here are some common questions when it comes to millennial net worth.

What is the average net worth of millennials? The average net worth of millennials is $10,400. However, this varies quite a bit across the millennial age range. What is the millennial age range? Millennials were born between 1982 and 2002, making them roughly 18 to 38 today. What is the average millennial starting salary? Millennial starting salaries vary quite a bit by graduation year. Starting salaries have ranged from $40,818 to $52,569. What is the average millennial student loan debt? Millennials have graduated with anywhere $18,217 to $29,000 in student loan debt on average, depending on the year they graduated. Are millennials doing well? There is a big divergence in millennial success. Many millennials are doing extremely well, but others are struggling. There are plenty of millionaire millennials, but there are also many millennials in poverty.