How rich are you compared to other people your age?

Ideally, you will become richer over the course of your life. This means you will increase your net worth, which is a calculation that shows how much you actually have. You can find out your net worth by subtracting the value of your liabilities from the value of your assets.

For most people, increasing your net worth takes time—unless, of course, you’re lucky enough to be born with millions in the bank. Because younger people tend to have lower checking account balances than their older counterparts, it’s hard to tell whether you’re on track for financial success by looking at the average person’s net worth.

But it can be helpful to compare your net worth to that of others your age. That way, you can see whether you’re behind or ahead of your peers, or whether you’re well on your way to building up a healthy cash reserve that will provide you with security in the future.

This is how much others your age are worth

The table below shows the average and median net worth by age, according to the Federal Reserve.

Data Source: federalreserve.gov

The numbers are clear: the older you get, the more your wealth should grow — until you reach retirement age and start spending everything you’ve saved.

It is important to understand this because you should not get discouraged if your money is not growing as fast as you expected.

Be patient but focused as you grow your net worth

The truth is that when it comes to net worth, you probably started out with $0 or, worse yet, had credit card debt or other debt when you started your adult life. But that’s normal, and it’s why so many younger people have lower net worths than older Americans.

Still, while it may be common to not have much at first, it’s worth starting to work on changing that. Getting serious about paying off debt and starting to acquire assets by opening a brokerage account and investing can help. Once you’re in the financial position to do so (and are interested in owning a home), buying a home can also help you start growing your wealth, since each payment will build equity.

If your net worth is rising and catching up with others in your demographic, you’re ideally on track to financial security. But if it’s lower than it was at a similar age, you may want to take a closer look at why that’s happening — and what you can do to improve it.

Here’s How to Increase Your Net Worth

Changing your priorities to spend less on non-value-added assets and more on those that do can help. For example, you may currently be spending a lot of money on an expensive car. With the value of vehicles declining every day, you may want to opt for a cheaper used car next time so you can put more money into savings.

You could also consider canceling unused memberships and subscriptions and redirecting the money to savings, or reducing your eating out budget to send more money to your investment accounts. The right move for you will depend on where your money is going now, as taking a look at your splurges could help you find additional funds to buy stocks or other assets that will grow.

It will definitely take some time to start accumulating real wealth — and if you’re behind your peers, it may take a little extra effort. But if you’re serious about building financial security, you should be able to improve your results over time.

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