Your income only tells part of your financial story. Plenty of people spend most or more than what they make, even at high salaries. For example, around 40% of people in the U.S. who earn over $500,000 still say they live paycheck to paycheck, according to a Goldman Sachs survey.
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If that’s the case, you might find yourself in a tough situation when your income stops in retirement, unless you’ve been able to also sock away a lot of money.
To get a better sense of where you stand against people your age, and whether you can consider yourself wealthy once you stop working, looking at net worth might be a better indicator.
Here, we’ll take a closer look at the minimum net worth you likely need to be considered upper class at age 67, a time when many people are just starting or about to enter retirement.
Upper Class Net Worth at 67
To get a sense of your net worth vs. peers, you can turn to resources like the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). The most recent SCF data is from 2022 but keep an eye out for the 2025 survey that is expected to publish in late 2026.
From the 2022 survey, the data show that the 65- to 74-year-old age range had a median net worth of $410,000. Harness Wealth then conducted its own analysis of this SCF data and determined that those in the top 10% in this age group have an average net worth of $2,997,300.
To narrow down what that looks like at age 67, we can look at how net worth changes with age. Typically, net worth drops a bit later in life, as you can generally expect less income during retirement, while drawing down more of your savings and investments.
If we consider upper class to be the top 10% of people, the Harness Wealth data shows that for 75- to 99-year-olds in the top 10%, the average net worth is $2,681,400.
The math gets a little tricky, but let’s assume that these net worths refer to the midpoints of these age ranges. So, at age 70 a top 10% net worth would be $2,997,300, and that drops by $315,900 to reach $2,681,400 at age 87.
On a simplified, linear basis, this means net worth for the upper class drops around 0.6% each year in retirement. So, if we assume that this trend held from age 67 to 70, we could estimate that net worth was 1.8% higher at 67 than at 70.
That means at age 67, those in the top 10% have a net worth in the ballpark of $3.05 million.
Granted, the math might not be so linear in reality. And a lot depends on your personal situation, like the age you stop working.
Still, this can give you a general idea of what it means to be upper class at age 67.
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Reaching the Upper Class
While $3 million or so might sound like a fortune, it could be more attainable than you’d assume, especially if you’re able to start early.
If you put $500 per month into a retirement account at age 22, all the way through age 67, assuming a 10% average annual return, your nest egg would grow to over $4.3 million. Inflation might eat some of that, but your contributions could also bump up as your salary increases.
If you started at age 32, you’d have to put away $1,000 per month at the same return assumption to get to almost $3.3 million — a substantial amount, but about $1 million less than if you started a decade earlier while putting aside less.
While you can’t go back in time, the point is that the sooner you start investing for the future, the easier it will be to reach substantial sums. You don’t need to be in the upper class to feel satisfied in retirement, but you can potentially make life a lot more comfortable for yourself if you plan ahead and invest for your future.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Here’s the Minimum Net Worth Considered To Be Upper Class at 67
