I found an interesting estimation of Australian household median and average net worth (total assets - total liabilities) broken down by age group on a webpage by wealthvieu. It made the estimates using the ABS survey of Income and Housing for 2019-20, and then adjusting for current (2025-26) property valuations. It also have estimated household net worth for the 25th, 50th (median), 75th, 90th and 99th percentile of the overall Australian adult population. I then calculated the ratio of these percentiles relative to the median and applied it to the median for each age group, so I could plot a rough estimate of the Household NW percentile values plotted against age.
I added DW's super balance and share of our home valuation to my NW figure to get an estimate of our household net worth for comparison. It looks like we would fall somewhere around the 97th-98th percentile for our age group.
As expected, household net worth starts off close to zero at age 20, then rises during working life until it peaks just before retirement, and is then 'decumulated' during retirement. But as studies have shown, most retirees do not 'die with zero' but instead leave an estate (either by intent, or by underspending during retirement).
It is interesting to see how the NW gap narrows as you proceed from the 25th, to 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles -- but then the 99th percentile is considerably further above the 90th percentile than you would expect if the progression up to the 90th percentile had continued to follow the same trend. It seems that the top 1%-5% of the population is considerably more skilled than most at wealth accumulation. I suppose this is true of most areas of human endeavor -- a small percentage of participants in any activity are exceptional good at it, and stand 'head and shoulders' above even the top 10%.
It is also interesting (to me) that the peak of the 99th percentile is 'only' a realistically achievable $10MM or so. Some of those in the 'top 1%' achieve truly stratospheric net worth of $100MM, $1B etc. Usually based on the creation of one insanely successful (and lucrative) business venture...
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