Where are you in the rat race? Australian household Net Worth by Age

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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Net Worth APR 2026

Chart updated to end of APR in sidebar.

The US stock market has continued to appreciate despite the ongoing Iran war (possibly due purely to an AI bubble reminiscent of the dot.com bubble of 2000), while the Australian and other international markets continue to show weakness. Probably indicative of an impending global recession and inflationary pressures due to oil price likely to remain above $100/barrel for the rest of the year.

My stocks/cash increased $24,669 (+5.26%) to $493,946. This was largely due to a cash gift I received in April that I added to my mortgage offset account.

Retirement savings (SMSF etc.) increased by +$67,801 (+3.03%) to $2,308,743. This didn't quite fully reverse the substantial drop experienced in March. No contributions made this month. Having started my new job this week, some SGL contributions will recommence soon.

The real estate holdings were a mixed bag. The estimated value of our home remained unchanged at $1,295,556 (my half) for yet another month, While my 'other real estate' (investment apartment and holiday home) increased by +$6,632 (+0.30%) to $2,194,239.

Other assets (my online depository bullion account at Perth Mint, and the bullion value of my gold and silver proof coin collection) decreased by -$4,588 (-5.10%) to $85,447. I am currently still adding $200 worth of gold to my Perth Mint online depository account each month. In theory a price dip is good while using DCA to accumulate an asset over time. Every cloud has a silver (or gold) lining I suppose.

Overall, NW increased by +$94,514 (+1.79%) to $5,385,940 during April. NW needs to increase by about 0.2% per month on average to keep pace with inflation (I.e. maintain real value), so the increase during April was about +1.6% in real value. Excluding the gift I received, the April 'bounce back' recouped about half of the decrease experienced in March.

The acute impact of the Iran war seems to have mitigated, but I expect the impact on the global economic growth and inflation will be negative during the remainder of 2026.

We just had to spend around $5,000 to have one of our home's property fences replaced, so this will impact my NW figure at the end of May. I will receive my SMSF pension payment in June, but as that will effectively just be a transfer of funds from my SMSF account into my mortgage offset account it will not impact my overall NW.

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Starting a new job next week

After two rounds of interviews I was offered a position as an Ongoing Advice officer with a small, self-licensed financial planning company that has an office in the Sydney CBD. It will be fun to actually get to use my Master of Financial Planning to help people achieve their financial goals. Unlike when I was a self-employed financial advisor (which was costing me around $13K pa in ASIC and ATO levies, and the fees to remain an 'authorized representative' of an AFSL), this role will provide me with a modest regular income, rather than just being an expensive hobby.

As my living expenses are more than covered by my QSuper lifetime pension and the mandatory minimum annual pension payment from my SMSF pension phase account, I'll be transferring the salary from this job into my mortgage offset account to help pay off my investment apartment mortgage faster. It will be good to have some taxable income, as otherwise the negatively geared investment property makes little sense.

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Decided to buy some SpaceX exposure for fun

DW was chatting about the possible SpaceX IPO, having just seen a youTube video about it. I commented that IPOs are generally overpriced and have often not a great investment historically, but that although SpaceX isn't yet listed, you can get some exposure via some listed investment companies that gained exposure to the private SpaceX shares issued during various rounds of capital raising, and traded off market. One of these is the ER Shares Private-Public Crossover ETF (XOVR) that currently has around 40% of its NAV tied up in exposure to SpaceX private share capital. How it got that level of weighting to SpaceX is itself quite interesting (it initially had around 5%-10% of capital invested in that, but over time it had to liquidate listed investments to cover capital outflows, so the proportion of its capital tied up in the illiquid SpaceX holding increased over time. From my POV that was actually a good thing, as I am interested in getting some exposure to SpaceX, not other listed stocks.

Anyhow, the price for XOVR has fluctuated between $14.79-$21.78 over the past 52 weeks, so the latest closing price of $17.03 seems reasonable. I placed a limit order at $17.00 for 100 XOVR units with my IBKR account, Hopefully it will get filled when the market opens. The current NAV for XOVR is apparently around $16.98, so the current market price seems reasonable too. Investing $1,700 in XOVR would make a significant impact on my NW whether it crashes to zero or becomes a '10-bagger', but it is fun to have a little bit of indirect ownership in SpaceX.

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