Have you ever been curious to see how much money we’ve got and the value of it? We’ve got a great opportunity here in Australia to find out exactly what we’ve got, how much it is and how it’s grown over time. If you’re interested in getting a quick snapshot of what your net worth is, you’ll be fascinated to learn more. Do you want to find out if your net worth by age is on the rise? Or is it on the decline? Read on to find out more.

Net Worth by Age – the basic overview Before we dive into all the numbers, I want to give you a few details about what a net worth by age is. What does it show and what is it for? Net Worth by Age – the basics Let’s start by thinking about net worth by age in terms of someone’s total personal wealth. Personal wealth is everything you have or could have that you own, that you are in charge of, that you can control, that you can spend, save or invest. You also include everything you have on a monthly basis that makes you richer or poorer.

Your personal wealth could include your personal assets (house, car, savings, stock), retirement savings, property, or any other valuable items you own that you can spend or give away. It could also include your income (regular pay checks, rent, tips etc), or you could even have investments of any type. Anything you own is included, whether it’s a small thing or a large thing.

All of your personal wealth is what it is for you. If you want to live a comfortable life, buy a house, car and so on, then you have to be able to save money to make this happen.

Net worth is just the opposite. It’s a summary of how much personal wealth you have. To start the exercise, we calculate a net worth for someone in their early 20s.

If you want a full breakdown of the median net worth of Australians for every age bracket check it out here. Otherwise follow on for a quick summary.

How to improve your net worth

Most people get an “idea” of their net worth and are then “stuck” for the rest of their life… wondering what they need to do to improve it. After the initial shock and sadness, they realize that they are probably “good”, and just need to do some minor adjustments to continue enjoying the “good life”. That’s not always true.

Your net worth can be measured in a number of ways, such as dollars, your debt to equity ratio, your debt to income ratio, your total investments and your net worth. And, in many cases, these measurements are going to tell you very different stories. What’s interesting is that each measurement has it’s own problems, and for some individuals, there is a strong indication that if you were to change one thing, then the result would be the most positive improvement you can imagine. In fact, we would call it the biggest win you can make in your life.

If you would like to improve your net worth, we’ll give you some simple guidelines to follow and the steps to take to get there. This is actually a four step process, and we will tell you more about each of these as we go through the steps, so don’t skip past any of these.

To ensure that you read through every step of this process, we will include a disclaimer to say that if you already feel confident about what you need to do, then you might not need to read any further. However, if you would like some direction, or have a clear view as to how your future will look, then please read on.

Make a financial plan

The first step to improving your net worth is to have a clear financial plan that you can live and follow. The financial plan doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does have to be realistic for your situation, and it does have to fit in with your lifestyle.

For example, if you have three kids and one car, then you don’t need to have three accounts – in fact you will have to get creative and live within your means. The point is to live your life with a plan and be as frugal as possible so that you can get ahead.

However, to live within your means, you will need to be good with your spending and have good money management habits. Even if you have money worries at the moment, when you have a long term financial plan that you can live with, it will give you the confidence to make better and better decisions about how you spend your money, and you will feel more in control of the situation.