Net worth vs lifetime earnings.

[pb4uski]

No. I took (salary start + salary end)/2 X years employed = total earnings. Definitely back of the envelope. Too lazy to go look up the actual earnings for each year.

I used earnings from our SSA statements.

 

[Sunset]

I can't do it accurately for a few reasons, including I'd have to do currency exchange rates per year.

Can tell net worth > earnings

Last 2 year in Stock market I earned more than any working year salary, as I'm sure many folks did.

 

[fognostic]

It’s apple to orange comparison. NW is in today’s dollar while earnings are in yesterday’s dollar.

Good point.

Lifetime medicare earnings adjusted to current year dollars using the social security wage index are ~45% higher than our net worth. Without adjustment, our net worth is ~15% higher than as-earned dollars.

 

[bada bing]

My nominal networth is really close to my nominal lifetime earnings. If you inflation adjust the earnings for when they happened and were spent, then it's not even close though. I probably (just a guess) have no more than a third of the inflation adjusted value of my lifetime earnings. I made quite a bit of money - and blew it all - at a fairly young age.

 

[bonvoyage]

It’s apple to orange comparison. NW is in today’s dollar while earnings are in yesterday’s dollar.

Absolutely! My starting salary of $65k in the early 1990s its equivalent to about $150k in 2026 dollars. So you would have to apply an inflation calculator separately for each year. Too much work

 

[CautaServans]

Mine are about the same.

 

[MarieIG]

More

 

[kgtest]

Still accumulating. Lifetime earnings is more than our current NW.

I haven't been the poster child for saving, but we did avoid divorce so unlike many of our peers in our mid-40s, we have that going for us.

 

[Lawrencewendall]

NW is about 100k over lifetime earnings. Created spreadsheets years ago that automatically update. Hardest part was find the spreadsheets.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

It’s apple to orange comparison. NW is in today’s dollar while earnings are in yesterday’s dollar.

This.

I started working out of High School in 1984 and my annual income was $12,400 a year. No benefits. I saved 25% of it.

Today I live a similar standard of living, I drink better beer, but thats about all.

I don't keep close track, but in the last three years my investments have grown by more than the taxable earned wages on my SS statement in the previous 40 combined.

I live the same, except for the stress and anxiety of being broke. Same house, same wife, same friends.

 

[marko]

Interesting question, but someone retiring at age 40 will have a very different income profile than someone working and earning until age 65. It's easy for the data to get skewed, IMHO.

So I'm not sure what conclusions one can draw.

 

[Retired Expat]

Curious as to whether your net worth is more or less than your lifetime earnings. Ours (wife and mine) is but not by much.

If you are just counting, wages or income from work…. Then my Net worth is substantially more that earnings from jobs…..

 

[1242Vintage]

For four decades wife and I bought modest homes in need of repair. In our spare time fixed them up as rentals. Lots of roofing, siding, drywall repairs and painting. These were all skills that I learned from Dad. He was a Contractor.

Thanks to the rapid increase in value of single family homes in the Golden State, our portfolio of rentals is valued at approximately 4X my lifetime earnings as an engineer.

Here’s the spooky part. The day we were married the church was in the middle of major renovations. We don’t know this when we booked the date. There’s scaffolding and plastic sheeting in the background of nearly every picture. Guess this was Gods little hint on what the future held for us!

 

[ArmchairMillionaire]

Check out this thread from 6 years ago.

Might be some answers there.

 

[scrabbler1]

My NW is about twice my lifetime wage earnings.

 

[Time2]

Absolutely! My starting salary of $65k in the early 1990s its equivalent to about $150k in 2026 dollars. So you would have to apply an inflation calculator separately for each year. Too much work

Why complicate things? Take Taxed SS Earnings as your lidefime earnings.. Then divide your net worth by that number. Taxed earnings $1,000,000 and net worth $2,000,000, your net worth is 2 times your earnings. If you went over the cap, I can't help.

 

[thod]

Our current net worth is 32% higher than our lifetime earnings.

We retired at the end of 2020, at that time, our net worth was 22% higher. So, in 5 years of retirement, our net worth has continued to grow way beyond our spending.
Of course, the last 5 years have been pretty good, marketwise.

 

[athena53]

Almost exactly equal but I've been retired 11+ years so I'm in drawdown mode.

 

[Midpack]

Our NW is considerably more than our lifetime earnings. Our NW when I retired in 2011 was 65% of lifetime earnings. DW retired 2019. LBYM works.

 

[marinauser]

NW significantly greater than lifetime earnings.

 

[Rocky mtn high]

Way more

 

[old medic]

Curious as to whether your net worth is more or less than your lifetime earnings. Ours (wife and mine) is but not by much.

The more I think about this question, is how you can ever be worth more than you ever earn. I mean if you build a business and or sell it... You earned it. If you saved and invested... gains are still earned... If you flipped houses or got rentals ECT....
Seems the only people who become majorly wealthy on limited income are politicians.....

 

[Flyfish1]

Our lifetime earnings were way more than our net worth. We were spenders, and saved on the side. We also paid the highest level of CA and Federal income tax brackets for many years. There weren't alot left after paying taxes. I just looked at our SS statements, we made 8 figures between the 2 of us.

Yep - that was us as well. Well me actually. Highest tax brackets in a HCOL state with high taxes for many years. I was a diligent saver but we were always pretty big spenders. I would have to go back and look at my taxes to actually figure it out. Taxes take a huge bite out of earnings. Oh well did well enough to retire at 59. But , yes lifetime earnings were definitely more than present net worth.

 

[Tadpole]

About the same; maybe a tad less but close to same.

 

[Andre1969]

Yep. Invested Assets (I don't calculate total NW with home equity, cars, etc), is about double my lifetime earnings. For reference, I've had SS earnings from 1986 to 2025, having retired on 4/30/25.

However, that's raw earnings. For indexed earnings (where they factor in inflation), my invested assets are maybe 33% more than lifetime earnings.