How Much Do Americans Have in the Bank? Median Balances by Age, Family Type, and Education

Key Takeaways

• The median U.S. household cash balance fell 6% from 2022 to 2025, after adjusting for inflation.

• Cash balances generally rise with age, with households headed by someone 75 or older holding the most.

• Couples have considerably more cash than singles, while college graduates hold far more than those with less education.

American households overall have never been richer on paper, yet the typical family’s bank balance is shrinking.

According to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), released earlier this month, the median net worth of U.S. households edged up 2% from 2022 to 2025, to more than $215,000. Yet the median family with a checking, savings, or similar account had a combined balance of about $8,200 in 2025. That’s 6% less than the $8,755 median balance they had three years earlier, after adjusting for inflation.

Nearly every family, 99%, has at least one cash account. The Federal Reserve counts checking, savings, money market, and brokerage cash accounts, along with prepaid debit cards, as one category. Certificates of deposit and retirement accounts fall into other categories.

There’s a wide spread, though, among different types of account holders, depending on how old you are and who’s in your household.

Bank Balances by Age

Cash balances climb with age, with a plateau in the middle. Families headed by someone under 35 had a median balance of $5,000 in 2025, rising to $10,000 for those ages 55 to 74. Families headed by someone 75 or older had the most, at $14,000.

The oldest households were also among the few to grow their balances since 2022. Their median balance rose 28% after adjusting for inflation, while younger households generally lost ground. Families headed by someone ages 65 to 74 saw the biggest decline, with their median balance falling by nearly a third.

The average balance comes in four to seven times higher than the medians in every age group: $20,500 for the under-35s and $97,100 for those 75 and older. Unlike the median, which represents the midpoint value, averages are driven much higher by a small number of very large balances.

Cash Held by Household Type

Not surprisingly, couples have more cash on hand than singles, whether or not they have children, according to Investopedia’s analysis of SCF data. Couples without kids at home had a median balance of $16,600 in 2025, while couples with kids had $12,100.

Single parents had the least, with a median balance of $1,900. Other single adults held somewhat more, but even those 55 and older had barely a quarter of the cash held by couples without children at home.

Every household type lost ground since 2022 in real terms, but the balances for single adults fell the most: 28% for single parents and 27% for younger singles, versus 5% for couples without children.

Bank Balances by Education Level

Cash balances vary even more by education level than by age or household type. Families headed by a college graduate had a median balance of $21,500 in the bank in 2025, more than five times the $4,000 families headed by a high school graduate had on hand.

Families headed by someone with some college education but no degree had only slightly more cash than those headed by high school graduates. At the bottom of the scale, families headed by someone without a high school diploma held a median balance of just $900.

The changes since 2022 tell a different story. While families headed by college graduates still had by far the most cash, their median balance fell 16% after adjusting for inflation. Meanwhile, families headed by high school graduates were the only education group to see their median balance rise, gaining 21%.

How To Grow the Cash You Have

Whatever your bank balance, cash sitting in a basic checking account likely earns nothing. Fortunately, there are easy ways to put at least some of that money to work.

The easiest and most flexible option is to move some of your cash to a high-yield savings account. Many are offered by online banks, though traditional banks have them, too. You can typically transfer money electronically between your checking and high-yield savings accounts, often within one business day, though some transfers take up to three days. Just be sure to keep enough in your checking account to cover any upcoming payments or withdrawals.

If you think it’s not worth the hassle, the math may make you change your mind. Moving $5,000 to a high-yield savings account paying 4% APY could earn you about $200 in interest over a year, while $10,000 could earn $400. That’s not life-changing money, but it’s extra cash for relatively little effort.

But don’t assume the savings account at your primary bank pays a competitive rate. Big banks like Chase and Bank of America pay a near-zero 0.01% APY on standard savings accounts. And even if your bank pays 1% or 2%, that’s still well below the 4%-plus APYs available from many of today’s top high-yield savings accounts. With inflation running at 3.7%, earning less than that means your savings are losing purchasing power.

Don’t have a big lump sum to move to a high-yield savings account? You can still build your cash reserves by setting up automatic monthly transfers. Regularly adding to your savings is a good habit that can help your balance grow over time. And keeping that money in a separate account can make it easier to resist dipping into your savings for unplanned purchases.