The article fails to mention pensions other than SS which while not exactly net worth has an impact of available cash, spending, and keeping/expanding net worth.
The average includes many people with no money at all. If you worked all your life at a professional job, and saved and invested, you can be much higher.
An average of $355k is scary, when these folks are approaching the age when more and more will need tons of healthcare AND long term care.
That is going to wipe out their net worth in a couple of years.
Everyone is going to pay for that.
Net worth includes real estate.
Houses have skyrocketed in the last five years.
I agree, pensions should be included. Not too hard to do a net present value on a pension.
I wonder why they picked 74 instead of 75?
Treating 74 like an expected age to retire is a miserable assumption.
I was shocked when we consolidated all our assets. I immediately gave a years notice at work. Also, my income in retirement is more than when I was working. I splurged on streaming services. I am subscribed to almost all of them.
I was (not) surprised to find there are therapists who focus on helping seniors let go of their money.
DITTO !!!! Retired at 62
Tricare is great. Im on Medicare now, but annual premiums were like $350 per year. I also take advantage off free prescriptions and commissary privileges - saves a bundle.
Average has little meaning when the individual members of the sum have a wide disparity. Take the case of 11 families. One has a billion dollars net worth; the other 10 have $10,000 net worth each. The average of the 11 would be close to $91 million dollars. Sounds impressive, but the majority have only 10k. Average means little.
“Average”? I detest the “average” as it makes it sound like “most people” have that. In terms of straight numbers of people, the “average” person has nowhere near that. They also say the “average” person has less than $2k in their emergency fund.
So most people have a small house that they paid off and some SS income and Medicare. That’s it.
Widowed Men and women in that situation quickly find a partner to double the assets and increase the standard of living.
“Multiple suspicious connections blocked”
Beware.
How can you value a pension? My pension exists for my lifetime and I have no idea how long that will be.
As for medical I’m covered by VA(although I also pay for Medicare just in case Congress cuts me off).
My wife’s Medicare Plus policy is $45 per month.
I retired at age 55. My income is over $100,000 per year.
I have no debt. I own 5 acres with two houses and a large workshop in Hawaii, with an ocean view.
How much am I worth? I have no idea. I just know I’m comfortable, have good medical care, lots of food and beer,
on site care giver, and spare funds for emergencies.
What is that worth? In dollars, I have no idea. In terms of quality of life, God has blessed me beyond the normal
city apartment dweller so prevalent in our Democrat dominated population.
So, $335,000 is your house. You have no savings. That’s pretty bleak.
That’s all paper USD. When the dollar goes the way of the dodo bird people will realize their dirt poor.
Same here. I did six years in the Marine Corps and almost 26 years in the Air National Guard. I fully retired at 60 and make more in retirement than I did when I was working.
I thought I had it all handled...I had all the ambulatory equipment for my disaster of a body, paid off my home, owed no one.
Until the Almeda fire took everything. I had my insurance papers on my desk and had been trying to call for 2 weeks to increase coverage for the big remodel I completed..new roof, paint, flooring...even propane fireplace for when electric goes out. I was on low income tax deferral on my home, so they took all my insurance money.
You don’t think about the fact you will have to repay every cent plus interest and penalties.
I made a huge mistake giving away much of my “wealth” to my kids...I wanted to see them enjoy it.. that included cars, a vacation home on acreage, a building lot, travel trailer, thousands of dollars...
Living out of your car is expensive..it was during covid shutdown..no motels. I paid $100 one night for a room without running water! I was everyone’s target. I finally got $25,000 from The Federal government then 2 years later Biden attached my social security checks for 2 years to collect $10,000 in interest. I had already written them a check for the $25,000! That destroyed my credit..now I can’t even rent!
Now, I’m stuck, sick and unable to drive out in the boonies without any heat, most of my savings is gone and the kids got theirs and disappeared.
My retirement plan is to keel over in my home office.
At 74, 330,000 should easily outlast you unless you go on world cruises or something. Even nursing home should be ok since average is a three year stay before death. At 10 grand a month, that’s 30 months or so.