Posted on 12/30/2023 7:42:57 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Elon Musk walked into the bar —
And we were on average billionaires.
“Now, let me be clear:”
Ugh, I’ll be haunted by KJP nightmares tonight.
I wonder how much of the net worth figures, excluding those at the top who are heavily skewing the average numbers, are tied up in home equity?
Im 63 my networth depends on how many bogo free coupons I have,,,
The cool thing about that last geezer bracket is that you get to give stuff away. For us: Hillsdale College, Prager U, our local Sheriff’s Office Chaplain’s Charities and CSNTM (the Center for Study of New Testament Manuscripts). Our lefty undergrad schools can go pound sand.
According to this article, I’m below average for my age group and well above median for every age group.
I hear ya
I keep about 10 McDonald’s coupons in my wallet all of the time these days
An average net worth number is almost useless when the list includes billionaires
Crap!
This nonsense leaves out us 90+ oldsters...
In that case, I’m free to stipulate that the plus 90 net worth range has a median of $12,345,000.87 and a mean of $4,899,735,287,000.44...
When I calculated my net worth, I figured in my monthly SS and my modest job pension for 30 years. It was a respectable total.
Agreed…average can be useless median is more accurate .
…..
The Median price for a 3 bedroom house in the US is about $400K, which is very closely aligned with the median net worth of Americans in their 60’s. That is pretty bad news. Also note the disparity of average and median. The middle class is disappearing.
Of course, net worth can be hidden. For instance, 1 couple where husband and wife each have $1M in their 401K and own a $1M in their home and other assets might seem like they are wealthy with a $3M net worth. But another couple, a retired cop with a $95K pension and retired teacher with a $70K pension living in the same neighborhood would have much more available income, regardless of having a much lower “net worth” on paper.
There are many “experts” that will say you cannot/should not use either SS or pensions to calculate net worth. Only real estate, cash savings, property, IRA/401Ks. I personally view a pension as an asset that should have real capital behind those payments. Some good articles on people who have managed to get “financial advisors” to change their views. The key issue is how to value it. Survivors benefits, years of collection, COLA, … make valuation difficult. I personally just use the inverse 4% rule to calculate the value a future pension. If it pays 1K / month then it’s worth 25X annual cash flow or 300K.
Idk if I’m doing well or behind. Wife and I have a 11 year age difference. So I’m either doing ok or she is doing great. Have my house + 21 acres paid off for 2 years now, no debt. Paid kids 3 BS, 2 MA. So my future debts are insurance, taxes and my cost to live. I guess in 10 years or so I will find out if SS is an asset or not.
Net worth is assets minus liabilities. Social security is not an asset.
“home equity” — such an obvious question, isn’t it?
They really need to present the numbers with and without primary home equity.
That’s exactly why median and quartile numbers are the most relevant.
Just me, livin alone
I got my house (equity $250k-350k depending),
$25k in the bank,
2003 Envoy with 142k on it (paid for).
Couple V.A. life insurance policies ($40-50k)
Household furnishings/appliances/clothing/coin collection/baseball cards ($5-10k?)
I pissed away a lot of money and time until I hit my 50s when I suddenly realized I wouldn’t be young forever. Sooo, here I is.
liquid net worth is a far more important measure than net worth, because liquid net worth determines how comfortably one can live ...
it does little good to own a big personal residence, lots of land, or lots of irrigation water that doesn’t earn income because one can’t immediately spend such holdings ... in fact, lots of personal real estate or land holdings that are without earning potential actually represent significant expenses ...
of course such holding can be sold, in which case they become net income, but then if you sell such holdings you can’t enjoy living in them ...
btw, i would classify highly liquid securities as liquid net worth ...
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