Posted on 02/06/2026 4:00:17 AM PST by where's_the_Outrage?
By the time you reach your mid-70s, your financial life often looks very different from what it did a decade earlier. Work is usually behind you, priorities have shifted, and your money is no longer just about growing. It's about sustaining the life you want to live, especially if you're trying to maximize your senior benefits and get the most value out of every dollar you've earned.
If you're 74 (or getting close), this is a natural moment to check up on your retirement readiness and see how your own situation compares to other Americans in the same age range.
Net worth is simply the total value of what you own minus what you owe. That includes things like savings and investment accounts, home equity, vehicles, and other assets, minus any remaining debts such as a mortgage, credit cards, or medical bills.
At 74, net worth often looks different from what it did earlier in retirement. Many people have started drawing down savings, some have downsized or paid off their homes, and others may still be carrying a mortgage.
According to the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, households headed by someone aged 75 or older (the closest public data bucket to 74-year-olds) have an average net worth of roughly $1.6 million. The median net worth, which is a better reflection of the typical household, is much lower, around $335,000.
The gap between these two numbers tells an important story. A relatively small group of very wealthy households pulls the average up, while many retirees have a far more modest balance. If your own number is closer to the median, you're not unusual.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
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Factoids:
It is common to presume that someone with Alzheimer’s or some other reason for needing full-time nursing home care will wipe themselves out financially.
Average period of time for elderly in a nursing home is 14 months. That’s what you multiply the costs per month to determine when you are wiped out, or if you are wiped out.
Interesting approach to things like memory care and nursing home care is a guy who put together a little empire based on adult children living on one Coast with their parents in a nursing home on the other coast. His presentation is that you can make the trip to visit those parents as easily to Mexico as to New York from California. There are some excellent expat nursing homes in Mexico and because the costs are overall so low they’ll have a nurse to patient ratio far far above us nursing homes. The guy also has them in Thailand for even less money and even better care, and keeping in mind that the patient probably doesn’t know where they are anyway.
Thew median is way more relevant in this analysis
Thank you for your service!
“The single best retirement planning I did was to continue in the Army Reserve
DITTO !!!! Retired at 62”
Double ditto - retired from AF then spent 15 years civil service...retired at 62.
Pensions and SS should be included as having intrinsic value - as well as TriCare for Life...having Medicare as the main “drain” for medical insurance/bills makes a huge difference.
While in Thailand I stated helping Expats with their paperwork for retirement visas, I was amazed hope many only had a small pension, one American got less than $1K a month in SS. Too many people do not plan for retirement believing Uncle will take care of them.
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.
My wife and I are 10 years younger and doing better than that - excluding the paid-for house. We retire in a year and we’re going to spend our money and have fun before the gov takes it away when the lefthole marxists get control.
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.
Yep! After many years of saving it becomes a habit.
Wifey reminds me often that I need to “Open the faucet!”
Good for you. Adapt and overcome.
Keynesian economics: “In the end we’re all dead.” cripples societies and here we are...
We’ve forgotten posterity.
“How can you value a pension?”
I’ve considered a pension payment as roughly the inverse of the “4%” calculation when looking at the sustainable payout of an IRA or similar retirement fund.
So a $1,000,000 IRA would support a $40,000/yr payout. Inversely, if I need to have a $40,000/yr income, I would need to have saved $1 million.
That said, you have found the key - gratitude for enough to support a quality of life that you find very satisfying.
Congratulations! (Especially on the debt-free and plenty of beer side!)
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.
why?
Because an active life keeps you alive. Working after 65 at something is prophylactic therapy
Why do people think the only way to have an active life is to keep working for someone else?
Did you miss the part in my post where I said retire and remain active?
That’s why the article highlighted the median around $350K. Median is always better for financial statistics.
yes
I missed it.
But I wanted to make the point
Not if your job is to sit at a desk and punch code all day. That’s why I had to retire.
My wife is sending me links to houses in TN now that VA has gone commie.
The average is $1.6 million, but the median is $335,000
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