Average US Household Wealth Plunges to Only $656,039!! Details: Jan. 11 Investment & Finance Thread

Weekly investment & finance thread ^ | Jan. 11, 2015 | Freeper Investors

[expat_panama]

	Average U.S.
	Household Wealth
	Real Estate	$186,702
	Durables	$44,374
	Deposits	$81,497
	Stocks/Business	$422,126
	Bonds	$27,139
	Misc.	$7,598
		____________
	Total Assets	$769,435
	Debts	-$113,397
		_____________
	Net Worth	$656,039

Something that snuck by me (and most people) last month was the Fed's quarterly Flow of Funds Report --their bigass number-dump that says where all America's money has gone.  My favorite part is the one on household balances (Table B.100 page 117) and the big secret that the press has been hiding is the fact that that total private wealth actually dropped in the third quarter 2014! Ah yes, our unemployment rate's just 5.6% and a good time's being had by all-- yeah right.  

Then we hear "aw jeeze guys, let's not forget America's wealth is steady --off less than 2/10ths of % of the previous quarter's all time high.   So there.

 

Time to stop and think about inflation and population growth --and we slam into the fact that real average household wealth is still less than it was before all the hope'n'change.  What we got is that even after all the work Americans have been doing for the past seven years we've gotten nowhere --in fact we're worse off:  the average American household has fallen to a mere ⅔ of a $million.

Hmmm.  

A household w/ a over $113 grand in mortgages/debts on assets (mostly stocks'n'real-estate) totaling $769K.   Off hand I don't remember my bank saying I got a balance of $81,497. 

 

OK, y'all are probably way ahead of me saying that these are averages --all skewed by the fact that the vast majority of us are slogging away and that money-grubbing one percent has the overall numbers distorted way off from how the vast majority lives (more on average/mean incomes here). 

Maybe.

 

↨  mandatory Occupy Wall Street income and wealth inequality graphics (click to enlarge)

 

 

 

The Fed stats picked up from the Census Bur. tell us that median real household income has fallen, but the Bureau of Economic Analysis that average real incomes are twice the median and are increasing.  I mean, I can hate the over-achievers as much as the next guy but at some point we need to notice that somehow we left Numberland and we now find we've wandered over into the Fantasy Kingdom of the Political Hacks.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

In the mean time I'm struggling to find a way to make do w/ only $656,039 to my name.  Yeah, I know I don't have $80-some K in the bank but I got this really neat Sox baseball cap that I know I could get a half mil. on Ebay...

 

This is the thread where folks swap ideas on savings and investment --here's a list of popular investing links that freepers have posted here and tomorrow morning we'll go on with our--

Open invitation continues always for idea-input for the thread, this being a joint effort works well.   Keywords: financial, WallStreet, stockmarket, economy.

[jsanders2001]

I bet the average got bumped way up by lobbyists and politicians.

[Boomer One]

I would like to know what, if any, portion of stocks and bonds is held in a retirement account. To me these accounts greatly inflate net worth, especially when the owner is not eligible to withdraw funds without penalty or retired and counting on withdrawals for support.

[hlmencken3]

More than half of American families have a net worth of less than $100k. $700k net worth puts you at least in the top 25% or so.

Averages are skewed by gazillionaires. Leftists love the “average” as proof that Americans can afford more taxes.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

“Guess what, most collectibles that people think is an investment is just a pile of junk that is virtually worthless. Those Reggie Jackson or Ted Williams rookie cards that supposedly fetch thousands of dollars online, good luck with that. Unless you are a professional curator that has these cards hermetically sealed in a climate controlled room like a museum, you are only going to get pennies on the dollar. “

Damn, your telling me all those beer can pull tabs I saved aren’t really going to put me over the top. I worked so hard collecting them too.

[jsanders2001]

> Averages are skewed by gazillionaires. Leftists love the “average” as proof that Americans can afford more taxes.

You really mean leftists love it as long as “they” are not the ones that can afford more taxes

[SamAdams76]

Damn, your telling me all those beer can pull tabs I saved aren’t really going to put me over the top. I worked so hard collecting them too.

Funny you say that because I actually have a collection of beer bottle caps. There are other things I collect as well (much to my wife's dismay) such as old newspapers, usually from significant days in my life, and cassette tapes of radio airchecks.

I'm not looking to cash in on any of that. Those collections are for my own amusement and I know full well my wife (or kids) will simply toss them after I'm gone because they are essentially worthless to anybody else. But I like thumbing through newspapers from important days of my life like the day I got discharged from the Marine Corps or from my wedding day, etc.

As for the beer bottle caps, when I get around to it, I'm going to nail them to the wall in my workshop out in the garage.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

I have a suitcase that has my stamp collection in it. When I was a kid my grandmother was really into it. I may have taken it out and looked at it 4 or 5 times since she died in the early 70’s. I wouldn’t even know how you would go about selling them.

[SamAdams76]

The government encourages (uncancelled) stamp collecting because one they are removed from circulation, the government no longer has to honor them and they save money.

It's the reason why retail stores and restaurant chains love to issue gift cards. They know that a certain percentage of the gift cards will never get redeemed and they get to keep the proceeds as pure profit (after taxes).

That's why they are continuously coming out with new stamps. Collectors buy them by the sheet and never use them. Pure revenue for the Postal Service.

Now some people enjoy collecting stamps and there's nothing wrong with that. But it's not exactly going to fund their retirement or anything.

I did collect some stamps on a lark during the 1970s when I was a child. I don't even know where they are today, probably in some box I haven't opened for 30 years. But I remember in particular having a fair amount of ten cent "Skylab" stamps like the one below.

A quick search on the Internet found that I can get ten unused ones for $3.75.

I also have a bunch of Eisenhower 8 cent stamps. I might get a dollar each for those.

[expat_panama]

The person who put this together is clueless about reading financial statements.

LOL!!!  Oh yeah?  I bet your feet stink!!!

Seriously [wiping tears of laughter] understand that while this stuff may look super slick and ultra professional because it was put together with an html expertise far beyond all human understanding, you still got to remember that this is all local grown --it's me & all of us hangers on and you're seeing it first right here on these FR threads. 

 

Of course it also means the ball's in your court: and if you see something missing then posting it is your job.

[expat_panama]

...raw HH data. If I have time over the next week, I’ll generate a summary...

Please do --a lot of this stuff is controversial because nobody really knows say, how many households there are or like just how unequal is U.S. wealth/income distribution.  The more info we got the better.  TX!

[expat_panama]

everything's relative, and perception is a lot of it all.

Or maybe more like almost all of it. 

We just had a visiting school admin from a U.S. northeastern Democrat inner-city, and she said her area was rancid w/ victimhood and entitlement.  Then she sees people here raising families on dirt floors/no electricity but with none of that ugly self-pity.  On the contrary, they see their kids get educated, they serve their community, they give to charity, and they lead their communities.

[Kirkwood]

I wouldn’t know where to start. I would suggest you learn to read financials and then take several courses in statistics. I also don’t think you realize that the data cited includes all of the huge non-profit corporations like Battelle Memorial Institute and the Mayo Clinic Foundation to name just two. Those 2 alone have multi-billion dollar financial statements.

[expat_panama]

Well written with some excellent points. Measuring all of this is so tough...

Tx!  My take is that the info's there but after getting past the basics it's so easy to find all the data were poisoned with political/ideological biases.   We hear lots of freepers complain about the unemployment rate calcs but imho stats for income inequality and dates for econ expan/contractions are far worse.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

a sensible statistician with no agenda would adjust for age of the head of the household

You make an excellent point.....it would be meaningful to see a breakdown according to age groupings.

Hear, hear!

If you don't account for age, you risk "trying to wade a river with an average depth of 3 feet.”

Thomas Sowell famously made that point about the bottom income quintile so beloved of “liberals.” The reality is that that bottom quintile is loaded with young people just starting out.

The same, obviously, would hold for the bottom quintile of net worth holders . . .

[expat_panama]

age x your gross salary. Divided by 10.

Interesting, sounds good.  What I've often heard is to have a $million for every $40K of retirement income.  There's so much more to it of course,  and like you said present valuation of already purchased assets is a biggie.

[expat_panama]

"trying to wade a river with an average depth of 3 feet.”

Priceless!  Have to use that next thread we're talking averages...

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

If you thought the fawning over Bill Clintons economy was sickening you ain’t seen nothing yet. When 2016 gets here the media will be in a full court press about the greatness that is Obama.

[cherry]

the new generations and the incoming illegal generations do not care about antiques or collectibles....they have very little connection to our once great America, the pioneers, the soldiers, the cowboys, not even the Indians....

I wouldn't be surprised if July 4th Independence Day will soon be on the trash heap of history....

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

"trying to wade a river with an average depth of 3 feet.”

Priceless! Have to use that next thread we're talking averages...

Ummm . . . I used that expression, and put it in quotes, because I heard it in my very first lecture on statistics. And the lecturer didn’t give the impression that the expression was original to him . . .

[SaraJohnson]

The communist race and sex bait industry.