Comments on: The Average Net Worth of Americans: Where Do You Stand?

By: jack

jack — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:53:21 +0000

I’m 25 and in the army, I have a lot of my money in my ira, tsp, and some stocks. While most of the idiots in the army waste their money, buy big trucks, or pop out a dozen kids, I save my money. My net worth is over 150k. I haven’t went to college because I would rather save a lot of money in the beginning of my life then be riddled with debt and no savings for compound interest. Don’t listen to all the teachers who brainwash kids about how great college is and how much you’ll make compared to high school graduates.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:23:33 +0000

My net worth at nearly 49 years is ~1.25 Million. Worked since I was 15 years old, finished high school, paid my way through some college (some debt) before joining the service for 6 years in the mid-late 80’s, finished college while in the service, debt free, got a technical job and worked overtime whenever offered. Worked my tail off my whole life so far. Probably lost upwards of 600K in the 2 recessions being the dot-com bust and the “Great Recession” of the last 3 years. Married a long time, >25 years w/2 kids and still act and think the same as when I was a teenager. No one has or is going to give me anything. I had to earn all of it. Proud? No, just know the reality of life. Taught by Great Depression mentality of my Father. Always am talking to my kids. They seem sensible about things such as this. Hope they remember these conversations we have. People need more than they think by these charts. By 55 I hope to “retire” to another location, still work if I have to but probably will even if I don’t, part time if nothing, just to be active. I figure that a person with a paid off home, can hope to “retire” at about 55-60 years old if they have about 750K-1M stashed. Medical I assume is covered at that time by employer (if you are lucky) to take you to 67 for Medicare. I figure a minimum amount needed monthly is about $3,200-$3,500 to live in the paid off home and be comfortable. This will cover all taxes, insurance, food, utilities, clothing, auto repairs, little bit of travel but not much, and other sundries. NO EXTRAVAGANCES. Anything able to be gotten above that is gravy. Once you hit 62, Social Security can kick in and help out, and the outlay from the 750K-1M initial can start to be built back up from prior withdrawals, hopefully to the point that it becomes self sustaining with positive cash flows into instead of out. Wish all well and hope those that need to save start doing so as soon as they are back on their feet from this terrible economic situation we are in now.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:46:09 +0000

I love all these 20 or 25 yr old kids who have
100K or more net worth.its apparant Daddy or Grandpa has helped you out because paper route restraunts and entry level jobs do not get you this

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:18:40 +0000

I recently turned 25, put myself through school (not cheap), bought my own house at 20, and still managed to grow my net worth to over 100k (not tied up in illiquid real estate).

That being said, people (of all age groups) could easily exceed these modest net worth averages by not placing so much value on materialism. Friends of mine (both old and young), have incomes in the hundreds of thousands (and some millions) per year. Yet have little, if any, saved relative to their income.

It’s not how much you make, it’s how much you save. Instead of buying that thousand dollar flat-screen, make your IRA contributions; if you don’t need a $400k house, don’t buy it, the tax deduction isn’t worth the false-esteem it provides; sacrifice for the sake of others.

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 04:55:46 +0000

I did a search about net worth and came across this article. Its from the U.S. Census Bureau. Data is a few years old, but its still interesting. How do you stack up?

http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/p70-88.pdf

By: Mrpolarbear

Mrpolarbear — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 04:07:25 +0000

Average numbers do seem low. However, once you input your income they seem to be more in line, so I have a hard time calling out the calculator.

By: Rich

Rich — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:40:45 +0000

If you have ammassed that amount of net worth in your short working career, I admire you immensely.

While I am not in your age category, I am in my mid 50’s, have put kids through college ( and helped with Medical School) I have been a saver much of my life, and between pure savings, retirement savings, and home equity, ( not including personal property), my net work is north of $1.25 million, with close to $800,000 of that being savings and qualified plan savings (401k) and I feel unbelievably not ready for retirement a few years down the road… oh yeah… My only debt is about $160K of real estate mortgage debt…

By: Sm

Sm — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:12:18 +0000

Remember, having a $200k net worth at age 60 isn’t bad if you own a $100k home outright, have a pension (public employee, or older UAW worker, etc) and live 60 miles outside of, say, Milwaukee or Cincinati. It’s another story entirely if you’re a marketing ‘professional’ with a mortgage, living in the Boston or San Fran suburbs. But what % of Americans live in subsidized housing or trailer homes? I doubt many of them have six figures in the bank.

By: Bob R

Bob R — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 17:19:10 +0000

So these numbers include real estate holdings? If so, that’s really depressing. I don’t own a home anymore, but even at my age and income level, my $$ saved for retirement are almost 3X the number the calculator shows. I’m old and would like to retire in 3-5 years, but I still feel like I need twice as much as I currently have.

By: Mark Reynolds

Mark Reynolds — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:42:34 +0000

As someone who lives in a household making around $120k per year and owning $800k in property, I would say that I would have rather saved all of that money. I lay in my bed at night wondering what it would be like to have some money in my checking account after all the bills and taxes im currently paying off.