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If you add up all your assets, including house, stocks, bonds, CDs, etc., and subtract all debt, about how much do you have? I would like to know what a typical middle class American has at around retirement age. It is difficult or impossible to find this out from google, as far as I could tell.
You can find out the average either by age or by income level, but not by both. So, for example, maybe the average middle class net worth for a family is $100k (or whatever it is). But that includes young families who did not yet have time to save.
And for older adults, maybe the average is $150, lets say, but that includes low income families.
So I wondered if anyone here knows the average net worth for, lets say, a middle class family (or individual) at around age 62. And I wondered what the numbers are for visitors at this forum (assuming most here are probably middle class and maybe around 62 or older).
(I realize that if you have or will have a pension, you don't need as much $ to retire.)
If you add up all your assets, including house, stocks, bonds, CDs, etc., and subtract all debt, about how much do you have? I would like to know what a typical middle class American has at around retirement age. It is difficult or impossible to find this out from google, as far as I could tell.
You can find out the average either by age or by income level, but not by both. So, for example, maybe the average middle class net worth for a family is $100k (or whatever it is). But that includes young families who did not yet have time to save.
And for older adults, maybe the average is $150, lets say, but that includes low income families.
So I wondered if anyone here knows the average net worth for, lets say, a middle class family (or individual) at around age 62. And I wondered what the numbers are for visitors at this forum (assuming most here are probably middle class and maybe around 62 or older).
(I realize that if you have or will have a pension, you don't need as much $ to retire.)
Not sure they are measuring what you want or give the same results
All the tables and calculators I have seen (and I have really looked) are either by income or by age, and not both. I looked at your first link, and that's what it was. What we need to know is average net worth by age AND income. For example middle class people near retirement age. That's what most of us probably are -- we worked all our lives but were never rich, and we managed to save something for retirement. I have really searched, and could not find it anywhere.
But I need to know more than just your net worth. I need to know how many people in your family (just you, or you and spouse, etc.). Also, your past or present income level, and whether you have or will have a pension.
Not sure they are measuring what you want or give the same results
interesting ,a far cry from the bull we hear about the average retiree having 50k... i never believe those statistics anyway.
that 50k number is usually diluted by taking those who never saved a penny and combining that with those that do and so you dilute the savings down to nothing.
i do believe that first link you posted is closer to the truth. especially because the fidelity study that showed those that contributed the max to their 401k over the age of 55 saw their balance jump over the last decade from 96k to 213k...
interesting ,a far cry from the bull we hear about the average retiree having 50k...
i never believe those statistics anyway.
Because there is no "average retiree" (or "average" anything else ftm)
Quote:
that 50k number is usually diluted by taking those who never saved a penny and combining that with those that do and so you dilute the savings down to nothing.
Exactly.
If you're inclined to slice and dice the numbers, I'll suggest that there are three basic (but still flawed) categories.
Still, be careful to NOT mix these up among the others.
1) those who managed to pay off a mortgage at some point in their lives.
The first group, people who managed to pay off a mortgage at some point in their lives, are the ones most likely to have had benefited from steady employment at a reasonable level through all their adult lives and with that came the ability and likely the discipline to also have taken advantage of that stability to make other investments as well.
This steady employment at a reasonable level for at least one bread earner in a household...
(as most still had this benefit of adult lives being lived in the post WW2 Boom years)
well, it's the glue that all the other social success markers are most influenced by as well.
They will also likely be the easiest to identify and will still form the largest part of the (over 55?) whole...
but not for too much longer as those coming up behind us have had a VERY DIFFERENT reality to their working lives.
2) those who DID NOT buy a home at some point in their lives.
This second group had the ability to buy... but CHOSE not to. That would include the higher earning renters
as well, but as these people are more an anomaly... the statistical significance is probably minimal (I dunno tho).
3) those who COULD NOT buy a home at some point in their lives.
This last group are likely to have also populated the poorest and least educated group at every other point in their lives.
Why should their retirement years be any different?
Last edited by MrRational; 05-20-2011 at 08:21 AM..
Unless you monetize your pensions, SS, etc. and account for other long-term liabilities of health, dependant care, etc. the simple net worth number tells little. Financial health is much more complicated than a single number.
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