Author Topic: average net worth by age in the US.  (Read 15985 times)

Jags4186

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average net worth by age in the US.
« on: January 26, 2015, 02:34:47 PM »
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/01/26/the-average-americans-net-worth-by-ageheres-where.aspx

These numbers are scary...low.  My fiance and I have a net worth 10x the 70th percentile in our under 35 age group...and we have 6 more years of investing before we get into the next grouping.

KS

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #1 on: January 26, 2015, 03:36:12 PM »
Thanks for that, my husband and I were just discussing this over the weekend and looking for a summary just like this one. (Also, if you're at 10x the <35 70th percentile, you also have a higher net worth than almost 70% of 65 year olds... how's that for scary?)

deborah

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #2 on: January 26, 2015, 03:37:22 PM »
However, you need to be looking at the 70th percentile of the 65+ group, because they possibly have enough money to retire.

Capsu78

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #3 on: January 26, 2015, 04:08:01 PM »
If you drill down into the comments, you can link to the census report to see what the 90th percentile is.  Beware: it gets a bit "wonkish" in the report, but OP may see more results that apply to your situation.

JoJoP

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #4 on: January 26, 2015, 04:46:27 PM »
Absolutely scary low!  How do these people expect to live?   Glad to report mine is 10x the 70th percentile, too. 

 Sadly, in my area, I see seniors with a decent net worth due to home appreciation, but still no spending cash, no luxuries. 

2Birds1Stone

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #5 on: January 26, 2015, 06:38:45 PM »
3x the <35 70th percentile, but I have 7 years left till the next grouping. confident I will be at least 10x 70th percentile by then.

NoraLenderbee

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #6 on: January 26, 2015, 09:11:36 PM »
5 times the 70th percentile, 45-54.

neil

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #7 on: January 26, 2015, 11:20:38 PM »
http://www.shnugi.com/networth-percentile-calculator/

This is far more detailed and uses 2013 data, though from a different source.

If you use retirement account balance calculator, the median balance is $0.  So if you're 65 and opened your first IRA, congratulations! You are better off than 50% of households.

Jags4186

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #8 on: January 27, 2015, 06:39:30 AM »
http://www.shnugi.com/networth-percentile-calculator/

This is far more detailed and uses 2013 data, though from a different source.

If you use retirement account balance calculator, the median balance is $0.  So if you're 65 and opened your first IRA, congratulations! You are better off than 50% of households.

That website is awesome. Thank you.

v10viperbox

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #9 on: January 27, 2015, 09:18:06 AM »
I cannot possibly be that low for the <35 group. I am there for 2 more years and have 30+x the 70th percentile. The market has been astonishing for people in that age group as they would have missed most of the crash.

caliq

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #10 on: January 27, 2015, 09:26:51 AM »
I cannot possibly be that low for the <35 group. I am there for 2 more years and have 30+x the 70th percentile. The market has been astonishing for people in that age group as they would have missed most of the crash.

Don't forget it also includes all of us 20 somethings with negative net worth due to student loans :P  We're probably dragging the numbers down quite a bit, though for some reason they didn't go into the negatives and left it at $0 for the 30th percentile of under 35's.

Louis the Cat

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #11 on: January 27, 2015, 09:51:54 AM »
5x the 70% in the <35. I'll have to remember that when I see the numbers you fine people are putting up and feeling like we're nowhere. :)

arebelspy

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #12 on: January 27, 2015, 11:05:29 AM »
Geez.

I'm - age-wise - in the under-35 category.  Yet I have more than 3x the 70% of age-65 group (or, to put it another way, more than 150x the median (50th percentile) for my age group).  Yikes.

Of course, my net worth is in 2014 dollars and that's in 2011 dollars, so it's not quite apples-to-apples.

And that's in such a privileged country.  Compare to other places and the contrast is even more stark.  But that's often outside their control.. the people living her, with the opportunities we have, it's shocking.

Thanks for the link.
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intirb

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #13 on: January 27, 2015, 11:14:38 AM »
18-35 (right?) is such a huge range though.  I would hope anyone who's been working a while has a much larger net worth than indebted students and high school grads.  50% of the people in this group are 18-26 years old - roughly speaking, you only have to be better than about 20% of the people between 27-35 to be in the 70th percentile in this range though.  Obviously it doesn't work out strictly like that, but I think the group is too large to be meaningful.

boarder42

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #14 on: January 27, 2015, 11:28:21 AM »
well i'm in the 35 group and have more than to top of the 65+ group... kinda scary there. how poor people are at saving.

caseyzee

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #15 on: January 27, 2015, 11:59:36 AM »
I agree the numbers seem very low, but, I would have to guess that a lot of the 65+ crowd has decent pensions that probably cover comfortable living expenses.  Do they really need a million plus too?

arebelspy

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #16 on: January 27, 2015, 12:10:18 PM »
I agree the numbers seem very low, but, I would have to guess that a lot of the 65+ crowd has decent pensions that probably cover comfortable living expenses.  Do they really need a million plus too?

I wouldn't say a lot.  Under half.  And even those that do have it only have a pension of about 13k, I don't think that counts as "decent" that "covers comfortable living expenses."

Source: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/planning-to-retire/2012/03/22/the-4-most-important-sources-of-retirement-income
Quote
Some current retirees still have access to private pensions or annuities (27 percent) or public pensions (15 percent), such as those provided by the military or federal, state, or local government. The median pension received by those age 65 and older was worth $12,700 in 2010.
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caseyzee

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #17 on: January 27, 2015, 12:16:24 PM »
That's an interesting article.  I'm surprised at how low the pension numbers are - both percentage covered and the income from them.  I guess it doesn't agree with the pool of 4 65+ folks I know, lol. 

Indexer

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #18 on: January 27, 2015, 06:57:54 PM »
I'm actually really surprised the 30th percentile numbers are all positive.  I was expecting to see some big negative numbers in some of the columns.

AllieVaulter

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #19 on: January 27, 2015, 11:44:06 PM »
I'm actually really surprised the 30th percentile numbers are all positive.  I was expecting to see some big negative numbers in some of the columns.

I'm with you!  Between student loans and car loans, I'm surprised the youngest group hasn't got at least one negative net worth.  Maybe the lowest percentile for <35 is actually negative and they just wrote it as $0 to simplify the graph. 

deborah

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #20 on: January 28, 2015, 12:20:04 AM »
Remember that cars are part of your net worth as is furniture and toys - at least as far as this would be concerned.

MishMash

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #21 on: January 28, 2015, 06:25:38 AM »
I'm actually really surprised the 30th percentile numbers are all positive.  I was expecting to see some big negative numbers in some of the columns.

I'm with you!  Between student loans and car loans, I'm surprised the youngest group hasn't got at least one negative net worth.  Maybe the lowest percentile for <35 is actually negative and they just wrote it as $0 to simplify the graph.

See I had 100k in student loans when I finished grad school at 24, I'm 32 now and our household net worth is 22 times the top 70% of our age group and over double the oldest group...and that's with having paid back every cent of student loans.

crazylemon

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #22 on: January 28, 2015, 06:49:43 AM »
Wow. In the top half for my age group (probably about 60th Percentile) which considering I am still a student is pretty shocking!

Although I am UK so I wonder what ours are like...

AlanStache

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #23 on: January 28, 2015, 07:00:07 AM »
I agree the <35 group nearly meaning less, 18yo vs 34yo????

What is most scary is the vertical scale used, max tick mark is only 300k?

I'm a red panda

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #24 on: January 28, 2015, 07:06:06 AM »
I agree the <35 group nearly meaning less, 18yo vs 34yo????



Meaningless category grouping so many different stages of life together.
I'm so happy to report that my net worth is greater than when I graduated high school :)

Of course, for many 30-somethings, that isn't true since they have debt.


Albert

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #25 on: January 28, 2015, 11:06:53 AM »
Well, we here are richer than the average. Some of us a bit, others a lot but didn't we know it already?

maizefolk

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #26 on: January 28, 2015, 11:31:14 AM »
For those who keep being surprised the under 35 category doesn't go as far as negative net worths, from the original census document the net worth for the 10th percentile of that age group is $-22,646.

And for what it's worth, I agree it's quite meaningless to lump together an age group that includes everything from high school seniors to folks who have been FIRE'd for more than five years.

steveo

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #27 on: January 28, 2015, 02:52:02 PM »
Quote
For many in the older age categories, the value of one's house and property account for a large swath of overall net worth. That's important to note, because -- unless you have a hospital and a farm on your property -- your house can't help pay the food and health bills in retirement.

The net worth over 65 at the 70th percentile was about $350k but it comes with the proviso listed above. That is unbelievable.

I don't know how people will retire.

former player

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #28 on: January 28, 2015, 03:14:30 PM »
The Motley Fool figures exclude pensions and social security, which makes them useless for considering whether or not people have enough to retire on.

YoungInvestor

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #29 on: January 28, 2015, 07:52:30 PM »
So how is the "age" of an household determined?

Taran Wanderer

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #30 on: January 28, 2015, 11:01:22 PM »
We're 10x our age group's 70th percentile, and we are right in the middle of the age range.

If you follow the link to the census report,  you can find more complete data. If you're doing well against the 70th percentile in the article, chances are you will still feel really good about yourself after reading the whole article.

WildJager

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #31 on: January 29, 2015, 08:02:25 AM »
So how is the "age" of an household determined?

Head of household usually.

sleepyguy

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #32 on: January 29, 2015, 08:58:41 AM »
Yeesh, that looks very very low.  I can't say i'm not surprised, seeing a lot of people take on so much debt.

We're at the bottom age of the 35-44 (both 36) and over 6x the 70th percentile.

Sadly we aren't even that MMM, but we do make an effort to 'pay ourselves first'.

Bob W

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #33 on: January 29, 2015, 09:49:41 AM »
There is undoubtedly a huge gap between the poor with negative net worth and the well paid with very high net worth.  (MMMers?)

I'm not too critical of the poor.  For the most part they are locked out of decent paying jobs and most all their resources go to hand to mouth living.   Still it is nice that they are around to work in nursing homes, daycares,  housekeeping, trucking and grocery stores. 

Obviously, 2 income 80K families could do better in savings but you're never going to have savings with a 1 income 20k situation.   

As most of you already know the disparity between the haves and have nots is at an all time high with the capital class getting richer while real wages for low income workers having gone down significantly over the last 2 decades. 

Solutions anyone?  Perhaps a tax for not saving coupled with a tax benefit for saving?  We now have a tax for not buying uber expensive crap insurance,  so why not a tax for not funding your 401K?  Carrot and stick anyone?

slugline

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #34 on: January 29, 2015, 09:54:14 AM »
Well . . . aren't sales taxes technically a tax on not saving?

Leanthree

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #35 on: February 02, 2015, 10:06:06 PM »
I am surprised everyone around here is so surprised by these numbers. So many people have no money other than social security, use much of it for their medicare premiums and the rest to help offset some of the burden to the family member they live with. It isn't the end of the world, but it might be a reasonable fate for someone who was unable or unwilling to save for a more appealing retirement.

It just becomes a problem if they don't have any family to live with.

LalsConstant

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #36 on: February 03, 2015, 05:58:19 AM »
Wow.   I made a Lot of Really Bad Mistakes and I am well in excess of the 70th percentile.

I wish that said something about how much I have improved but I fear it says more about how most people suck.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #37 on: February 03, 2015, 06:22:27 AM »

zephyr911

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #38 on: February 03, 2015, 06:57:52 AM »
http://www.shnugi.com/networth-percentile-calculator/

This is far more detailed and uses 2013 data, though from a different source.

If you use retirement account balance calculator, the median balance is $0.  So if you're 65 and opened your first IRA, congratulations! You are better off than 50% of households.
HOLY CRAP.
That's got to be the single scariest factoid yet in this thread.
I don't know if the real purpose of this thread was to make even the weakest Mustachian feel good about our relative progress, but being 36 and reaching the 70th percentile for 45-54 is pretty cool.
Of course, the anxiety about possibly being on the hook for others' failure to prepare is a minor drawback... but only a complainypants would let that ruin their day. I'll just add to my safety margin and keep building.

zephyr911

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Re: average net worth by age in the US.
« Reply #39 on: February 03, 2015, 07:09:10 AM »
There is undoubtedly a huge gap between the poor with negative net worth and the well paid with very high net worth.  (MMMers?)

I'm not too critical of the poor.  For the most part they are locked out of decent paying jobs and most all their resources go to hand to mouth living.   Still it is nice that they are around to work in nursing homes, daycares,  housekeeping, trucking and grocery stores. 

Obviously, 2 income 80K families could do better in savings but you're never going to have savings with a 1 income 20k situation.   

As most of you already know the disparity between the haves and have nots is at an all time high with the capital class getting richer while real wages for low income workers having gone down significantly over the last 2 decades. 

Solutions anyone?  Perhaps a tax for not saving coupled with a tax benefit for saving?  We now have a tax for not buying uber expensive crap insurance,  so why not a tax for not funding your 401K?  Carrot and stick anyone?
You're right about the structural issues with our economy and our tax code that tend to push wealth upward, but the question for any given individual is what we do about it. Even with all the regressive forces arrayed against us, there are things that we can all do to move upward, and MMM is all about identifying and exploiting all avenues of advance, no matter your starting position.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!