The Shocking State Of Net Worth And Savings

 Haters gonna hate.

I try not to engage trolls but a recent one was actually a well-known person with a decent following so I felt compelled to engage and crush his weak argument about my post.

In a LinkedIN post, I said if you were 30-50 years old, you needed to be a millionaire to ever retire or you would work until you died due to inflation and other factors.

Because of this statement, this fairly well-followed person accused me of being a fear-mongerer.

If a grizzly bear is staring you down 50 yards away and I say we should run to the car, am I fearmongering or am I stating the obvious?

Let's look at the state of things for context on my statement.

The Numbers...

My source is the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) for 2019...so its probably worse now (its the most up to date data I could find since its conducted every 3 years and 2022 isn't released yet).

It's important to note that I chose the "median" net worth and not the "average".

That's because averages can be heavily skewed by outliers like billionaires.

If 49 people have $10 but 1 person has $10,000, then the "average" person has $210.

But the median person would have $10. 

Now here's median savings...

Where do you stack up on these lists?

Is it good or bad?

More Numbers For My Argument

Do you know what the average car payment is in the USA?

Used car payments is $535 and new is $716. That's $6,420 and $8,592 a year respectively.

What's the median salary? Around $70,000.

So when you include car payments, gas, insurance and maintenance, the average American is voluntarily spending between 15-20% of their annual income on getting from point A to point B.

I love cars. I am in the top 3% of net worth for my age group. I've never had a car payment that high.

And I LOVE cars.

Time To Silence The Haters

You know what is worse than fear?

Blind stupidity.

I would rather be the one coming across as a fearmonger or bully or whatever you want to call me instead of doing nothing and letting people dig themselves into a hole they can't get out of.

There's a grizzly bear staring hungrily at most folks! I'm happy to be the guy to inject some healthy fear where needed if it wakes people up to their reality and motivates them to make significant change.

When you're ready to take the next positive step in your financial journey to achieve the life you desire instead of the one society is selling with all of its stressors and bills, I want you to know I'm here to help.

This is a bear we can beat.