The average American's net worth is $620,654, but that's misleading

[True Dough]

because it takes into account the net worth of the country's billionaires, which inflates the average.

The median worth among Americans is $124,041 (all figures as of 2024).

In fact, by this measure, America is only the 15th wealthiest country in the world, lagging behind Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Italy. By comparison, the U.S. is the second wealthiest country based on average wealth.

This immense gap between average and median wealth is a reflection of America’s exceptionally high wealth inequality.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/average-american-net-worth-620-121500111.html


Trump has only made this worse with his policies and legislation that benefit the ultra-rich.

[True Dough]

1. You may have seen this before, but it's apropos...

[DiverDave]

2. I wish i had

The 654 after I pay my bills.

[genxlib]

3. I think it is even more misleading than that

I would live to know how much of the typical net worth comes from home equity. I suspect it is probably a fairly high percentage.

I can't help but think the housing market is in for a downturn. The math just doesn't work over the long term when the home prices increase so much faster than wages.

It crashed in 2008 and then they quickly rose back up. Covid just supercharged them more and they zoomed past what was previously known to be an unsupportable bubble level. It has already started to decline since 2022. Throw in the cost of insurance due to natural catastrophes and the cost of home ownership is simply beyond the reach of many middle class people.

There is a reason they were floating the idea of a 50 year mortgage.

In the end, a lot of people are counting on cashing out of an asset that may not actually be worth what they think it is worth.

[Melon]

6. Property is a large amount

But on a comparison basis, it’s a large part of all the countries in the list. Canada has had worse housing inflation than here. Australia the UK. Most people now will not own a home.

[unblock]

4. bill gates walks into an "urban" kindergarten class for a publicity event.

the average person there was a 10 year-old black multibillionaire, bisexual, with ambiguous genitalia, no high school diploma, occasionally wet their bed, is only dimly aware of how to calculate simple interest and really doesn't know very much at all about how to run a business or invest money.

[Prairie Gates]

5. Individual net worth - whether median or mean - is a pretty much pointless measure

[Happy Hoosier]

8. Distribution matters far more.

Either a median or average tells you so little…

[Mark.b2]

7. Breaking this out by age groups would be more telling....

50+ year olds with $1-2 million 401k accounts will skew the numbers. For many in that agr bracket, retirement accounts are their largest source of wealth.

[VGNonly]

9. Net worth does not include principal home value

in most metrics. Say you have $700k in investments and a $300k home. Your net worth is still only $700k. A High Net Worth Individual (HNWI) has $1M-$5M. A Very High Net Worth (VHNW) has $5m-$30M. An Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) has $30M plus.

[ProfessorGAC]

10. Important Post

The average is almost useless for this metric. The median matters more by an order of magnitude or more.