Success is the result of deliberate actions. Building wealth requires developing good habits, like saving money regularly and investing wisely. Ignoring financial management can lead to problems later on. I hope that everyone reading this achieves their financial goals!
Starting early is simply the best way of getting ahead to build wealth, investing remains a priority. I learned from my last year's experience, I am able to build a suitable life because I invested early ahead this time.
I love the insight. Professionals could make a really big difference in investing, and I think everyone should have one. There are aspects of market trend that is difficult for the untrained eyes to see. I have made more than 350% through my estateplanner(fa) by alternative investing. The portfolio comes with perks as well.
One of my goals is to employ the service of an asset-manager this year. I've seen some off social media but wasn't able to get a response. Could you recommend one?
Rebecca Noblett Roberts is the licensed fiduciary I use. Just research the name. You’d find necessary details to work with a correspondence to set up an appointment..
Thank you so much for your helpful tip! I was able to verify the person and book a call session with her. She seems very proficient and I'm really grateful for your pointers
When I was younger being wealthy used to means: - Owning mansions in Beverly Hills or Pebble Beach - Driving nice cars - Taking women out on fancy dates - Going out on fancy vacations flying first class and staying at luxury hotel suites Now being wealthy to me means: - Not having to worry about losing my job or having to work into retirement years - Being able to cover unexpected emergency expenses - Being healthy and in no pain - Having time to spend with my family on vacations
You were a child and you grew up and learned. That's all that happened. Nothing changed. Being wealthy was always primarily about security and wellbeing.
After retiring I believe I am very wealthy by not having to set my alarm each morning, waking up by the person I love, knowing I have no mortgage or other loans to pay off, knowing I have enough income to pay my gas, electric, water and tax bills and still have change to play with when needed, I don’t have millions but I have my health and so I believe I am very very wealthy. I am also very fortunate but I found out early on in life that the harder I worked the more lucky I got.
We have enough to live comfortably for many years… we’re not rich but working class retired and we just did everything we could to lower the overhead. We live a simple lifestyle and are over the big purchases. But I do consider myself wealthy because I don’t have to answer to anyone’s bullshit.. ever again ! Mission accomplished 👍
As a retired Home Health/ Hospice RN, a recent widow with a well to do net worth, I am grateful. It really means nothing without companionship, love & your good health. Our secret throughout 52 years together was always saving a large percent of our working income, investing it wisely & most importantly always live below your means. We were always happy enjoying nature, traveling…staying inside cruise rooms, flying premium economy, saving for large purchases. I drive a 10 year old car…I am leaving my funds to our Alma Mater to train nurses. Jeanne
I've easily have surpassed $2.2 mill net worth and I never consider myself wealthy. I live very easily and I enjoy a good life. Living debt free and below your means will make life much more enjoyable.
Same. Have about 7 more years to work, but am already beyond the $2.2 mil mark. I don't even think about it. I live comfortably, but not extravagantly. It's exactly how I like it (and how my kids should learn to appreciate life, not wealth). When I retire one day maybe I'll see it differently (drop the saving mentality). But for now, my family is happy.
I am well over the 2.2 million, but still have another 13 years left to work. I have enough in the 529 plans to cover my kids college educations. Now I can redirect the contributions towards my retirement and paying down the house. I barely feel as though I am middle class. Always living below my means and saving feels as though I am living paycheck to paycheck.
I think that's a great attitude. But I would also like the security of knowing I will be able to pay my bills tomorrow, too - even if I am unable to work. Wealth = freedom AND security. IMO
Fantastic video. Really goes to show how society thinks it takes $2.3 million but with $560,000 “I’m doing ok”. Years ago I backpacked the world. I got to see serious poverty. I knew right then and there I was wealthy. Just being able to travel made me wealthy. People in this country REALLY need a reality check!!!
I couldn't have said it better. There are problems with poverty here too of course. But most of us live like kings, even though we may think we're not doing very well at all. Had a friend that lived overseas working with an organization helping people improve their lives. A piece of tinfoil that we may use to wrap a sandwich would be a luxury to many people there. It would be carefully saved and reused until it crumbled. I think of that every time I'm feeling bad because I can't afford some shiny new thing that I don't need.
Well said. A good friend of mine from the country Laos who immigrated with her Parents to Australia in Asia said if people are unemployed the government does have a social security system like the unemployment benefit - have to rely on family to help them.
I had a minor career setback a little over a year ago. I was naturally a little depressed and pissed but I was still working and making good money anyway that day I had an assignment that had me cover a winter coat giveaway and I had a realization, ok so I lost a nice side hustle but I have never had to stand in line for over 2 hours so that my sons would have winter coats this year. It was eye opening.
I don't feel wealthy, I feel blessed. The blessings have come from consistent work and saving, and paying off my home. Not everyone can do this, that's why I feel blessed.
Every month when I've paid my bills I have hundreds of dollars left over. That state of conditions seems likely to continue every month until I die. THAT is wealth. All the wealth I need.
Jordan Peterson talks about a study that says something like this. Once you get to a point where you can pay all of your bills, anything more than that does not significantly increase happiness.
I couldn't care less about what people think makes me wealthy. What makes me wealthy is I can cover all of my needs and my family's needs even if we faced job loss and unexpected expenses. What makes me wealthy is I have a great wife that is also my friend, kids that are doing well in life and friend groups I see generally at least twice a week.
Agree. I'd rather have $10K per month of income coming in for the rest of my life and zero bills and no house payment....over $2.2 million. Reality is, if you have good family and friends and have enough to make ends meet and enough for a few luxuries and live comfortably....that's wealthy. Wealth is happiness and a few extra dollars to have fun, not a specific dollar amount.
This, median is also meaningless stats to me. Why do we want to add and compare with people who have little or no money or too much money? it's all about how much that you need. I like average better than median to be honest. if you are in the median, you are most likely don't have enough money to cover your needs because there are just way more poor people than rich
Net worth is an excellent metric to evaluate readiness to retire but not perfect. I worked for a guy who had incredible net worth as well as income but was constantly stressed out about his situation. He was a “keep up with the Jones” type of guy and while he owned a very expensive second home in a high end ski resort that was worth more than what he paid, the cost of owning it was more than he could afford. The result was a healthy net worth but negative cash flow. Ultimately, living within your means is the best measure of wealth.
Great comment. I live in a place (Marin County, near San Francisco) where everyone seems to constantly be doing the Jones's thing. 1.2 million mortgages, literally bragging about their new Rolex, always the newest e-bikes and e-cars, all that. I drive a 17 y/o prius that I spray painted with rainbows for my girls, we have ridiculous net worth by the standards in this video. While all my neighbors rent tahoe mansions for the winter, we walk downtown, get coffee and treats with the kids, and hit the library. We also go up the coast three times a year, and hit europe once a year, but we don't tell anyone, because why? Sad weird stuff out there in the world. Doing stuff for other people, strange.
True wealth is measure of several things, not just Net Worth. Think Health. Or Monthly (or annual) Cash Flow to support a desired, comfortable lifestyle, How about Spiritual Comfort? Or Amount of True Friends (and Family)?
@@yourcheapdate4564 you’ve likely been in your Marin County home for years where the home has appreciated astronomically….to the point where it would be hard to buy back in..also thank goodness for Prop 13 keeping property taxes low. Imagine paying the property tax on a comparable home with a $3.5 million assessment versus a $600 thousand assessment in the same neighborhood? That lower historical assessment is an asset in itself.
Wow! I didn’t know being an engineer in South America could lead me to be in the 25% top of USA! Thanks Azul, I’ll continue saving and investing for my retirement. Cheers from Chile 🇨🇱
And I would assume you can make that wealth go a lot further in your part of the world. I suppose the only thing one worries about there is Marxist government or rampant money printing to cause sky-rocketing inflation. But really, the U.S. isn't that different in this sense either.
Retired/age 65. No where near 2.2 million dollars in net worth. Good health, great family, no debt. Savings account (invested) plus pension and social security benefits in future. Contentment!!
Yes. The painful lesson i learned is that “wealthy” is living off of 1/4 of the interest of your investments. It doesn’t matter is that is $30k/year, you are more wealthy than someone spending all of $1 million a year supporting their “lifestyle”.
@@Partysize2some people do that very thing. What’s more is that study after study shows that after a certain point, more money doesn’t make you happier. And that number isn’t very high. Pre pandemic, it was around $70k per household in the US.
You need wealth honestly to have the time to find happiness and all that. Honestly, time is the most important commodity and money buys access to time. Free time that is. Where you have the luxury to focus on random problems that are not your own
@@williammeek4078 To quote Daniel Tosh, have you ever seen someone frowning while riding on a jet ski? Money may not buy happiness, but it does buy boats and airplanes!
Where you live has a lot to do with how far your money goes and your true net worth. I live on the Alabama Gulf Coast in a newer home worth about $500,000. This same home would cost nearly $1.5 to $2 million in the San Francisco area. My annual property taxes are $1400. I live in a very desirable but smaller city that is easy to get around, so I don't spend much on cars and gasoline. A retired couple with a paid off home can live very well here on an annual income of $70,000 and enjoy membership in a health club and dining at decent restaurants a couple of times weekly, plus attending the symphony, little theater and various other social activities.
Sounds like the wife and I. We have winter home near Gulf Shores, AL, a main residence near Gatlinburg, TN and a Clinch River cabin in Hancock Co., TN.
If you can’t retire with 2.2million whether in N.Y or SF then you doing something wrong and living waay above your means especially if you have your house Paid off. Don’t care where you live, at 2.2million u can live anywhere in the U.S
I would say you need $5-10 million in San Francisco. I know most of my friends who retired at age 50 have that much. They also have rental properties and stocks to supplement their income.
Good perspectives. I think that one if the major flaws with many of these studies is not considering the cost differential in various geographical locations. This is especially true with housing costs varying wildly. My small southern California beach community house may cost 2X a large midwestern house and definitely has an impact on perception of wealth. Clearly balancing lifestyle and wealth is a significant consideration in retirement
If you develop a medical condition that requires any degree of assisted living, then any amount of median wealth can evaporate almost instantly. Your health is your true 401k.
My MIL was astute enough to buy LTC Insurance. She started showing signs of dementia in her late 80s, lived with us during the pandemic as we wanted to keep her safe and post pandemic she moved into Assisted Living for the last two plus years. Thank goodness for LTC insurance which pays for around 2/3 of the monthly $10K fee. Her insurance will last her to over 100, thus she’s covered for life….smart lady that still recognizes us when we see her twice a week…
I’ve been diligently working, saving and contributing towards financial freedom and retirement, but since '20 pandemic, the economy so far has caused my portfolio to underperform. My question is this; do I look into alternative sectors, or keep contributing to my 401k?
Truth is, not everyone can be a successful trader/investor, my job doesn’t permit me the time to properly analyze my holdings or evaluate stocks myself, so I've had a trusted advisor actively restructuring my portfolio over the past 5 years now, summing up nearly $1m in return on investments ... maybe you should do the same.
The secret that most financial advisors don’t tell you is to push to reach the $1M level in investments so you can shift into the high yield world of private investments that won’t subject your portfolio to ups and downs. You’d ride along with the wealthy at 12-15% a year, every year. They just figure you’ll never get to $1M portfolio in the first place.
“That’s a path to unhappiness” great quote. All that needs to be said to the hate and the jealously. “Good luck, that’s a path to unhappiness, goodbye”
When I watch these videos sometimes I beat myself up a bit because I see that I missed those numbers completely. I am still very grateful to be healthy with no depts and in need of nothing..
On liabilities, no you don’t subtract your car payment! You should subtract the balance owing. Unless you have only the final payment due this is likely much more.
It of course all depends on your definition of 'wealthy'. And I feel like people get 'rich' and 'wealthy' mixed up and aren't sure which one they are shooting for... which is important as they often work against eachother. In my mind, and I freely admit that this is a personal definition, "Wealth" is an asset you have, and "Wealthy" is having enough assets that it can pay for your lifestyle independant of your ability or willingness to work. How much money you need to be wealthy then depends on your level of lifestyle, and being rich and being wealthy are 2 totally different things. You could have $200k invested while having a lifestyle at the poverty line of $12.5k and be both wealthy and in poverty. Today I would need ~$700k to consider myself wealthy, but in 25 years I expect to need $2M to be wealthy after considering inflation and lifestyle creep. Someone with a rich lifestyle of $500k/yr might need $7M+ to have enough wealth to sustain that lifestyle. Meanwhile, lifestyle is decoupled from wealth. I could sustain a rich lifestyle... for a few days just on my income, a few months with my assets, and maybe a full year if I tapped into my available debt. But because it is a lifestyle, it doesn't matter how it is paid for, just that it is paid for. The majority of rich people sustain their lifestyle based on their income and the burn rate on a windfall asset (inheritance, lotto, sale of a business, etc). A lot of upper middle class people sustain a rich lifestyle by digging themselves into debt over time. But only a few sports stars, actors, and business tycoons have the multiple millions to tens of millions to have a rich lifestyle that is supported by their wealth alone. Just better define what your goals are. What is success, what is satisfying, what level of richness do you require, and do you want to pursue wealth or richness? There is no right or wrong answer. There is no afterlife, and even if there was we can't take our riches with us, so as long as you aren't leaving a burden to your family, then there really isn't a wrong answer to if you want to pursue richness of expierence and lifestyle, or sustainable wealth. Personally, I have had a lot of bad luck early on in life, and now am facing chronic mental and physical issues in the family which aren't likely to put us in the grave early, but will make life far more exciting than the average person will exierence. Because of this, the right answer for myself is to go full pedal-to-the-metal towards the wealth building side of things. My lower middle class lifestyle is perfectly comfortable for me and my family, and as we know that we will have increasing interruptions to work and income generating capacity later in life, we need to build wealth as fast as possible to decouple our lifestyle from our work. It would be foolish to expand our lifestyle, only to have our life interrupted 10 years from now and no longer be able to sustain it. But not everyone has those same kinds of struggles. My best friend has a comprable income to me, but doesn't have the same hangups and headwinds, and so he lives a much richer lifestyle, and is very generous with it. He is still feeling young enough perhaps that he hasn't realized that he isn't going to live forever, so he has been on a cycle of getting into debt, and then panicking and doing a cash-out refi on the house, and cashing out his retirement to pay down the debt... and then the debt slowly grows, until it comes to a head, and then cycle, rinse, repeat. I think he is doing a bit better this go-aorund and is actually building some assets he will be able to keep this time, but as long as he figures it out before he is a burden on his kids, then there is really nothing wrong with what he is doing. And he genuinely enjoys his life, so I am not about to stop him unless he really gets reckless with his spending and is obviously getting to a fiscal point of no return. I couldn't enjoy what he is doing because I would be racked with guilt and worry, but that is why I am on a different path from him. When he does save money, he manages to save much more agressively than I am capable of because his basic costs of living are much lower. So I suspect he will be able to catch up and pass me pretty quickly once he finds the motivation to do it.
Understand. My brother-in-law is worth a couple of millions and owns his own business, yet he is currently single after two divorces, never had children (all of the ex-wives had children when they married him), has very few friends because he is a workaholic. He has had a parade of “relationships” with obvious gold diggers who hang around until they learn he will not be taking them on exotic vacations, buying them expensive things or letting them move into his million dollar home.
Wow it is awesome not only do you perceive this but also being able to admit it!!! That's 2/3 of the way there with the last and most important step being to do something about it!!!
I think a LOT of these net worth numbers are tied up in their houses. 300k or whatever isn't much if 200k is home equity and you are still paying a mortgage.
Unrealized equity means nothing. You can’t just sell a house for what a website says it’s worth, then have that money tomorrow. Tying your net worth to an unsold house is tenuous at best. In theory I have a decent amount of equity in my home, but I don’t count it as anything. Hopefully, many years from now, it’s 700k-1m in extra money… but I don’t count it as being worth a penny.
I live a very simple life, 1,000 sq foot older home that’s paid for, two older vehicles paid for, $750,000 in banks and investments. Monthly income provides my needs, wants and allows me to save. Have good fairly health and good health insurance. I’m in my mid 60’s. I’m blessed, but don’t necessarily feel wealthy.
I’m single, male, 75 years old. Retired. Net worth 1.8 million. I lived and worked in Morris County, New Jersey for my entire working life. I moved to North Texas two years ago. In New Jersey I didn’t feel wealthy. In North Texas I feel wealthy! 🤠
I grew up in a lower income household were we always rented small apartments and had very little money for anything. I went to work full time at 18. Today I am above the 3 million mark, owning my own house, rental properties and money in several stock market funds. To this day I still feel poor and scared to death to loose it all. I will be working and increasing my "wealth" as long as I can.
It isn't just that people are spending their money in retirement that the numbers go down once you hit retirement age. The older you are, the more likely that social security and a pension play a larger role in your retirement planning, so you simply never save up to the same numbers as people a decade or more younger than you. And then as you age, even if you never really cut into the principal, the fact that you are living off your dividends instead of compounding them caps you at a maximum, or extremely slow growth compared to younger people who are actively investing, and often investing in much more aggressive and volatile asset categories. My great grandparents had little to no retirement savings or personal assets outside of their small 2 bedroom home. But between social security, a pension, and military retirement they had a pretty OK retirement. My grandparents didn't go into the military, so they had to have some personal retirement savings to live on to add to their pension and social security. My parents didn't have a pension, so it is all social security and personal savings. My siblings and I aren't counting on social security to be there (or if not cut, we don't expect to get much out of it), so for us it will almost entirely be personal savings. Each generation has had to aim for a substantially higher max amount for savings (and thus net worth) at retirement age, which is the primary reason why older people look artificially more poor than they really are. Another curious factor is how much of a person's net worth is their home. My parent's generation grew up with the saying that 'your house is your greatest asset', and for very good reason! Their parents and grand parents didn't have easy cheap access to other financial savings and wealth building vehicles in the same way as younger generations, and so home ownership was the best way to lock in your largest lifestyle costs to the time period your home was purchased, which then allowed for literal savings to be a viable option. So my parents and their friends all bought the largest homes they could buy, all around the same time when they all got married and started having kids. My parents had a little more assets at the time, so they bought a larger home in a more rural area, while their friends bought much smaller homes in suburban areas. Those small suburban homes cost a lot less up front, so when their time came and they caught up on income, they defaulted to putting much more into stocks than my parents could afford to. In spite of similar lifestyle and income, the compounding of 40 years in markets vs 40 years largely invested in home repairs and maintenance made for a massive difference in wealth. My parents had to sell their home and move away, while their friends finally sold their homes and moved into their dream homes in state for retirement. Nobody saw that coming, and all of them bought the largest house they possibly could at the time thinking that was the best option, but those who were forced to buy smaller homes up front ended up being the wealthiest in retirement because they had to default to putting a much larger amount into other investments that appreciated faster and had fewer costs than their home did. I think the lesson to take away is to not have any single asset be a majority of your net worth. Home ownership is a great thing, and your home may be your single largest asset simply because of how expensive homes are; but if your home is the majority (50%+) of your assets, then you run the risk of having to uproot your life at retirement when you really want to settle in, or spend your efforts traveling instead of moving. And you still may move in retirement anyways, but not being forced to move is a good position to be in.
My house is half of my net worth of one million. My location is perfect for my retirement years. My pension and SS is enough for my living expense. What not to like? I'm 91 years old.
These types of numbers confuse the hell out of me considering that I routinely read that over 60% of Americans can't afford to pay cash for a small emergency.
Enjoyed the video. We are in the top 25% and I’m sure we would have been top 10% if I had not stayed home with the kids for 19 years. But I’m SO glad I did! I am Around a lot of top 10% and they don’t seem happier to me. Happiness is not directly correlated with wealth.
Our net worth is about 600k. BUT...we paid off our house, and car, and our monthly income is north of 8k. Our net worth is growing by about 60k per year. Our buying power is that of a wealthy family, but our net worth is a little low, given our income.
Its a great example of needing specifics, paying off your house is tremendous but if its worth say 500K your assets (savings, 401k etc) out side of your home are only 100K, And are you 20? 30? 60 and retiring?
I love the definition of being wealthy as being - earning more from your investments than from your salary. This effectively means you can choose if you want to work. It is the FI in FIRE. We are net worth over a million at 40, but we live in a very expensive part of the country, so it is stressful, as we are tied to our jobs. Being able to to walk away from a job that is toxic and not worry about paying our mortgage or paying for childcare, that is wealthy. So wealthy is really a function of your location and lifestyle.
Income of $180k before taxes but live on just $66k per year comfortably because of a paid off home and 0 debt. With SS income when we retire (soon) we know we’ll be in good shape because of our disciplined habits and high savings rate. It’s really all about expenses.
Love your videos. I am 56 and one of those people who may have 400,000 assets. With I feel very comfortable. Cash only purchases. Cars paid off. No debt other than mortgage.
Glad he addressed the issue of age when evaluating financial situation, but the other issue sometimes overlooked it the tax status of savings. YOU don't have money in an IRA, YOU + GOVERNMENT has the money in your traditional IRA. Big difference between someone with 2 million in a Roth IRA vs. someone with 2 million in a traditional IRA. Probably should estimate your net after taxes when calculating your net worth for such a comparison.
Just got into the upper quartile for my age group, as single man with lower than average income. Relocating was my second best decision. It's not how much you make it's how much tou can save.
I’ve got a wife of 32 years who loves me, 2 wonderful grown children, a grandson on the way, a good relationship with my wider family, a great tight knit group of friends, a cold beer in the fridge and a big steak on the grill. I’m the richest guy I know. Don’t let some wanker in a suit define what you value.
Recently my husband and I just sold two real estate properties in the Bay Area for a total sum of $616k due to foreclosures. We plan to purchase a new house next year, the cash is just sitting in our joint savings account What do you recommend we do? I will appreciate any suggestions
Certain stocks and commodities are a good hedge against inflation, however you need to know what the heck you're doing or better still, seek help from a money coach/invt-advisor
The markets and the real economy are not the same, one has to be cautious for the amount of time it will take rate-cuts to reflect on the market. was way easier for me to navigate the markets not until 2020 stock market crash, I had to source for a portfolio-coach to revamp my entire portfolio and hedge against inflation.
Concisely, I’ve pulled off around $850k after subsequent investments, since using a coach 3 years and counting. I might sell to the tune but not without the approval of my broker as usual I hedged up again in 2022. With guidance I have raked in 140% on a managed portfolio run under a hedge fund by Monica.
What wealth we do have is greatly amplified by our frugal lifestyle. Most of what's thought of as wealthy aren't things we're interested in. A mansion comes with a stunning loss of privacy as it requires a staff to maintain. Exotic cars are finicky, too flashy/tacky, and require far too much maintenance to be worth the trouble. Expensive clothes, jewelry, accessories...no thanks, better to be comfortable and we're not interested in going to places like this. Dining out, oh no...I have way too much fun in the kitchen for that. It's sort of funny when you think about how little you really need or even want and how little you need to provide for that, even in retirement.
Location and age play a huge part of this IMO. Age 30 in a rural low cost of living state it takes a lot less. A 55 year old in a high cost of living state it takes A LOT more to be considered wealthy
I bought my 1st small investment property in an up and coming area 40 years ago at age 27. Continued in real estate investing and am considered ultra high net worth today. I still had + have worries fears and stress. Today I’m happy with health and love and a good meal too. Yes wealth has brought more comforts than I could have imagined. But my god It Really Does Not Buy Happiness.
$2.5M in coastal CA without a mortgage = wealthy! You live where people vacation. I understand what you're saying though. The wealth here can get extreme (that's why we look at median).
I’ll update this and say money isn’t wealth…happiness is and is universally available…and the habit of being happy is a practice…the more we practice the more we have (happiness). I’m learning to practice happiness 🙏
I would say $3 million is middle class and $5 million is upper middle class. $7 million to $10 million is wealthy. I feel that a majority of the people in San Francisco fall into the $5 million to $7 million category. It just seems as though people have an abundance of money here. Unfortunately, I am just barely middle class here.
Im so thankful i started saving in my teenage years. I'm still concerned about retirement in10yrs @ 65 yrs old. Health care and inflation are a big concern! Let's hope the S&P500 keeps up a healthy average in the future.
I felt wealthy when I was 23 and reached $250K net worth in the late 1990s. Inflation adjusted, that’s worth about $600K today, which is not nearly enough to feel wealthy. That’s only one small disaster away from being wiped out. According to the median figures for net worth, the bottom 50% of the population are effectively broke. Really need about the 75% level just to be comfortable.
I feel so blessed to retire in those fortunate percentages. My wife and I both came from poor families but retired without worries. Happily married is number one. No worries is the icing on the cake. Just hard work and dedication to living below our means.
When you retire it’s all about receiving income from your assets. One person could have $1M in equity on their home but still owe $1M on a mortgage they need to cover monthly. Another person could have $1M equity in rental property that generates $100K/yr income after expenses.
So many people don;t understand this simple concept. Net worth in and of itself is a meaningless number. What counts is how much income do your assets generate? The financial industry has brainwashed people that net worth is a big deal because the simplest, surest way to becoming wealthy doesn't involve stocks.
The house you live in is net worth granted. But it not an asset, assets put money in your pocket. Liabilities cost you money. To be free or retired your assets will need to pay you. Great book is rich dad poor dad.
Getting ready to retire. Net worth of about 1.4 million. Certainly do not feel wealthy, especially with the high cost of everything!! My husband and I do not have extravagant spending habits and we are completely debt free. I would like to be able to say that I am completely confident embarking on our retirement journey, but there is still an element of uncertainty. Nevertheless, super excited for this next phase!!
That is a huge $ , congrats. From $ standpoint, the REAL measure is how much is your NW generating for you in monthly/annual cash flow to live on. For example, if you have a net worth of $2.5M, according to the two studies talked about here, you are Wealthy! But, if $2.3M is in your home equity and you only have $200k in liquid assets that can generate you cash to live on, I'd say you are NOT wealthy. However, if you had $1.5M in liquid assets plus $1M home equity, you would be a lot more wealthier than the guy above with the diamond and gold home.
@@FIRED13since you brought up annual cash flow or future income flow then in reality social security income should be counted as an “asset” and part of net worth. All the numbers reported by Azul seem low because SS income and pension income are excluded. My SS will be 3,500 as is. My wife half of mine. This is 5,250. Medicare will need to be backed out. But let’s just say 5k per month. Monthly factor of 12 of course then a 20 factor or so as SS is inflation adjusted. If one wants to be more conservative use 15. 5k x 12 x 15 = 900k SS Asset.
For me, up to about $5 million I would consider "working class wealth." Meaning working people, if they save and invest consistently, should be able to get somewhere around that number by the time they retire. In my mind, real wealth starts around the 10 million dollar mark. But there are so many other variables.
Obviously u have expensive taste. Anyone could retire on a million bucks alongside of Social Security. If everything is paid off . The mindset has to shift from savings mode to spend down mode . Most people aren't gonna make it more than 20 years in retirement. And u don't owe anyone a dime as far as a legacy. Have fun
Greg: I'm good, anyway, cuz, uh, my, so, I was just talkin' to my mom, and she said, apparently, he'll leave me five million anyway, so I'm golden, baby. Connor: You can't do anything with five, Greg. Five's a nightmare. Greg: Is it? Connor: Oh, yeah. Can't retire. Not worth it to work. Oh, yes, five will drive you un poco loco, my fine feathered friend. Tom: The poorest rich person in America. The world's tallest dwarf. Connor: The weakest strong man at the circus. For what it’s worth, I agree with you.
I totally agree. A few million (in addition to your home) is very comfortable in most cities but not wealthy. Pretty mediocre in expensive cities like here in Denver. The question was "wealthy". Only 1-2% can be wealthy.
I enjoy the videos and learn a lot. I'm not a huge fan of the blur to reveal data. I sometimes revisit the videos for specific information. Having to find the exact spot where the whole chart is visible takes extra time. Could you highlight what you are talking about instead?
Reading books has really skyrocket the way I think about investing. Indeed, no one has ever got rich by saving money. If you want to become financially free, You need to Invest. I've come to realize that the key to amassing wealth lies in making sound investments.
Yeah, You're Right! According to a book writer; 'What everyone needs is to work with a financial advisor, who can help you get in and out of any investment at any time and you'd sure be in profit.
Whichever firm you select, make sure you get your insurance from a reputable financial adviser, such as Samuel Peter Descovich, who has dedicated his career to financial planning. Because they will assist you in escalating, navigating better, and completing the task in a safer manner.||
I was pleasantly surprised to find that you're familiar with him as well. I've had the privilege of working closely with Samuel Peter Descovich over the past few months, and he has not only helped me earn substantial profits but has also been an exceptional mentor and trader. His ability to navigate various market situations is truly remarkable, and I couldn't be more satisfied with our collaboration-
I lived and worked in the Middle-East for 10 years. The packages there for professionals are $$$$$$$$ (tax, bills and insurance free). There you'll learn the difference between rich and wealthy. Wealthy people buy atolls in the Maldives to develop, father and eldest son don't fly together (1st class of course). Whilst rich people, well.... their assets, net or gross, isn't in the same stratosphere.
Yes I think this a very relative term . I am retired and have sufficient recourse to support myself. But in terms of what is regarded as wealthy I am not. I have liquid assets amounting to about $550,000 . But I don’t live a high life and am not a big spender so this is more than adequate for me.
Housing values so skew the results that’s it’s hard to make comparisons. You have to adjust for that factor or you will get a false perception. $2.2 million in California is not even close to the same amount of money as in Kansas City.
I tend to include the present value of a series of pension or social security payments. Obviously as we age and remaining life expectancy drops that decreases. The difference between that and income from employment is that there’s no guarantee of future employment. On the other hand I discount assets in retirement accounts by expected taxation. I also discount the value of a home by 10% to account for sales costs before calculating equity.
Wow, here in the Seattle area $2.2M is nowhere near wealthy when the average house goes for over $800,000 and we aren't even the most expensive area in the country. Personally I would put the lowest edge of wealthy at closer to $4m or $5m here. How do I define wealthy? For me it comes down to these items 1) You have larger than average house in a nicer than average neighborhood in or close to the city 2) Everyday expenses like food, energy, medicine are well covered and cause no stress 3) You can take a 2 week overseas vacation once a year 4) your children are guaranteed a fully-paid college education at a state school 5) You can retire at full retirement age (66 - 67) and not have to reduce your lifestyle.
I think Schwab's initial survey of how much people thought they needed to be comfortable, may have been subconsciously influenced by the questions: What if we have a catastrophic medical emergency? What if I have to help out my children? What if we have a wildly extravagant home repair emergency? What if we both need nursing homes? How can we quantify the effects of inflation? These are all unknown costs, and if we have not at least talked about them with professionals in each of the fields, we are going to be insecure about what those costs will be.
I think the opposite. It would be influenced by, "How much money do I need for a nice home in a nice neighborhood, how much do I need to own a new nice car every few years, how much do I need to take a nice vacation every year?, how much do I need to send my children to University?"
Great info. Savings is not easy with everything pulling at you like kids, bills, life, etc but do the best you can. The more you save when you are young the better. I'm above average in my age group thankfully.
When we didn’t have much, no one cared. Our current situation is that now everyone wants a loan, help or wants us to buy something with them. We spend more time defending and protecting our assets. Can’t make a move without lawyers and CPA’s. It honestly is a full time job for my wife and I. Yes we are very comfortable and busted our butts for years. How is it that family members and others feel it’s appropriate to want what we worked for? The answer is NO! We helped for many years and it’s never solved their problems and only created grief for us. Give gifts if you choose but remember it’s not anyone else’s money.
$2.2M doesn't seem anywhere near wealthy. Living in the US is super expensive, and to me being wealthy means that you don't have to look at the price tag. With "only" $2.2M you are a long way from that
I agree. 2.2M is nowhere close to wealthy. Let’s say they have $500k paid off house and 1.7 in liquid investments. That leaves you with 70k in income. That’s comfortable, but not wealthy! I am 50 with networth close to $7M. I do not feel wealthy at all!
I think where you live is the determining factor as well. 2.2 million is not much in California. The average house in our neighborhood is 1.5 million, and the average income is 175,0000.
At 66, retired and worth $4 mil the hard part is convincing my wife we’ve got plenty. Now it’s time to start enjoying the hard work and delayed gratification. Just got back from an impromptu trip to London. Didn’t think a minute about the cost. It’s a nice feeling knowing that unless I turn into a rap star and start burning Benjamin’s I’m covered. Remember, help your kids…don’t make them rich.
Yesterday there was an article in my news feed "Millionaires are the New Middle Class." Certainly true for me. I am 74 with a net worth of $1.5 million. I do not feel wealthy. I feel middle class. In fact, I AM middle class. I live in a middle class neighborhood and could'nt afford to live elsewhere.
I don't include my house in my net worth because selling it is not an option. Plus, including a house in net worth can give a skewed view of net worth. If two households have a net worth of 2 million, but one of them is in a high cost area so their home has a value 500,000 higher than the other, are their net worths really comparable?
Selling your home is always an option, if you sold and decided to rent in retirement the equity in your house could generate tremendous income if invested.I'm choosing to not sell my home but I keep it open as an option.
@@FreedomFighter485, if I sold my home, invested the money and tried to have the gains cover rental income to someone else plus additional income to me it would have to be making $35,000 a year. I dont see that happening, and I'd rather just not have a payment and if I am strapped for cash later in life I will consider the options.
In college, it was often said if you had a roof over your head food in your stomach, enough money to cover expenses and happy more just gets green so it became the difference between need versus greed people today are more greedy because you will never have enough except a bigger hole, so what makes you happy not as much as you think what makes you wealthy as something different get seriously ill be given a sentence of death with brain cancer. It all came down to two things out of everything in my life. It came down to two.
2.1 m networth , no debts but feel poor!! Why?? Single male Retired at 57 with a DB pension and several investments. Hired a financial planner and he said "spend". Lol 😆
I think your pension makes you rich because you will not need to touch your money. I quit my job last year, but I can't not work as 51 year old, I don't want to spend my savings yet. I can live off of incone from dividend/interest but then I won't have any growth in my savings and medical insurance( 600 dollars on market for single person). So, I will enjoy my break until mid 2024 and then might look for work. I m in same net worth range as you, but can't fully retire yet. Great job..
62 years old with a net worth just over 2.5 million. I don’t feel like a millionaire just a regular middle class person. I make a normal income of $62,000/year. Have worked hard all my life and put my money in things of value like real estate. I don’t feel rich just very blessed!
Make more money while you're working and pay everything off. Social Security is often left out of these calculations because, for many, it isn't a lot of money. However, if you both had high earnings for many years, it can be quite significant. Our home and cars are paid for, so we can comfortably live on our monthly SS checks. We retired three years ago and have no plans to to make withdrawals from our retirement accounts until our RMDs kick in.
seems like one of my local NAPFA firms charge a flat $10k a year fee to be your advisor. They seem to only want persons with 1 million or more in assets.
I think a primary residence should not be calculated in the determination of net worth. Liquid assets are more indicators of true financial independence.
I enjoy your videos but why all of the edits - slight zooming in and out - just not needed and aggravating. And also all of the micro second cuts while you are talking - please just let the video run without all of that. Great info.
When you have 25X your annual expenditures in working assets, (Brokerage accounts + rental property). This would allow you to withdrawal 4% a year to live on with a very high certainty of never running out of money in your lifetime.
81 we are rich in assets but poor in friends and relatives whom we have outlived that's the worst part of getting old I miss them terribly I miss him terribly I miss her terribly and Especially my pets
Azul: You said in a video if you want to sleep well in retirement, keep 5-years of your expenses in bonds. Do you mean bond "income?" Or do you mean 5-years of expenses in face value of bonds? If face value, wouldn't eating into my bond portfolio value reduce my income when the market recovered? I would no longer have the same income off my bond portfolio.
An Executive VP of Sales in the company I work at decided to retire a few years ago. He certainly had enough money for life. Unfortunately, after only a year of retirement, he died unexpectedly. Your prestigious job is keeping you from retiring. I hope you will live long and healthy enough to enjoy your wealth.
It is a dangerous trap ..... next year will likely always bring more money but you are selling one year of retirement/remaining life. If you have things you want to do in retirement, once you have enough, then more money does no good except to build your estate. Which may already be huge. Once we realized we had enough to literally take as many exotic trips a year as we wanted, buy toys, and still leave our kids each more than the amount this article saya is rwealthy, we decided it was time to retire. I saw too many colleagues wait "one more year" then have a health issue suddenly crop up that prevented them from ever enjoying that first retirement bucket list item. There will always be more money, but will you have more time ? We retired over 9 years ago in our mid-fifties and glad we did. Writing this from a 3 week snorkeling vacation in Maui and sitting on a Lanai looking out at the ocean and watching sea turtles and looking for whales right now. More money would not have changed a thing but could have prevented us having this and dozens of other travel experiences since we retired. Don't stay too long if you have things you want to see/enjoy in retirement.
@@Binatasjif it is like places where I worked, an EVP of sales probably lived a pretty sweet lifestyle while working. Company car, first class flights, trips around the world where they add private vacations on the company, wining and dining clients on the company CC, stock options, etc.
In the United Kingdom we have work place pensions the average payment is £20 per week and the employer also puts £20 in so total £40 per week..i also opened a private pension .and put £80 per month..now at 56 years old i dont think its enough to retire..i have a old car but live rent free..interesting to watch your videos..
I think, that wealth is a state of mind. A better question is are you working class or wealthy. Working class is anyone who has to continue working to pay bills. Wealthy is anyone who can pay their bills and not have to work. You can have a high net worth, but still have to work to pay for your lifestyle, whereas someone who has a retirement and doesn't have to work unless they want to is wealthy.
In my opinion, people are ignorant to what they actually need. With inflation and increasing taxes and when big burdens come due for medical expenses or end-of-life care and stuff like that you need 4 to 10 times what you have to get through the absolute bad times. And this isn’t even counting a bad, recession or depression, like my dad went through.
How does one go about finding a dependable fee-only financial planner? Are there success measures to look out for? What is the typical price range for such services? Thank you for your content!
My net worth is about 450k. Only a mortgage that I should have it paid off in about four years is my debt. No car loan, no credit card debt. Savings is about 100k. I have a comfortable pension, social security and VA income. Totals about 85k and expenses are only about 4k. I put $2500 into savings every month. I live way below my means and always have.
Success is the result of deliberate actions. Building wealth requires developing good habits, like saving money regularly and investing wisely. Ignoring financial management can lead to problems later on. I hope that everyone reading this achieves their financial goals!
Starting early is simply the best way of getting ahead to build wealth, investing remains a priority. I learned from my last year's experience, I am able to build a suitable life because I invested early ahead this time.
I love the insight. Professionals could make a really big difference in investing, and I think everyone should have one. There are aspects of market trend that is difficult for the untrained eyes to see. I have made more than 350% through my estateplanner(fa) by alternative investing. The portfolio comes with perks as well.
One of my goals is to employ the service of an asset-manager this year. I've seen some off social media but wasn't able to get a response. Could you recommend one?
Rebecca Noblett Roberts is the licensed fiduciary I use. Just research the name. You’d find necessary details to work with a correspondence to set up an appointment..
Thank you so much for your helpful tip! I was able to verify the person and book a call session with her. She seems very proficient and I'm really grateful for your pointers
When I was younger being wealthy used to means:
- Owning mansions in Beverly Hills or Pebble Beach
- Driving nice cars
- Taking women out on fancy dates
- Going out on fancy vacations flying first class and staying at luxury hotel suites
Now being wealthy to me means:
- Not having to worry about losing my job or having to work into retirement years
- Being able to cover unexpected emergency expenses
- Being healthy and in no pain
- Having time to spend with my family on vacations
You were a child and you grew up and learned.
That's all that happened. Nothing changed. Being wealthy was always primarily about security and wellbeing.
@@markmedley6849no, it isn’t. What he showed is growing up and learning what he really wants.
There are a lot more people who are wealthy using your definition.
The first 4 are you playing geee I wish I was that guy. The next four are you coming down to earth and being honest with your self.
lol taking women out on fancy dates
After retiring I believe I am very wealthy by not having to set my alarm each morning, waking up by the person I love, knowing I have no mortgage or other loans to pay off, knowing I have enough income to pay my gas, electric, water and tax bills and still have change to play with when needed, I don’t have millions but I have my health and so I believe I am very very wealthy. I am also very fortunate but I found out early on in life that the harder I worked the more lucky I got.
We have enough to live comfortably for many years… we’re not rich but working class retired and we just did everything we could to lower the overhead.
We live a simple lifestyle and are over the big purchases.
But I do consider myself wealthy because I don’t have to answer to anyone’s bullshit.. ever again ! Mission accomplished 👍
no answer to anyone' bs is the biggest luxury in life
@@kathleenwang It really is.
As a retired Home Health/ Hospice RN, a recent widow with a well to do net worth, I am grateful. It really means nothing without companionship, love & your good health. Our secret throughout 52 years together was always saving a large percent of our working income, investing it wisely & most importantly always live below your means. We were always happy enjoying nature, traveling…staying inside cruise rooms, flying premium economy, saving for large purchases. I drive a 10 year old car…I am leaving my funds to our Alma Mater to train nurses. Jeanne
I've easily have surpassed $2.2 mill net worth and I never consider myself wealthy. I live very easily and I enjoy a good life. Living debt free and below your means will make life much more enjoyable.
You're still wealthy!
Same. Have about 7 more years to work, but am already beyond the $2.2 mil mark. I don't even think about it. I live comfortably, but not extravagantly. It's exactly how I like it (and how my kids should learn to appreciate life, not wealth). When I retire one day maybe I'll see it differently (drop the saving mentality). But for now, my family is happy.
I call myself “financially secure” you two are same
When I say the people assume I am wealthy and self made
I am well over the 2.2 million, but still have another 13 years left to work. I have enough in the 529 plans to cover my kids college educations. Now I can redirect the contributions towards my retirement and paying down the house. I barely feel as though I am middle class. Always living below my means and saving feels as though I am living paycheck to paycheck.
If you can pay your bills and have someone that loves you and have good health then you are wealthy.
You get it! Most don't.
bingo
add to it you wake up each day and not have to go to work then its complete wealthy,,
Too beautiful yet too careless
I think that's a great attitude. But I would also like the security of knowing I will be able to pay my bills tomorrow, too - even if I am unable to work. Wealth = freedom AND security. IMO
Fantastic video. Really goes to show how society thinks it takes $2.3 million but with $560,000 “I’m doing ok”. Years ago I backpacked the world. I got to see serious poverty. I knew right then and there I was wealthy. Just being able to travel made me wealthy. People in this country REALLY need a reality check!!!
I couldn't have said it better. There are problems with poverty here too of course. But most of us live like kings, even though we may think we're not doing very well at all. Had a friend that lived overseas working with an organization helping people improve their lives. A piece of tinfoil that we may use to wrap a sandwich would be a luxury to many people there. It would be carefully saved and reused until it crumbled. I think of that every time I'm feeling bad because I can't afford some shiny new thing that I don't need.
@@xlerb2286 at the time of my travels, most of India didn’t have toilet paper
Well said. A good friend of mine from the country Laos who immigrated with her Parents to Australia in Asia said if people are unemployed the government does have a social security system like the unemployment benefit - have to rely on family to help them.
I had a minor career setback a little over a year ago. I was naturally a little depressed and pissed but I was still working and making good money anyway that day I had an assignment that had me cover a winter coat giveaway and I had a realization, ok so I lost a nice side hustle but I have never had to stand in line for over 2 hours so that my sons would have winter coats this year. It was eye opening.
@@editorcj that’s precisely what the majority of Americans need to experience.
I don't feel wealthy, I feel blessed. The blessings have come from consistent work and saving, and paying off my home. Not everyone can do this, that's why I feel blessed.
Every month when I've paid my bills I have hundreds of dollars left over. That state of conditions seems likely to continue every month until I die.
THAT is wealth. All the wealth I need.
Jordan Peterson talks about a study that says something like this. Once you get to a point where you can pay all of your bills, anything more than that does not significantly increase happiness.
I couldn't care less about what people think makes me wealthy. What makes me wealthy is I can cover all of my needs and my family's needs even if we faced job loss and unexpected expenses. What makes me wealthy is I have a great wife that is also my friend, kids that are doing well in life and friend groups I see generally at least twice a week.
Agree. I'd rather have $10K per month of income coming in for the rest of my life and zero bills and no house payment....over $2.2 million. Reality is, if you have good family and friends and have enough to make ends meet and enough for a few luxuries and live comfortably....that's wealthy. Wealth is happiness and a few extra dollars to have fun, not a specific dollar amount.
This, median is also meaningless stats to me. Why do we want to add and compare with people who have little or no money or too much money? it's all about how much that you need. I like average better than median to be honest. if you are in the median, you are most likely don't have enough money to cover your needs because there are just way more poor people than rich
Net worth is an excellent metric to evaluate readiness to retire but not perfect. I worked for a guy who had incredible net worth as well as income but was constantly stressed out about his situation. He was a “keep up with the Jones” type of guy and while he owned a very expensive second home in a high end ski resort that was worth more than what he paid, the cost of owning it was more than he could afford. The result was a healthy net worth but negative cash flow. Ultimately, living within your means is the best measure of wealth.
No amount is enough for that sort of guy, there is always somebody with a flashier watch or a bigger house or a longer yacht or a prettier wife.
Great comment. I live in a place (Marin County, near San Francisco) where everyone seems to constantly be doing the Jones's thing. 1.2 million mortgages, literally bragging about their new Rolex, always the newest e-bikes and e-cars, all that. I drive a 17 y/o prius that I spray painted with rainbows for my girls, we have ridiculous net worth by the standards in this video. While all my neighbors rent tahoe mansions for the winter, we walk downtown, get coffee and treats with the kids, and hit the library. We also go up the coast three times a year, and hit europe once a year, but we don't tell anyone, because why? Sad weird stuff out there in the world. Doing stuff for other people, strange.
True wealth is measure of several things, not just Net Worth. Think Health. Or Monthly (or annual) Cash Flow to support a desired, comfortable lifestyle, How about Spiritual Comfort? Or Amount of True Friends (and Family)?
@@yourcheapdate4564 your neighbors sound like trashy new money. You are the old guard that has traditionally lived there.
@@yourcheapdate4564 you’ve likely been in your Marin County home for years where the home has appreciated astronomically….to the point where it would be hard to buy back in..also thank goodness for Prop 13 keeping property taxes low. Imagine paying the property tax on a comparable home with a $3.5 million assessment versus a $600 thousand assessment in the same neighborhood? That lower historical assessment is an asset in itself.
Wow! I didn’t know being an engineer in South America could lead me to be in the 25% top of USA! Thanks Azul, I’ll continue saving and investing for my retirement. Cheers from Chile 🇨🇱
And I would assume you can make that wealth go a lot further in your part of the world. I suppose the only thing one worries about there is Marxist government or rampant money printing to cause sky-rocketing inflation. But really, the U.S. isn't that different in this sense either.
Retired/age 65. No where near 2.2 million dollars in net worth. Good health, great family, no debt. Savings account (invested) plus pension and social security benefits in future. Contentment!!
Your wealthy!
Pension! That is a luxury most people do not have.
@@t0dd000 true, that is a thing of the past. unless you were a teacher or cop. that is why you should try to max out your 401k
You don’t need much if you live simple. The more you want the more you need. Find happiness without spending money and you got it made.
But you can't "find" happiness living under a blue tarp on a cold street in a large city. You can die trying though.
Yes. The painful lesson i learned is that “wealthy” is living off of 1/4 of the interest of your investments.
It doesn’t matter is that is $30k/year, you are more wealthy than someone spending all of $1 million a year supporting their “lifestyle”.
@@Partysize2some people do that very thing. What’s more is that study after study shows that after a certain point, more money doesn’t make you happier. And that number isn’t very high. Pre pandemic, it was around $70k per household in the US.
You need wealth honestly to have the time to find happiness and all that. Honestly, time is the most important commodity and money buys access to time. Free time that is. Where you have the luxury to focus on random problems that are not your own
@@williammeek4078 To quote Daniel Tosh, have you ever seen someone frowning while riding on a jet ski? Money may not buy happiness, but it does buy boats and airplanes!
Where you live has a lot to do with how far your money goes and your true net worth. I live on the Alabama Gulf Coast in a newer home worth about $500,000. This same home would cost nearly $1.5 to $2 million in the San Francisco area. My annual property taxes are $1400. I live in a very desirable but smaller city that is easy to get around, so I don't spend much on cars and gasoline. A retired couple with a paid off home can live very well here on an annual income of $70,000 and enjoy membership in a health club and dining at decent restaurants a couple of times weekly, plus attending the symphony, little theater and various other social activities.
Sounds like the wife and I. We have winter home near Gulf Shores, AL, a main residence near Gatlinburg, TN and a Clinch River cabin in Hancock Co., TN.
Real estate investors losing money is music to my ears. They are a major reason why the real estate market is the way that it is now.
$2.2 million in small town America is a big difference than $2.2 million in NY city or SF!
If you can’t retire with 2.2million whether in N.Y or SF then you doing something wrong and living waay above your means especially if you have your house
Paid off. Don’t care where you live, at 2.2million u can live anywhere in the U.S
It really comes down to cash flow, how much $ is your NW generating for you to live on?
If you live in SF, just multiply it by 5!
@@GaryCruzIf you live in SF, ask yourself why.
I would say you need $5-10 million in San Francisco. I know most of my friends who retired at age 50 have that much. They also have rental properties and stocks to supplement their income.
Health is wealth!
Beat me to it!!
Plus having necessary life skills to generate income whenever you might need it.
true, we all have a bunch of problems we worry about. But if you have a health problem, you really have on problem.
We paid off our mortgage…best recommendation for everyone.
Yeap.
Good perspectives. I think that one if the major flaws with many of these studies is not considering the cost differential in various geographical locations. This is especially true with housing costs varying wildly. My small southern California beach community house may cost 2X a large midwestern house and definitely has an impact on perception of wealth. Clearly balancing lifestyle and wealth is a significant consideration in retirement
If you develop a medical condition that requires any degree of assisted living, then any amount of median wealth can evaporate almost instantly. Your health is your true 401k.
My MIL was astute enough to buy LTC Insurance. She started showing signs of dementia in her late 80s, lived with us during the pandemic as we wanted to keep her safe and post pandemic she moved into Assisted Living for the last two plus years. Thank goodness for LTC insurance which pays for around 2/3 of the monthly $10K fee. Her insurance will last her to over 100, thus she’s covered for life….smart lady that still recognizes us when we see her twice a week…
It is just a number. More important is cash flow and expenses .
I’ve been diligently working, saving and contributing towards financial freedom and retirement, but since '20 pandemic, the economy so far has caused my portfolio to underperform. My question is this; do I look into alternative sectors, or keep contributing to my 401k?
diversification is the key, that way your investment is balanced and you don’t get to make so much risks or losses
Truth is, not everyone can be a successful trader/investor, my job doesn’t permit me the time to properly analyze my holdings or evaluate stocks myself, so I've had a trusted advisor actively restructuring my portfolio over the past 5 years now, summing up nearly $1m in return on investments ... maybe you should do the same.
Aileen Gertrude Tippy'' is her name. She is regarded as a genius in her area and works for Empower Financial Services
The secret that most financial advisors don’t tell you is to push to reach the $1M level in investments so you can shift into the high yield world of private investments that won’t subject your portfolio to ups and downs. You’d ride along with the wealthy at 12-15% a year, every year. They just figure you’ll never get to $1M portfolio in the first place.
Stock market is higher than it has ever been. your ivestments must be in the wrong place. Go Joe.
“That’s a path to unhappiness” great quote. All that needs to be said to the hate and the jealously.
“Good luck, that’s a path to unhappiness, goodbye”
When I watch these videos sometimes I beat myself up a bit because I see that I missed those numbers completely. I am still very grateful to be healthy with no depts and in need of nothing..
On liabilities, no you don’t subtract your car payment! You should subtract the balance owing. Unless you have only the final payment due this is likely much more.
A low crime house in Seattle is $2M. A low crime house in a Montana small town is $200k.
My wife and I are in our late 50s. Debt free. Worth One million, one hundred & fifty. We feel better than most but not wealthy by no means.
Wealth really is subjective but I assure you when you see poverty the goalposts will move.
We are in our mid 60's and still working part time with a net worth of 4.4 million. We still don't feel wealthy, drive used cars and spend sensibly.
It of course all depends on your definition of 'wealthy'. And I feel like people get 'rich' and 'wealthy' mixed up and aren't sure which one they are shooting for... which is important as they often work against eachother.
In my mind, and I freely admit that this is a personal definition, "Wealth" is an asset you have, and "Wealthy" is having enough assets that it can pay for your lifestyle independant of your ability or willingness to work. How much money you need to be wealthy then depends on your level of lifestyle, and being rich and being wealthy are 2 totally different things. You could have $200k invested while having a lifestyle at the poverty line of $12.5k and be both wealthy and in poverty. Today I would need ~$700k to consider myself wealthy, but in 25 years I expect to need $2M to be wealthy after considering inflation and lifestyle creep. Someone with a rich lifestyle of $500k/yr might need $7M+ to have enough wealth to sustain that lifestyle.
Meanwhile, lifestyle is decoupled from wealth. I could sustain a rich lifestyle... for a few days just on my income, a few months with my assets, and maybe a full year if I tapped into my available debt. But because it is a lifestyle, it doesn't matter how it is paid for, just that it is paid for. The majority of rich people sustain their lifestyle based on their income and the burn rate on a windfall asset (inheritance, lotto, sale of a business, etc). A lot of upper middle class people sustain a rich lifestyle by digging themselves into debt over time. But only a few sports stars, actors, and business tycoons have the multiple millions to tens of millions to have a rich lifestyle that is supported by their wealth alone.
Just better define what your goals are. What is success, what is satisfying, what level of richness do you require, and do you want to pursue wealth or richness? There is no right or wrong answer. There is no afterlife, and even if there was we can't take our riches with us, so as long as you aren't leaving a burden to your family, then there really isn't a wrong answer to if you want to pursue richness of expierence and lifestyle, or sustainable wealth.
Personally, I have had a lot of bad luck early on in life, and now am facing chronic mental and physical issues in the family which aren't likely to put us in the grave early, but will make life far more exciting than the average person will exierence. Because of this, the right answer for myself is to go full pedal-to-the-metal towards the wealth building side of things. My lower middle class lifestyle is perfectly comfortable for me and my family, and as we know that we will have increasing interruptions to work and income generating capacity later in life, we need to build wealth as fast as possible to decouple our lifestyle from our work. It would be foolish to expand our lifestyle, only to have our life interrupted 10 years from now and no longer be able to sustain it.
But not everyone has those same kinds of struggles. My best friend has a comprable income to me, but doesn't have the same hangups and headwinds, and so he lives a much richer lifestyle, and is very generous with it. He is still feeling young enough perhaps that he hasn't realized that he isn't going to live forever, so he has been on a cycle of getting into debt, and then panicking and doing a cash-out refi on the house, and cashing out his retirement to pay down the debt... and then the debt slowly grows, until it comes to a head, and then cycle, rinse, repeat. I think he is doing a bit better this go-aorund and is actually building some assets he will be able to keep this time, but as long as he figures it out before he is a burden on his kids, then there is really nothing wrong with what he is doing. And he genuinely enjoys his life, so I am not about to stop him unless he really gets reckless with his spending and is obviously getting to a fiscal point of no return. I couldn't enjoy what he is doing because I would be racked with guilt and worry, but that is why I am on a different path from him. When he does save money, he manages to save much more agressively than I am capable of because his basic costs of living are much lower. So I suspect he will be able to catch up and pass me pretty quickly once he finds the motivation to do it.
@@philc.9280how could you possibly envision burning through 4.4 million by the time you die?!?!
@@philc.9280 i strongly recommend you start to donate some of that money to your favorite charities. The feeling will be enriching
I’m technically a millionaire but I am destitute when it comes to the things that truly matter in life.
Understand. My brother-in-law is worth a couple of millions and owns his own business, yet he is currently single after two divorces, never had children (all of the ex-wives had children when they married him), has very few friends because he is a workaholic. He has had a parade of “relationships” with obvious gold diggers who hang around until they learn he will not be taking them on exotic vacations, buying them expensive things or letting them move into his million dollar home.
Wow it is awesome not only do you perceive this but also being able to admit it!!! That's 2/3 of the way there with the last and most important step being to do something about it!!!
preach
I think a LOT of these net worth numbers are tied up in their houses. 300k or whatever isn't much if 200k is home equity and you are still paying a mortgage.
Yes, home equity is used when adding up your net worth.
You need to subtract liabilities, by definition
Unrealized equity means nothing. You can’t just sell a house for what a website says it’s worth, then have that money tomorrow.
Tying your net worth to an unsold house is tenuous at best. In theory I have a decent amount of equity in my home, but I don’t count it as anything. Hopefully, many years from now, it’s 700k-1m in extra money… but I don’t count it as being worth a penny.
Health is wealth but health isn’t free. Save and invest your money! Thanks Azul, great analysis.
I live a very simple life, 1,000 sq foot older home that’s paid for, two older vehicles paid for, $750,000 in banks and investments. Monthly income provides my needs, wants and allows me to save. Have good fairly health and good health insurance. I’m in my mid 60’s. I’m blessed, but don’t necessarily feel wealthy.
I’m single, male, 75 years old. Retired. Net worth 1.8 million. I lived and worked in Morris County, New Jersey for my entire working life. I moved to North Texas two years ago. In New Jersey I didn’t feel wealthy. In North Texas I feel wealthy! 🤠
I am in BERGEN City NJ. Age 65, NW is $5M and still working. I guess I fee comfortable, but I do not feel wealthy.
I grew up in a lower income household were we always rented small apartments and had very little money for anything. I went to work full time at 18. Today I am above the 3 million mark, owning my own house, rental properties and money in several stock market funds. To this day I still feel poor and scared to death to loose it all. I will be working and increasing my "wealth" as long as I can.
It isn't just that people are spending their money in retirement that the numbers go down once you hit retirement age. The older you are, the more likely that social security and a pension play a larger role in your retirement planning, so you simply never save up to the same numbers as people a decade or more younger than you. And then as you age, even if you never really cut into the principal, the fact that you are living off your dividends instead of compounding them caps you at a maximum, or extremely slow growth compared to younger people who are actively investing, and often investing in much more aggressive and volatile asset categories.
My great grandparents had little to no retirement savings or personal assets outside of their small 2 bedroom home. But between social security, a pension, and military retirement they had a pretty OK retirement. My grandparents didn't go into the military, so they had to have some personal retirement savings to live on to add to their pension and social security. My parents didn't have a pension, so it is all social security and personal savings. My siblings and I aren't counting on social security to be there (or if not cut, we don't expect to get much out of it), so for us it will almost entirely be personal savings. Each generation has had to aim for a substantially higher max amount for savings (and thus net worth) at retirement age, which is the primary reason why older people look artificially more poor than they really are.
Another curious factor is how much of a person's net worth is their home. My parent's generation grew up with the saying that 'your house is your greatest asset', and for very good reason! Their parents and grand parents didn't have easy cheap access to other financial savings and wealth building vehicles in the same way as younger generations, and so home ownership was the best way to lock in your largest lifestyle costs to the time period your home was purchased, which then allowed for literal savings to be a viable option. So my parents and their friends all bought the largest homes they could buy, all around the same time when they all got married and started having kids. My parents had a little more assets at the time, so they bought a larger home in a more rural area, while their friends bought much smaller homes in suburban areas. Those small suburban homes cost a lot less up front, so when their time came and they caught up on income, they defaulted to putting much more into stocks than my parents could afford to. In spite of similar lifestyle and income, the compounding of 40 years in markets vs 40 years largely invested in home repairs and maintenance made for a massive difference in wealth. My parents had to sell their home and move away, while their friends finally sold their homes and moved into their dream homes in state for retirement. Nobody saw that coming, and all of them bought the largest house they possibly could at the time thinking that was the best option, but those who were forced to buy smaller homes up front ended up being the wealthiest in retirement because they had to default to putting a much larger amount into other investments that appreciated faster and had fewer costs than their home did.
I think the lesson to take away is to not have any single asset be a majority of your net worth. Home ownership is a great thing, and your home may be your single largest asset simply because of how expensive homes are; but if your home is the majority (50%+) of your assets, then you run the risk of having to uproot your life at retirement when you really want to settle in, or spend your efforts traveling instead of moving. And you still may move in retirement anyways, but not being forced to move is a good position to be in.
My house is half of my net worth of one million. My location is perfect for my retirement years. My pension and SS is enough for my living expense. What not to like? I'm 91 years old.
These types of numbers confuse the hell out of me considering that I routinely read that over 60% of Americans can't afford to pay cash for a small emergency.
I would say these are Schwab customers who are participating and are regularly investing, not the man on the street.
@@leisure057blank3exactly. You can’t provide your net worth if you’ve never even calculated it before.
Enjoyed the video.
We are in the top 25% and I’m sure we would have been top 10% if I had not stayed home with the kids for 19 years.
But I’m SO glad I did!
I am
Around a lot of top 10% and they don’t seem happier to me.
Happiness is not directly correlated with wealth.
Our net worth is about 600k. BUT...we paid off our house, and car, and our monthly income is north of 8k. Our net worth is growing by about 60k per year. Our buying power is that of a wealthy family, but our net worth is a little low, given our income.
Its a great example of needing specifics, paying off your house is tremendous but if its worth say 500K your assets (savings, 401k etc) out side of your home are only 100K, And are you 20? 30? 60 and retiring?
I love the definition of being wealthy as being - earning more from your investments than from your salary.
This effectively means you can choose if you want to work. It is the FI in FIRE.
We are net worth over a million at 40, but we live in a very expensive part of the country, so it is stressful, as we are tied to our jobs. Being able to to walk away from a job that is toxic and not worry about paying our mortgage or paying for childcare, that is wealthy.
So wealthy is really a function of your location and lifestyle.
Income of $180k before taxes but live on just $66k per year comfortably because of a paid off home and 0 debt. With SS income when we retire (soon) we know we’ll be in good shape because of our disciplined habits and high savings rate. It’s really all about expenses.
Love your videos. I am 56 and one of those people who may have 400,000 assets. With I feel very comfortable. Cash only purchases. Cars paid off. No debt other than mortgage.
I love the fact you added text in your videos! Thank you.
Glad he addressed the issue of age when evaluating financial situation, but the other issue sometimes overlooked it the tax status of savings. YOU don't have money in an IRA, YOU + GOVERNMENT has the money in your traditional IRA. Big difference between someone with 2 million in a Roth IRA vs. someone with 2 million in a traditional IRA. Probably should estimate your net after taxes when calculating your net worth for such a comparison.
Just got into the upper quartile for my age group, as single man with lower than average income.
Relocating was my second best decision. It's not how much you make it's how much tou can save.
I’ve got a wife of 32 years who loves me, 2 wonderful grown children, a grandson on the way, a good relationship with my wider family, a great tight knit group of friends, a cold beer in the fridge and a big steak on the grill. I’m the richest guy I know. Don’t let some wanker in a suit define what you value.
Recently my husband and I just sold two real estate properties in the Bay Area for a total sum of $616k due to foreclosures. We plan to purchase a new house next year, the cash is just sitting in our joint savings account What do you recommend we do? I will appreciate any suggestions
Certain stocks and commodities are a good hedge against inflation, however you need to know what the heck you're doing or better still, seek help from a money coach/invt-advisor
The markets and the real economy are not the same, one has to be cautious for the amount of time it will take rate-cuts to reflect on the market. was way easier for me to navigate the markets not until 2020 stock market crash, I had to source for a portfolio-coach to revamp my entire portfolio and hedge against inflation.
Concisely, I’ve pulled off around $850k after subsequent investments, since using a coach 3 years and counting. I might sell to the tune but not without the approval of my broker as usual I hedged up again in 2022. With guidance I have raked in 140% on a managed portfolio run under a hedge fund by Monica.
this is huge! can you be kind enough with info on the coach that guides you please? I’m in dire need of one as I approach retirement
Monica Mary Strigle, you can do your research for basic info. Sh is often consulted via web site.
What wealth we do have is greatly amplified by our frugal lifestyle. Most of what's thought of as wealthy aren't things we're interested in. A mansion comes with a stunning loss of privacy as it requires a staff to maintain. Exotic cars are finicky, too flashy/tacky, and require far too much maintenance to be worth the trouble. Expensive clothes, jewelry, accessories...no thanks, better to be comfortable and we're not interested in going to places like this. Dining out, oh no...I have way too much fun in the kitchen for that. It's sort of funny when you think about how little you really need or even want and how little you need to provide for that, even in retirement.
Another big factor is where you live…$2m in New York or New Jersey is not the same as the Midwest.
Location and age play a huge part of this IMO.
Age 30 in a rural low cost of living state it takes a lot less.
A 55 year old in a high cost of living state it takes A LOT more to be considered wealthy
I ft exactly into this net worth calculation for my age.
I have no debt.
I bought my 1st small investment property in an up and coming area 40 years ago at age 27. Continued in real estate investing and am considered ultra high net worth today. I still had + have worries fears and stress. Today I’m happy with health and love and a good meal too. Yes wealth has brought more comforts than I could have imagined. But my god It Really Does Not Buy Happiness.
In coastal California I’d say $2.5m with the house paid off is good but $5m is the low end of wealthy
$2.5M in coastal CA without a mortgage = wealthy! You live where people vacation. I understand what you're saying though. The wealth here can get extreme (that's why we look at median).
I’ll update this and say money isn’t wealth…happiness is and is universally available…and the habit of being happy is a practice…the more we practice the more we have (happiness). I’m learning to practice happiness 🙏
I would say $3 million is middle class and $5 million is upper middle class. $7 million to $10 million is wealthy. I feel that a majority of the people in San Francisco fall into the $5 million to $7 million category. It just seems as though people have an abundance of money here. Unfortunately, I am just barely middle class here.
Im so thankful i started saving in my teenage years. I'm still concerned about retirement in10yrs @ 65 yrs old. Health care and inflation are a big concern! Let's hope the S&P500 keeps up a healthy average in the future.
It always does as long as we stay a democracy.
I felt wealthy when I was 23 and reached $250K net worth in the late 1990s. Inflation adjusted, that’s worth about $600K today, which is not nearly enough to feel wealthy. That’s only one small disaster away from being wiped out.
According to the median figures for net worth, the bottom 50% of the population are effectively broke. Really need about the 75% level just to be comfortable.
I feel so blessed to retire in those fortunate percentages. My wife and I both came from poor families but retired without worries. Happily married is number one. No worries is the icing on the cake.
Just hard work and dedication to living below our means.
Long-term care expenses are insane. You have to be either wealthy or broke (medicaid) to be on long-term care if and when the time comes.
When you retire it’s all about receiving income from your assets. One person could have $1M in equity on their home but still owe $1M on a mortgage they need to cover monthly. Another person could have $1M equity in rental property that generates $100K/yr income after expenses.
That first persons net worth would be zero. Assets less liabilities is net worth
Equity of $1M. The property is valued at $2M
Ahhhh, ok@@cbayman869
So many people don;t understand this simple concept. Net worth in and of itself is a meaningless number. What counts is how much income do your assets generate? The financial industry has brainwashed people that net worth is a big deal because the simplest, surest way to becoming wealthy doesn't involve stocks.
The house you live in is net worth granted. But it not an asset, assets put money in your pocket. Liabilities cost you money. To be free or retired your assets will need to pay you. Great book is rich dad poor dad.
Getting ready to retire. Net worth of about 1.4 million. Certainly do not feel wealthy, especially with the high cost of everything!! My husband and I do not have extravagant spending habits and we are completely debt free. I would like to be able to say that I am completely confident embarking on our retirement journey, but there is still an element of uncertainty. Nevertheless, super excited for this next phase!!
That is a huge $ , congrats.
From $ standpoint, the REAL measure is how much is your NW generating for you in monthly/annual cash flow to live on. For example, if you have a net worth of $2.5M, according to the two studies talked about here, you are Wealthy! But, if $2.3M is in your home equity and you only have $200k in liquid assets that can generate you cash to live on, I'd say you are NOT wealthy.
However, if you had $1.5M in liquid assets plus $1M home equity, you would be a lot more wealthier than the guy above with the diamond and gold home.
@@FIRED13since you brought up annual cash flow or future income flow then in reality social security income should be counted as an “asset” and part of net worth.
All the numbers reported by Azul seem low because SS income and pension income are excluded.
My SS will be 3,500 as is. My wife half of mine. This is 5,250. Medicare will need to be backed out. But let’s just say 5k per month.
Monthly factor of 12 of course then a 20 factor or so as SS is inflation adjusted. If one wants to be more conservative use 15.
5k x 12 x 15 = 900k SS Asset.
Please make it easier for everyone and use the term individual wealth… the jumping between wealth and household wealth becomes a point of confusion.
For me, up to about $5 million I would consider "working class wealth." Meaning working people, if they save and invest consistently, should be able to get somewhere around that number by the time they retire.
In my mind, real wealth starts around the 10 million dollar mark.
But there are so many other variables.
Obviously u have expensive taste.
Anyone could retire on a million bucks alongside of Social Security. If everything is paid off .
The mindset has to shift from savings mode to spend down mode . Most people aren't gonna make it more than 20 years in retirement. And u don't owe anyone a dime as far as a legacy.
Have fun
@@MW-bz1qeFair enough.There are so many different scenarios.
Way off from reality for 99% of people. Saying 5m is working class wealth is being tone deaf.
Greg: I'm good, anyway, cuz, uh, my, so, I was just talkin' to my mom, and she said, apparently, he'll leave me five million anyway, so I'm golden, baby.
Connor: You can't do anything with five, Greg. Five's a nightmare.
Greg: Is it?
Connor: Oh, yeah. Can't retire. Not worth it to work. Oh, yes, five will drive you un poco loco, my fine feathered friend.
Tom: The poorest rich person in America. The world's tallest dwarf.
Connor: The weakest strong man at the circus.
For what it’s worth, I agree with you.
I totally agree. A few million (in addition to your home) is very comfortable in most cities but not wealthy. Pretty mediocre in expensive cities like here in Denver. The question was "wealthy". Only 1-2% can be wealthy.
I enjoy the videos and learn a lot. I'm not a huge fan of the blur to reveal data. I sometimes revisit the videos for specific information. Having to find the exact spot where the whole chart is visible takes extra time. Could you highlight what you are talking about instead?
Reading books has really skyrocket the way I think about investing. Indeed, no one has ever got rich by saving money. If you want to become financially free, You need to Invest.
I've come to realize that the key to amassing wealth lies in making sound investments.
Yeah, You're Right! According to a book writer; 'What everyone needs is to work with a financial advisor, who can help you get in and out of any investment at any time and you'd sure be in profit.
I'm trying to get onto the investing ladder at 40. I wish at 55 I will be testifying to huge success!!
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I was pleasantly surprised to find that you're familiar with him as well. I've had the privilege of working closely with Samuel Peter Descovich over the past few months, and he has not only helped me earn substantial profits but has also been an exceptional mentor and trader. His ability to navigate various market situations is truly remarkable, and I couldn't be more satisfied with our collaboration-
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love is all around - no need to waste it- your gonna make it after all
My wealth is expressed in good hunting dogs and good fly fishing buddies.
These sports are so good for the soul.
I lived and worked in the Middle-East for 10 years. The packages there for professionals are $$$$$$$$ (tax, bills and insurance free). There you'll learn the difference between rich and wealthy. Wealthy people buy atolls in the Maldives to develop, father and eldest son don't fly together (1st class of course). Whilst rich people, well.... their assets, net or gross, isn't in the same stratosphere.
“Health IS Wealth.”
Yes I think this a very relative term . I am retired and have sufficient recourse to support myself. But in terms of what is regarded as wealthy I am not. I have liquid assets amounting to about $550,000 . But I don’t live a high life and am not a big spender so this is more than adequate for me.
Housing values so skew the results that’s it’s hard to make comparisons. You have to adjust for that factor or you will get a false perception. $2.2 million in California is not even close to the same amount of money as in Kansas City.
I tend to include the present value of a series of pension or social security payments. Obviously as we age and remaining life expectancy drops that decreases. The difference between that and income from employment is that there’s no guarantee of future employment. On the other hand I discount assets in retirement accounts by expected taxation. I also discount the value of a home by 10% to account for sales costs before calculating equity.
Wow, here in the Seattle area $2.2M is nowhere near wealthy when the average house goes for over $800,000 and we aren't even the most expensive area in the country. Personally I would put the lowest edge of wealthy at closer to $4m or $5m here. How do I define wealthy? For me it comes down to these items 1) You have larger than average house in a nicer than average neighborhood in or close to the city 2) Everyday expenses like food, energy, medicine are well covered and cause no stress 3) You can take a 2 week overseas vacation once a year 4) your children are guaranteed a fully-paid college education at a state school 5) You can retire at full retirement age (66 - 67) and not have to reduce your lifestyle.
I think Schwab's initial survey of how much people thought they needed to be comfortable, may have been subconsciously influenced by the questions: What if we have a catastrophic medical emergency? What if I have to help out my children? What if we have a wildly extravagant home repair emergency? What if we both need nursing homes? How can we quantify the effects of inflation? These are all unknown costs, and if we have not at least talked about them with professionals in each of the fields, we are going to be insecure about what those costs will be.
I think the opposite. It would be influenced by, "How much money do I need for a nice home in a nice neighborhood, how much do I need to own a new nice car every few years, how much do I need to take a nice vacation every year?, how much do I need to send my children to University?"
Great info. Savings is not easy with everything pulling at you like kids, bills, life, etc but do the best you can. The more you save when you are young the better. I'm above average in my age group thankfully.
When we didn’t have much, no one cared. Our current situation is that now everyone wants a loan, help or wants us to buy something with them. We spend more time defending and protecting our assets. Can’t make a move without lawyers and CPA’s. It honestly is a full time job for my wife and I. Yes we are very comfortable and busted our butts for years. How is it that family members and others feel it’s appropriate to want what we worked for? The answer is NO! We helped for many years and it’s never solved their problems and only created grief for us. Give gifts if you choose but remember it’s not anyone else’s money.
$2.2M doesn't seem anywhere near wealthy. Living in the US is super expensive, and to me being wealthy means that you don't have to look at the price tag. With "only" $2.2M you are a long way from that
Do you have $2.2 million? Do you know the percentage of people in the US with $2.2 million? Of course it's wealthy.
I agree. 2.2M is nowhere close to wealthy. Let’s say they have $500k paid off house and 1.7 in liquid investments. That leaves you with 70k in income. That’s comfortable, but not wealthy! I am 50 with networth close to $7M. I do not feel wealthy at all!
I think where you live is the determining factor as well. 2.2 million is not much in California. The average house in our neighborhood is 1.5 million, and the average income is 175,0000.
At 66, retired and worth $4 mil the hard part is convincing my wife we’ve got plenty. Now it’s time to start enjoying the hard work and delayed gratification. Just got back from an impromptu trip to London. Didn’t think a minute about the cost. It’s a nice feeling knowing that unless I turn into a rap star and start burning Benjamin’s I’m covered. Remember, help your kids…don’t make them rich.
Yesterday there was an article in my news feed "Millionaires are the New Middle Class." Certainly true for me. I am 74 with a net worth of $1.5 million. I do not feel wealthy. I feel middle class. In fact, I AM middle class. I live in a middle class neighborhood and could'nt afford to live elsewhere.
I don't include my house in my net worth because selling it is not an option. Plus, including a house in net worth can give a skewed view of net worth. If two households have a net worth of 2 million, but one of them is in a high cost area so their home has a value 500,000 higher than the other, are their net worths really comparable?
Selling your home is always an option, if you sold and decided to rent in retirement the equity in your house could generate tremendous income if invested.I'm choosing to not sell my home but I keep it open as an option.
@@FreedomFighter485, if I sold my home, invested the money and tried to have the gains cover rental income to someone else plus additional income to me it would have to be making $35,000 a year. I dont see that happening, and I'd rather just not have a payment and if I am strapped for cash later in life I will consider the options.
@@FreedomFighter485 But you still got to pay to live somewhere. That's a liability.
In college, it was often said if you had a roof over your head food in your stomach, enough money to cover expenses and happy more just gets green so it became the difference between need versus greed people today are more greedy because you will never have enough except a bigger hole, so what makes you happy not as much as you think what makes you wealthy as something different get seriously ill be given a sentence of death with brain cancer. It all came down to two things out of everything in my life. It came down to two.
2.1 m networth , no debts but feel poor!! Why?? Single male Retired at 57 with a DB pension and several investments. Hired a financial planner and he said "spend". Lol 😆
I think your pension makes you rich because you will not need to touch your money. I quit my job last year, but I can't not work as 51 year old, I don't want to spend my savings yet. I can live off of incone from dividend/interest but then I won't have any growth in my savings and medical insurance( 600 dollars on market for single person). So, I will enjoy my break until mid 2024 and then might look for work. I m in same net worth range as you, but can't fully retire yet. Great job..
Take your $2.2M and live in another country and be mega wealthy and less stressed!
62 years old with a net worth just over 2.5 million. I don’t feel like a millionaire just a regular middle class person. I make a normal income of $62,000/year. Have worked hard all my life and put my money in things of value like real estate. I don’t feel rich just very blessed!
Make more money while you're working and pay everything off. Social Security is often left out of these calculations because, for many, it isn't a lot of money. However, if you both had high earnings for many years, it can be quite significant. Our home and cars are paid for, so we can comfortably live on our monthly SS checks. We retired three years ago and have no plans to to make withdrawals from our retirement accounts until our RMDs kick in.
seems like one of my local NAPFA firms charge a flat $10k a year fee to be your advisor. They seem to only want persons with 1 million or more in assets.
I think a primary residence should not be calculated in the determination of net worth. Liquid assets are more indicators of true financial independence.
I enjoy your videos but why all of the edits - slight zooming in and out - just not needed and aggravating. And also all of the micro second cuts while you are talking - please just let the video run without all of that. Great info.
Dang I thought I was doing well but dropped out after the 75%. Oh well I am very blessed, even if I do worry now that I am retired.
When you have 25X your annual expenditures in working assets, (Brokerage accounts + rental property).
This would allow you to withdrawal 4% a year to live on with a very high certainty of never running out of money in your lifetime.
81 we are rich in assets but poor in friends and relatives whom we have outlived
that's the worst part of getting old
I miss them terribly
I miss him terribly
I miss her terribly
and Especially my pets
Excellent Data Azul. You keep coming up with the "Goods".
Azul: You said in a video if you want to sleep well in retirement, keep 5-years of your expenses in bonds. Do you mean bond "income?" Or do you mean 5-years of expenses in face value of bonds? If face value, wouldn't eating into my bond portfolio value reduce my income when the market recovered? I would no longer have the same income off my bond portfolio.
I have enough to retire - my only issue is the opportunity cost of just walking away from the very, very high annual total compensation.
An Executive VP of Sales in the company I work at decided to retire a few years ago. He certainly had enough money for life. Unfortunately, after only a year of retirement, he died unexpectedly. Your prestigious job is keeping you from retiring. I hope you will live long and healthy enough to enjoy your wealth.
It is a dangerous trap ..... next year will likely always bring more money but you are selling one year of retirement/remaining life. If you have things you want to do in retirement, once you have enough, then more money does no good except to build your estate. Which may already be huge.
Once we realized we had enough to literally take as many exotic trips a year as we wanted, buy toys, and still leave our kids each more than the amount this article saya is rwealthy, we decided it was time to retire.
I saw too many colleagues wait "one more year" then have a health issue suddenly crop up that prevented them from ever enjoying that first retirement bucket list item. There will always be more money, but will you have more time ?
We retired over 9 years ago in our mid-fifties and glad we did. Writing this from a 3 week snorkeling vacation in Maui and sitting on a Lanai looking out at the ocean and watching sea turtles and looking for whales right now. More money would not have changed a thing but could have prevented us having this and dozens of other travel experiences since we retired. Don't stay too long if you have things you want to see/enjoy in retirement.
I had the same issue, but as Azul likes to point out, you never know when your health will give out. Quit your job and go LIVE!
@@Binatasjif it is like places where I worked, an EVP of sales probably lived a pretty sweet lifestyle while working. Company car, first class flights, trips around the world where they add private vacations on the company, wining and dining clients on the company CC, stock options, etc.
@@JBoy340a He worked for a high tech software company. I’m sure he had enough RSU’s.
In the United Kingdom we have work place pensions the average payment is £20 per week and the employer also puts £20 in so total £40 per week..i also opened a private pension .and put £80 per month..now at 56 years old i dont think its enough to retire..i have a old car but live rent free..interesting to watch your videos..
I think, that wealth is a state of mind. A better question is are you working class or wealthy. Working class is anyone who has to continue working to pay bills. Wealthy is anyone who can pay their bills and not have to work. You can have a high net worth, but still have to work to pay for your lifestyle, whereas someone who has a retirement and doesn't have to work unless they want to is wealthy.
I’m starting to reevaluate how money is used.
The “buy, borrow and die” concept is very interesting.
In my opinion, people are ignorant to what they actually need. With inflation and increasing taxes and when big burdens come due for medical expenses or end-of-life care and stuff like that you need 4 to 10 times what you have to get through the absolute bad times. And this isn’t even counting a bad, recession or depression, like my dad went through.
How does one go about finding a dependable fee-only financial planner? Are there success measures to look out for? What is the typical price range for such services? Thank you for your content!
My net worth is about 450k. Only a mortgage that I should have it paid off in about four years is my debt. No car loan, no credit card debt. Savings is about 100k. I have a comfortable pension, social security and VA income. Totals about 85k and expenses are only about 4k. I put $2500 into savings every month. I live way below my means and always have.