...
[quote]Median wealth for those approaching retirement, which includes the value of equity in their home, is roughly $170,000. This means that the median older household can use every penny they have to...
View ArticleMortgage arithmetic
LSTB, I'm not sure of the issue here. The median household has enough wealth to fully pay off their mortgage. That means that they have a home free and clear and no other assets --hence my use of the...
View Article...
Dean, You used the phrase "they would have nothing left to support themselves in retirement except their Social Security." $170,000 may not be a defined benefit plan, but it is not nothing, and it's...
View ArticleConfusion on mortgage
LSTB, I assumed that readers understood that if they paid off their mortgage they would own their home. - Dean
View Article...
Dean, I hope your readers don't also assume that people who own their homes free and clear can't tap their equity, e.g. by a reverse mortgage. It's not necessarily a good idea, but it's not like the...
View ArticlePerhaps these research centers have a bias to support their wealthy patrons.
There is an article mentioning American's low savings rate on Marketwatch of March 26,2013. see http://articles.marketwatch.com/2013-03-26/finance/38024149_1_savings-rate-reason-savings-scott-hoyt The...
View Articlelet's see ...
LTSB: one medical incident will eat up that $170000 equity in one bad day; or require assisted living. There goes the $170,000 in a year or less, and then it's state homes after that. If it's not...
View Article...
One question, and I don't know the answer, would defined benefit plans that used to be common be considered income and not wealth, since the employee didn't own the asset, but had a claim on the...
View ArticleWealth comparisons by median in the U.S. are also mostly worthless!
All this skewness just creates so many problems! If we only had a normal distribution all of this stuff would make so much more sense! What exactly is the meaning of "median income" in a country with a...
View ArticleLife of $170K NW
with no mortgage and no home, LTSB said folks could tap into that for reverse mortgage to support one's golden years. Assuming principal perservation is #1 so growth rate is only 3% and a 65 yr old...
View Articlemedian income measure and value of future income streams
Re: "All this skewness just creates so many problems! If we only had a normal distribution all of this stuff would make so much more sense! What exactly is the meaning of "median income" in a country...
View ArticleLies, damn lies, and statistice
@ John Wright My point, (which I obviously didn't make very clearly), is precisely that using the "median" conveys to readers that "its about it in middle." Dean points out that its a better measure of...
View Article...
Someone, somewhere did a computation of the value of a defined-benefit pension, and determined that the value of a $3K a month pension was just under $600K. With SS and many defined-benefit pensions,...
View Article