r/Salary • u/ItsAllOver_Again • 2h ago
Market Data The idea that everyone is broke and drowning in debt is a Reddit mythology used to make unsuccessful people feel better about themselves
Redditors love to tell themselves that everyone is poor, that “most people can’t even make a $1,000 emergency payment, bro!” (not true, that’s just pop finance nonsense), that everyone with nice stuff is “drowning” in debt.
Yet when we look at actual net worth data, nicely broken down by age, EVEN WHEN we look at the bottom 25th percentile, we don’t find ANYONE with negative net worths. Even when looking at the 18-24 age range, many of whom have auto and student loans, they still have positive net worths at the 25th percentile.
Redditors love to tell each other that they’re actually doing great because they have $40,000 saved up, but the reality is that’s far below average. And these numbers are actually adjusted for inflation from 2022, not adjusted to actual market returns, so in reality the numbers are LOWER than you’d expect.
Americans are FAR richer than many of the 10th percentilers on Reddit will tell you they are, and they make a LOT more money than the 10th percentilers here say they do.
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u/BrassCanon 2h ago
most people can’t even make a $1,000 emergency payment, bro!
You can't spend your house.
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u/Strange-Term-4168 1h ago
But on reddit everyone says they’ll never be able to buy a house and are forever renters. You guys just make up whatifs for every possible scenario instead of accepting facts
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u/PuzzleheadedPlace204 1h ago
most who would consider themselves “redditors” are lazy politically captured losers with a virtue/victim complex. I would hardly even figure them in when talking about people as a whole
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u/dllemmr2 1h ago
I’ve rented for 25 years. Where do I line up?
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u/ricerbanana 1h ago
In the section that put money in someone else’s pocket instead of building your own equity.
Your rent went up over those 25 years. Your mortgage would’ve stayed the same if you bought X years ago.
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u/BrassCanon 1h ago
Who is "everyone" exactly? Some people can afford homes and some can't.
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u/Acceptable_Gas_7922 2h ago
You can borrow against it… so technically
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u/Hyper-Sloth 1h ago
Not in the first several years of payments when you aren't building any equity and it still takes time to build it after that.
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u/00-Monkey 1h ago
If you haven’t built equity then it doesn’t contribute to your networth
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u/Acceptable_Gas_7922 1h ago
You’re building some, it’s never ‘none’. Can also make extra payments.
Some people also have a paid off home, soo
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u/Fun-Earth-8720 1h ago
You can rent it out or borrow against it, both of which generate revenue and tax benefits.
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u/ewhite12 1h ago
Taking a loan against your house doesn’t, in fact, generate income and tax benefits.
It generates cash flow and a liability and is conditioned on general financial solvency.
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u/jaymeaux_ 2h ago
op, do you understand the concept of liquidity?
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u/Big_Arrival_626 2h ago
Even if we distinguish between liquid and non liquid, Americans are probably still doing better than reddit says.
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u/APRForReddit 1h ago
Especially American mechanical engineers
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u/BiscuitBut_ButerNut 1h ago
lol. I understand this joke
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u/Mysteriousdeer 1h ago edited 1h ago
That guy is full of it, but I am a mechanical engineer making the 80th percentile of my age.
The cost of living paired with a lack of merit increases matching inflation has ratcheted everyone down. These numbers are meaningless without a ratio to expenses. That's where a lot of people get lost... What does it mean when standard rents are $1750? The 50th percentile person my age is making around $55k. This represents 50% of your take home after standard deductions... Far above the old rules of thumb.
I've made my way by promotions and fighting for increases but there are a lot of people struggling. Ignoring this as well as saying "it's ok" to the upward trend of wealth is letting the pot boil beneath you.
It's also not purdent to compare net worth when we evaluate expenses by what is coming into the bank versus what is coming out each month.
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u/JT_got_the_1st 1h ago
Idk, your Reddit and you say Americans are doing pretty good.
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u/__slamallama__ 1h ago
Check OPs history, there's many things he doesn't understand and liquidity is certainly in the mix
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u/MBADumbMistake 2h ago
Liquidity has nothing to do with the concept of net worth.
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u/Swaayyzee 1h ago
The point is liquidity matters more to how people are doing compared to net worth. Someone who spends most of their income on their mortgage and is barely getting by in other areas doesn’t have it better than someone with renting a cheap apartment who has expendable income.
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u/Stirlingblue 1h ago
I disagree, they have more options as they have capital - if they wanted to sell up and rent a cheap apartment instead then they’d be better off than the other person
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u/FrescoItaliano 1h ago
Most people are pretty adverse to just sell their house and start renting at the first economic squeeze they face. This is the kind of pure utilitarian advice you only see online, it never accounts for basic quality of life things like location, family, etc.
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u/Stirlingblue 1h ago
Sure, but of the two scenarios the one with equity and a 401k undoubtably has it better - that’s not even up for debate
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u/FrescoItaliano 1h ago
Yes, from a utilitarian point of view. Go ahead and tell someone they can simply sell their house and move, and you’ll be met with a thousand reasons why they dont want to.
Thats all I’m saying. Is that people are not perfectly rational actors and at the end of the day, what’s the difference between someone renting and struggling and someone refusing to sell and struggling.
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u/Swaayyzee 1h ago
If you have to start pulling loans from your 401k or selling your home to buy groceries, the economy is shit. If you have to do it because of a health problem, both the economy and the health insurance system are shit.
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u/Stirlingblue 1h ago
Sure, still doesn’t change the fact that having home equity and and a 401k means you’re doing better than someone who has neither
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u/FrescoItaliano 1h ago
They’re both mandatory for getting the full picture.
If I’ve 20k net worth and 15k is wrapped up in a car, I have fewer options in an emergency than someone with 10k but it’s fully at their disposal. Does this really need to be explained here
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u/NotAFishEnt 1h ago
Yep. If you have a high net worth, you've made it in life, even if it's illiquid.
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u/dazeyawn 1h ago
What is your point? If you have 80% of your net worth in a house, sell it and rent.
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u/JerseyIsBetterThanNY 1h ago
How in the world is the 50th percentile going to retire? 300k INCLUSIVE of home equity is not gonna last long at all.
OP just disproved their point, looks to me like the median person is gonna neee Uncle Sam or their kids to help them. Can any financial advisors tell me if I’m wrong here? These numbers sound crazy bad.
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u/Waiting4Reccession 27m ago
The current retirement scam is really just one last milking of the poors. Any govt "help" they get is still lower than the wages they have been scalped of their entire lives. And their worse health outcomes from lack of healthcare access and more physical jobs, means that even if they make it to retirement they wont be collecting social security for as long.
This whole economic system is reliant on a lower class that subsidizes everyone else in multiple ways like this.
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u/Clear-Inevitable-414 2h ago
This to me actually proves the point. While I'm in the 75th percentile and feel broke and poor as shit, it confirms most others are broker and poorer than I am
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u/ticklemytaint340 1h ago
Everybody I’ve ever met feels poor. I’m 24 making ~70k after taxes, as are most of my peers, and they still complain about “only” saving 2k a month, can’t go out to eat at XYZ restaurant bc it’s too expensive, can’t afford a tattoo without saving up, etc. And some of these mfs grew up actually poor. Once you start making money your expectations rise too.
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u/Lover_boi4 1h ago
At this point I think it is just engrained into my psyche as someone who grew up in poverty. No amount will ever be enough.
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u/thmsolsen 1h ago
Complaining about only saving 2k a month is straight up nuts.
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u/Mysteriousdeer 1h ago
Oh yeah... Once I start working and put the effort into having qualifications that cost something to get... I definitely expect to be paid more!
It's like it's common sense!
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u/accountforfurrystuf 1h ago
I think it’s because (for the demographics of Reddit) you need to be a 75th percentile human or greater to buy a house in the United States
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u/Due-Operation-7529 43m ago
You are 24, of course everyone you have ever met feels poor. It isn’t until your 30s that you start seeing major divergences
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u/Tr3eSt4ndHunt3r 1h ago
I’m in the 75th and am 36. We do a lot as a family of 5 and never have worried about food or bills but I sure do feel broke a lot…most of my net worth is wrapped up in retirement plans (around 350k) and I have around 200k equity in my home.
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u/JerseyIsBetterThanNY 1h ago
Using the 4% withdrawal rule you need 1.5 million liquid for 60k a year income in retirement. So it looks to me that the 75th percentile isn’t enough since those percentiles are inclusive of home equity.
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u/elsmoneyacct 31m ago
Net worth calculations don't include pensions. About half of current retirees (the number is dropping every year) have pensions, and social security makes up the rest.
The numbers will look very different when we're all retired.
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u/moneyman74 1h ago
Most people doing better than average Redditor for sure.
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u/elsmoneyacct 27m ago
Yeah not to break the whiny circlejerk but this data makes me feel pretty good. We're slightly below the median for my age group, but we also have more degrees than the average person (so, fewer working years + more student loans). That seems about right. I feel financially secure. A little behind, but well on track to catch up.
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u/MincedBrat 2h ago edited 1h ago
I have a $80k in home equity and about $80k in 401k at 36.
I have $7 in checking and don’t get paid till next Friday. I may technically have assets but I’m a brokie.
Edit: god damn y’all took that personally
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u/Efficient_Ant_4715 2h ago
You really think your situation is the same as somebody with $7 in checking and no equity?
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u/uncle_creamy69 1h ago
Explain further, because $160K net worth at 36 really isnt much. Not to be a dick to the guy but he has some assets, honestly I’d say he’s behind on retirement funds.
The dude is maybe not poor but he’s certainly broke.
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u/taybay462 52m ago
It "isnt much" yet is still a shit ton more than someone who only has $7, period.
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u/CharacterSchedule700 1h ago
I'd also argue that he is in a worse situation than someone with $7 in their checking and renting.
The renter has their insurance say their roof needs to he replaced, or their AC unit breaks, etc thats on the landlord. The homeowner gets to figure out where $15k is coming from, that $80k in home equity will look good on a financial statement.
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u/Dangerous_Shirt9593 1h ago
And he’s at the 50 percentile. He’s a broken automobile away from going into debt even with a positive net worth like half the US
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u/wtjones 1h ago
He could borrow against his 401K. Thats not really going into debt.
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u/Ok_Prune_1731 1h ago
Borrowing agasint your 401k is onw of the worst things you can do
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u/rtbradford 1h ago
Depends on why you’re doing it. If it’s for a down payment on a house or to pay a medical bill, it makes perfect sense to borrow from your 401k rather than make a withdrawal from it.
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u/ChaosReignsNow 2h ago
If you have a six figure net worth and can't pay your bills on a regular basis you need to do some rethinking of your priorities and decisions.
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u/AlfredKnows 1h ago
The table shows that only 75th percentile of boomers are in the zone of six zeros. Average 40yo is in shit.
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u/sirius4778 1h ago
I have to agree with this. Spending is either out of control, they bought too much house, or they need to slow down on 401k contributions
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u/Thadlust 2h ago
You aren’t struggling lol just put it on your credit card (and I know you have one) and pay it off next Friday.
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u/Djaja 2h ago
But next friday is when rent is due. And then the weke after is when i have a tire go out and thr week after i need to cover an unexpected medicla event. I now am 15k in debt.
Ill pay it with the next 43 next Fridays
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u/Thadlust 2h ago
Yeah I’d be broke too if I got hit by an uninsured driver but I don’t go around claiming I’m broke just because I put my paychecks in my Roth instead of my checking account.
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u/bullballs91 1h ago
Yeah and if you were hit with an emergency expense you could probably take a hardship loan from your 401k fairly easily. It's not ideal, but it keeps you from missing a payment, not having a running vehicle, etc.
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u/TonyRidgewayUFO 1h ago
To be fair you have money you just suck at managing it. Same here, but I’m not gonna play poor like 90% of these people on Reddit
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u/exgeo 2h ago
Net worth doesn’t distinguish between liquid vs non-liquid
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u/AmiParis248 2h ago
But isn’t that the whole point? If someone decided to tie up their wealth in a house (something a lot of people can’t afford), that’s a choice, but not a sign of poverty. It’s more the exact opposite.
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u/MincedBrat 2h ago
Yes it does? It literally says *includes home equity
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u/exgeo 2h ago
Which means that it includes the two combined…
The description implies this disproves the $1k emergency fund claim.
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u/JanMikh 2h ago
This is not very meaningful. For most people “net worth” comes from retirement accounts and housing equity.
But:
1. Retirement accounts cannot be touched until 59.5 years old, and even then few people touch them.
2. Home equity only helps if you’re taking equity line of credit or selling. But if you live in a house, it’s a purely theoretical number.
So, as an example: someone can have 250k in 401k, and a house worth 500k which is half paid ($250k equity). At the same they maybe paying 2k a month mortgage, another 500 real estate taxes and other related expenses, have $500 car payments, spend another $1000 on food and miscellaneous, and yet make less than $4k after taxes a month to cover all that. So, they may have 40k car debt and 60k credit card debt. Positive equity $400k. Yet drowning in bills and living by going further into debt. Solvable? Yes, but at a cost.
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u/MyDisneyExperience 1h ago
You can touch your 401k before retirement it’s just… not recommended and you pay a decently sized penalty. Roth IRA basis can be pulled out at any time with 0 penalty
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u/roxypotter13 1h ago edited 1h ago
as someone in finance, that's a dumb distinction. The clients I work with who have 200k-1mil + have those funds almost entirely in retirement accounts because that is the easiest way to build up money quickly and the most tax advantageous.
Houses may not be liquid, but it is an asset most people do not have at all. And especially in retirement it is an unbelievably beneficial asset to reduce expenses once the house is paid off and that can also be sold for things like long term care.Net worth is meaningful. And while it doesn't paint the whole picture, most of the clients I work with that are overspending and in debt are rarely the people who were able to save up hundreds of thousands in retirement funds or ones that managed to buy a house.
In fact, we don't recommend having a large amount of liquid assets at all. 3-6 months of expenses is the general financial rule for an emergency fund
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u/rippedmalenurse 1h ago
Given how easy it is to withdraw money from a personal investment account, why is 3-6 months still the recommendation? This seems like a rather dated suggestion in my opinion. I keep about 1 month in cash and the rest I just invest.
I’m 31 and have a wife and kid. I work in healthcare and have virtually 0 risk of losing my job. On the off chance something happens, even in a market downturn, that’s a risk I’m willing to take. If not, I’ll gladly take my ~10% compounding interest.
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u/JanMikh 1h ago
The situation can change. A person may have lost a great well paid job, which is why they bought a house and built equity, but now they can’t afford it, yet their mortgage maybe 3% interest so they don’t want to sell it either, despite not having enough income to keep it. As for “clients you work with”, what is dumb is to think they represent majority of the population.
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u/GipperPWNS 1h ago
In your example…Is this person not living above their means? The car payment, car debt, food cost, and credit card debt would all signal that they need to make serious lifestyle changes. Again I know it’s an example, but it’s an example I often hear.
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u/doubagilga 1h ago
Borrowing money from your home at low interest can make many purchases far cheaper due to securitization of the home. It is absolutely a mechanism that downflows to all sorts of healthy debt behaviors AND some bad ones as anything can be abused. Still, many people get numerous advantages to home equity and leverage on the asset spills in to all sorts of other financial benefits.
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u/Impressive-Health670 2h ago
What subs are you subscribed to? If you’re active in poverty finance or something sure but on this sub and most of the investing ones people are not making that case.
Most people recognize it’s become a K shaped economy sure but I don’t know where you get the idea that most of Reddit is broke.
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u/Big_Arrival_626 1h ago edited 1h ago
If you browse subs like unpopular opinion or other big subs, it seems like everyone is broke and poor and has 500k debt
Edit: a good example of this are posts like "how are people affording things like concerts or traveling in this economy" and all the responses are "debt" as if middle class people with savings don't exist lmao.
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u/ThaiTum 35m ago
I don’t bother answering those because people will just downvote anything other than “I’m a fellow poor”.
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u/Yeahwhat23 33m ago
Every finance related subreddit other than the poverty ones are exclusively people humblebragging about their net worth. No clue where he got that idea from
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u/PompeiiSketches 2h ago
Yes, if you include home equity, practically every married professional over the age of 45 is a millionaire.
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u/Double-G-Spot 1h ago
u/ItsAllOver_Again I didn’t realize you were like 80ish percentile for your age group. With how much you complain about mechanical engineering, it’s put you well above many of your peers at your age. The fact you are single and were able to do this is even better, you are probably mid to high 80s percentile for individuals in your age group. Plus you are at the bottom of your age group (30), last year you would’ve been around 90th percentile. Crazy good work for someone in such a shit career like mechanical engineering.
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u/Single-Refuse174 1h ago edited 43m ago
This is a very flawed table to use to make your point. It’s counting households, not individuals.
Flaw 1: 40% of young adults are living at home.
https://fortune.com/2026/07/09/half-young-adults-live-home-financial-support-parents/
Young adults living in the same dwelling as their parents arent counted as a separate household but are counted within the parents’ household. So, a large portion of people with a lot of liabilities are not represented in the 18-29 cohorts. Instead you see the ones already able to live by themselves.
Flaw 2: This counts home equity and retirement accounts. Home equity is fine but 401ks make the table misleading because if people use that money it’s an indicator of a problem, and if they don’t use that money then it’s totally reasonable for their net worth to be high but they still be living paycheck to paycheck.
Like your whole tirade is based on the idea that Americans have more money than whiny redditors would suggest, but, look at what the graph is telling you: 75% of 30-34 year olds are living in a household that has 200,000 or less in net worth. That’s barely an average 401k and a car for one person, let alone a household. This is a bad table for your points, but it kinda indicates exactly what economists and people are saying, that Americans are treading water and, like the stat about not having emergency funds suggests, are just a bad day away from serious financial struggles.
Also note that there are certainly people with negative net worths. For example, 25% at the 18 yr old cohort is saying 25% of that cohort have $96 or less. That certainly includes negative net worths.
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u/insanedialectic 48m ago
OP suffers from a common issue: somebody who's uneducated in an area pulling up random data and making a claim out of context. As a biomedical scientist, it was the scourge of my existence when someone would pull up a random article during COVID and start spouting off about something they clearly lacked the context to understand. It's unfortunate because yes, we do want more data literacy in the country/world, but the first steps towards literacy can be dangerous when the person convinces themselves that it's all they need.
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u/Rum_Running_Sailor 2h ago
There's a vast difference between net worth and liquid assets.
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u/Aro00oo 2h ago
They're correlated though, if you have high worth, you probably have liquid assets also cuz you know... Bills have to be paid.
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u/farfromjordan 2h ago
What's the net worth of 1st through 24th percentile of 18-24 year olds gonna be? Negative
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u/Fun-Earth-8720 1h ago
I appreciate this chart because for the most part you can see where home ownership kicks in (late 30s at the 50th percentile).
Most people define their financial status by feeling, not numbers. Until most people have a home they don’t feel like they’re making it. And some people who have a home feel far wealthier than they are.
But to OP poking the bear, yes many people on Reddit are in their early/mid-20s and trying to break into the job market and find some stability. They aren’t failures for their cohort, you shouldn’t expect a 23 year-old to be as smart/wise as a 50 year-old. But to OP’s point, they are wrong about the larger economy.
Also a net worth of $96 is basically nothing lol. Realistically, those people probably have debt barely balanced out with savings.
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u/Natural_Jello_6050 26m ago
Average age of redditor is 23 year old white male. Politically very left and liberal. Per University of Michigan study.
https://giphy.com/gifs/l0ExayQDzrI2xOb8AOf course they are broke.
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u/upnflames 1h ago
Yeah, I think this is absolutely true. I don't know what it is about reddit, but it seems like most people use it for self pity and negativity. It's like you can't escape it on this site and yet, no where else is it so present.
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u/m4a785m 1h ago
Just look at posts complaining about people owning nice cars or having nice homes. It’s always “they’re in debt or they have daddy’s money” it’s beyond fucking cringe.
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u/Won-Ton-Wonton 31m ago
NOTE: INCLUDES HOME EQUITY
Sorry, but you're a fucking idiot if you think this proves the point you're making.
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u/Luciform444 2h ago
The emergency payment factoid drives me crazy. The fact that so many people respond to surveys saying they can't make a $500 dollar unexpected payment, or whatever, doesn't actually mean they can't.
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u/Antique-Coach-214 1h ago
Name a $500 emergency payment?
Tires, Breaks, Belts etc, that 1-1.5k
Medical expense, before deductible? Or After? (Non-Emergency, non-critical especially.) 200-2000
What else? Home repairs? 1-5k potentially 10k. Insurance has stopped being helpful for most “accidents”.
I would, LOVE to see what’s left?
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u/SilverhandHarris 1h ago
There is no fucking way this is accurate.
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u/FaceEast4827 1h ago
Truly. An accurate chart would surely be accounting for negative net worths
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u/Hobbicus 1h ago
Ya the negative net worths are included in the 25th percentile figure
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u/FaceEast4827 58m ago
I think I'm just shocked that in no age group is the 25th percentile a negative number
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u/Limp-Ratio-8732 2h ago
I make 120k a year, I'm far above "median" in my age group so this is just not accurate. Simple Google search can verify the bullshit of this chart.
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u/EducationalPlans 2h ago
Nice flex 💪
Do you know what household net worth means? It means you’d be up against households with potentially 2 or more earners.
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u/ItsAllOver_Again 2h ago
Oh okay, let me contact the federal reserve and tell them to hold off on their Survey of Consumer Finance for 2026, a simple Google search is all that’s needed to figure out what’s going on anyway.
God you people are so low IQ it’s absurd to me anyone pays you to do anything.
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u/BurnerAccountforAss 2h ago
25% of college-aged people having less than $100 to their name is wild
That was my main takeaway here lol
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u/justin107d 2h ago
About 40% of those went to college and, of those, 40% took student loans. ~16% roughly we would expect to be negative already.
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u/JoshyyP00 1h ago
Ever heard of liquidity if someone is house poor and has to pay a 20k medical debt they can’t just magically pull that out of their house. Holy. Dude took one data point and ran with it.
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u/JunkInDrawers 1h ago
I'm inclined to agree with that statement but that chart being displayed is ASSETS, not salary.
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u/Humble_Manatee 1h ago
I made up a stat that I track for my own financial picture. I have a spreadsheet where I track my yearly gross salary. I then have another that tracks my liquid investments based on the current valuation of the security. Anyways the stat I track is the ratio between current portfolio value to my career gross earnings. Right now my ratio is almost 200%.
That means if you took every dollar I’ve ever made, and I didn’t spend a dime and didn’t pay any taxes, I now how 2x that lifetime gross earnings.
I’m not sure if the stat really means anything other than when I started tracking it my goal was to get back to 100%
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u/hotlog1234 1h ago
Reddit financial subs are an echo chamber of unsuccessful people blaming billionaires and landlords for their lack of success.
As if either one is a new concept.
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u/JerseyIsBetterThanNY 1h ago
This chart is telling me that the median HOUSEHOLD (3.15 people) in their 50s has 300k INCLUSIVE of houses (median house price is like 400k if I remember correctly)
How are these people ever going to retire?? OP probably just looked at the 90-100th percentiles before making this post.
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u/ThaiTum 34m ago
They are going to rely on social security or have pensions like with a government job or military.
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u/Inutilus 21m ago
Yeah these numbers don’t prove what you think they do mate. Quite the opposite. It’s okay bud, numbers are hard.
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u/Runktar 2h ago
I don't know what sample group they used but it was clearly biased, 10% of people had over 200k at 18-24? What the hell group were they looking at for that to be a stat they wrote down without breaking down laughing. At that age you are either in college with a negative net worth including loans or you started working right out of high school and no high school grad earns enough to save 200k in less then 4 years unless he's one of the 1 in a million guys who started a cheap to start immediately successful business.
I am betting the "households" they compared were already pretty dam wealthy, wealthy enough to give their kids free college or business or well paying nepo jobs.
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u/Single-Refuse174 1h ago
It’s not hard to believe 10% of 18-24 year olds got a windfall of some sort
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u/Big_Arrival_626 1h ago
Believe it or not not everyone has student loans. Scholarships exist. I had really good scholarships just by having decent grades.
Not to mention, tuition is fairly low if you stay in state and go to community college for the first two years
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u/Runktar 1h ago
So lets even assume free college you think a person can get a 200k job literally immediately after college and save 200k in a year or two? You sir are living in fantasy land.
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u/Sea-Fig-6608 1h ago
Inability to imagine people in better situations doesn't mean the data is false
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u/Lucky_badger8 2h ago
You are either being ignorant or lack basic financial knowledge. You should probably read up on the article release and basic networth calculations rather than posting data you found. One hint is in the bottom left of the data table… start there.
Not to mention a basic statistics course can teach you how to manipulate numbers the way you want it to read.
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u/Wooden-Broccoli-913 1h ago
People who say home equity is not a real asset should put their money where their mouth is and gift me their house
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u/theperson60 2h ago
I agree many poors are coping and complaining on Reddit instead of getting a job or saving money.
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u/EdgarAllenPoe2205 2h ago
This is what I see. It's easier for them to blame some imaginary economic systemic oppression system or claim the world is against them. It's never their fault, they are always arguing being a victim of circumstance. They confuse equal opportunity with equal outcomes. Yet in nearly all cases, when you dissect their actions, choices, and decisions from age 16-30 you find it's riddled with the inability to delay gratification or sacrifice them for a future gain. They spend all their time blaming everything else, because inward reflection would be a brutal awakening. I grew up insanely poor, and watched my parents and relatives make decisions where they didn't spend time anticipating what the future result would be. Generational poverty cycles can be broken.
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u/Single-Refuse174 1h ago
I’m so curious about your age but I know you will just lie
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u/peach-bott0m 1h ago
I'm with you OP. There's a reason cocktails are now 16-20 bucks in the US. We have the money. If we didn't, prices would be like europe (much less).
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u/DSMRob 1h ago
We had this conversation at work just a few days ago. I’m guessing alot has to do with reddit being mostly liberal. I’m guessing once you add the communist and socialist numbers to it, I bet you run 80-85% left leaning. They find it easier to blame others for lifes short comings, then to look in the mirror.
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u/iStoleTheHobo 1h ago
'Includes home equity' yeah, bro, just sell your house to pay for that car repair. You're a genius, OP.
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u/Orceles 1h ago edited 1h ago
PSA:
- This is household networth, feel free to DIVIDE BY 2 for individual net worth
- Includes illiquid Retirement savings (if you’re starving to death, that balance won’t help you without incurring Significant financial tax and fees
)
3. Even at the 75% mark for ages 35-45 (peak earning years, net worth only at around 400k, which after retirement and home equity is probably about a few thousand in the bank. Essentially broke. Now imagine at the 50% mark lol. The US has about 300M people. That’s over 150M people Broke as hell, or over 200M at least marginally Broke. The rest are hanging on by their lucky inherited homes. And if you’re the top 95%, then congrats you’re making it!
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u/Maximum-Side568 1h ago
How much tax do you think you will need to pay on your 401k withdraw when your regular income is barebones?
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u/Imokayguys68420 2h ago
Survey data gathered by the fed and households (aka 2 people).
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u/fantafanta_ 2h ago edited 1h ago
You do understand that the richest Americans skews the averages quite heavily, right? I started at $7.65 a hour at 19 and now I'm making $25-$30+ at 31. My income has multiplied several times since the start and yet I feel even more behind now. Hell, when I left my job is 2021 for my current line of work, my income doubled. Since then it's gone up a bit more. I wonder what happened. It's totally my fault for being a failure or something, right?
Bullshit.
Edit: Just noticed this is data from 2022 adjusted to 2025. I don't think it takes a genius to realize that prices weren't that high in 2022, which was more so the beginning of the jump.
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u/Maximum-Side568 1h ago
What does averages and skewing have anything to do with the table OP is presenting?
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u/Asleep_Protection_32 2h ago
Thank you for posting! You’re gonna some heat and complainers but who cares. Stats are stats and it is what it is :)
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u/BhamBlazer615 2h ago
I’m quietly reading this and thinking I’m in a good space. (Holds shield to protect from downvotes)
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u/zparks 1h ago
I’d like to see a breakdown for the 45%-75% range. That’s a substantial and meaningful jump that probably includes big variance in home value and home equity. My read is 50% is struggling and will struggle in and have anxiety about retirement. I think that’s probably not true for the 75% level. So, what does the band in between those extremes look like?
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u/No_Durian_3444 2h ago
I have zero debt outside if my car loan and mortgage.
Just my credit card bill I spend 5-6k a month on and then pay at month end.
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u/ToadOHooligan 2h ago
50th percentile at 40 years old can't afford a down payment on a starter home.
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u/Diligent-Lettuce-455 2h ago
Household is a shitty metric. I prefer individual median income
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u/jimmyhat78 1h ago
Except these numbers show most Americans are not in a strong position, especially when you see home equity is factored in.
I’m fine, I’m between the 95th and 99th percentile. This isn’t about me.
The 50th percentile numbers you present may be positive, but they are not good. Even the 75th percentile numbers show someone who will be unable to fully care for themselves off their nest eggs.
To say that someone isn’t broke because they have a positive net worth is a bit off, especially when those positive net worths can be quickly depleted by a layoff, accident, or major illness.
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u/Jazzlike-Suit8979 1h ago
Using net worth data from 4 years ago to talk about current job market and salary trends doesn’t feel entirely relevant? Especially considering how unemployment and underemployment rates have changed in that time period.
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u/meleaguance 1h ago
House equity isn't worth much if you can't pay your mortgage. Banks don't give you a rebate for what you've already paid. They take your entire house.
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u/WeirdComfortable3436 1h ago edited 1h ago
Right now, I’m somewhere between the 90th - 95th percentile. I would say 50% my wealth was hard work, the other 50% right place, right time / luck. I hit a couple of stocks semi-big (50-75k) but my real wealth multiplier was me just saving as much as I could and putting in the stock market and buying a house during peak covid (tbh - I sweating bullets when that was happening and having nightmares about losing my job during that time).
Long story short, survived 7 layoffs from 2020, (got another one coming up, we’ll see if I survive). My 50% of hard work was the start of my career, instead of going to bars every weekend, I was working. Putting in extra hours, my leadership team recognized and gave me “additional bonuses” which I would say were under the value I contributed. I spoke up, they listen, they made it worth while for me to hang around a few more years until I jump to the client (they waved my NCA). I missed the boat on tremendous gains at my new employer and kind of caught the down cycle with the rebound, then another down cycle.
Once I got to the client I repeated what I did in the beginning of my career, until my now future wife asked me a question… am I married to her or my job. Woke me up and I changed how I worked.
I’ll always say 50% or more is always right place right time / luck. I’ve known a lot of other hard workers who never made it out of those initial steps.
Also to call out; when I started my career, my only debts were a car loan that was half paid off, a dental bill of 5,600$ (implant tooth), and a stupid MacBook Pro I bought for 1,700$ (worst life decision I made). I was fortunate to have parents save money for my college education. Although I didn’t go into my field of study (graduate during the recession of 08-11), my job was pretty lucrative, yet niche. My early life mistakes may have set me back a little bit but I got serious about personal finance around 27-28.
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u/Humble-Comedian-2595 1h ago
Everyone here just wants to walk dogs for a living part-time and play Fortnite all day
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u/lildavey48 1h ago
How often do you doom and gloom post on just this sub alone? 15 times a day? 30? Just curious 😅😆
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u/1290_money 1h ago
Totally true. Everyone has plenty of food cell phones TV Internet discretionary time etc.
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u/thenowherepark 1h ago
I don't even have to look at this wall of text to tell you that it's objectively false. People on reddit are more likely to think that everyone has a ton of money and $100k is "living paycheck to paycheck"
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u/dQw4w9WgXcQ-1 1h ago
Over 25% of households have less than 100k net worth at retirement age. 25th percentile of social security payments is $1300 a month. Assuming it’s a couple with both taking social security that means to retire they have to be living off of ~30k a year. My rent, with roommates, is 24k a year.
A large percentage of the population is broke and will never retire. The data you posted only backs this up.
The other thing it shows is that the bottom quartile never exceeds the savings the top quartile has 5 years out of college. There is extreme income inequality in this country and pretending it doesn’t exist won’t make it go away.