One of the questions I get often is how am I doing relative to the rest of the
world, my neighbor, my friend, et cetera.
And in this video, I'm going to share with you what the average
net worth of a person at age 62.
And also address whether or not that's really important, uh,
share with you those numbers.
But before we get there, subscribe to my channel and hit the notification bell so
you're alerted to when we post new videos.
So the question might be, how do I compare to my neighbors?
And I, I want to share with you a particular story.
I've been doing this 32 years now, and I trust me, I've got lots of stories.
And this particular one is interesting because if you sort of take a look
at it from a far, you would have thought this would have been a
successful story, a joyous story.
So dad had built real estate empire, and he was worth several million dollars.
However, his kids who were my clients, um, we're talking about not only their
money, but the inheritance that they might get from their father and how they could
possibly help their father to manage and control his net worth and what's going
to happen to the next chapter of life.
Unfortunately, um, dad passed away in essence, the old
story behind the desk, right.
He never really left work.
He passed away in his early nineties, actually went to work every single day and
he really, truly didn't enjoy the journey.
But more importantly, you know, if, if we're going to compile money,
hopefully it will be to leave a legacy financial or otherwise for the rest of
our family to help to take care of them or others in the way that we choose.
But because dad had in essence done nothing, this several million dollar
net worth, once it went through the whole estate planning, probate process,
ended up with the kids may be having a few hundred thousand dollars.
Now we don't sniff at a few hundred thousand dollars, but
relative to the several million, it was not a happy ending.
And the real story here is if we had looked at him at his number and compared
ourselves to him and said, gosh, we don't have as much of a net worth as he does.
But we probably were enjoying the journey more and tending to some of the details,
more to make sure that the next generation and their generation will be able to
bear the fruit of our labor if we had accumulated such a net worth that it could
be passed along to the next generation.
So we really need to be careful about these numbers and
comparing ourselves to others.
Because again, in this industry I've learned a good looking cover of the
book does not necessarily mean that the contents inside are as feel good as the
cover might seem to those who are unaware.
Another thing before I get into the numbers.
And I think it's really important because I think our industry has
done a lousy job of helping people understand how to prepare for retirement.
Okay.
Most of the commercials and most of the messaging is about
investing in accumulating assets.
And as I say, I have over three decades of experience here, talking
with people everybody's different.
Some people can retire very comfortably in retirement with not a lot of money.
Some people need a lot of money because of the way they lead their lives.
Every one is different, but our focus from an educational perspective
is if you don't have enough money, you can't retire successfully.
And that's the wrong message because I know of lots of people who don't have
lots of money who are very happy in this next chapter of life in retirement.
By the way, if you're concerned about or wondering how prepared
you are for your return.
Go to our banner, invest two minutes of your time.
Take the quiz very quick.
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clarity as to where you are, as you do enter into this next chapter of life.
Now, as we get into the numbers here, I really want to make
something really important.
And again, our industry's not done this.
The focus has been on accumulating a net worth, but what if your
net worth is in the real estate?
What if your net worth is illiquid and you can't touch it?
What if your net worth doesn't necessarily provide you with the income that you need?
Because cash flow is actually more important than how much money you have.
Because cash is king in retirement.
So again, let's keep this all in perspective, frame it properly.
Generating cashflow is more important than how much we have in investments,
but even so we want to take a look at and compare ourselves for net worth.
So let's get into it.
So I'm going to give you two different numbers.
One is the mean, so the mean is a compilation of all the
numbers and the average of it.
But that's often skewed because some have, you know, billions of dollars
of net worth and some have zeros.
But the number on the mean is typically higher than what we call the
median, which is really the average of all the median is literally that
person who is right in the middle.
Basically 49.999% have fewer or less in net worth and
49.999% have more in net worth.
That is the number that is literally right in the middle
of the quote unquote average.
Now these numbers were taken from a recent study, 2019.
It is from the federal reserve board consumer finance report.
So these numbers are really up to date.
The mean number in terms of net worth.
For those at the age of 62 is $1,188,000.
Now remember there are some who were worth billions, so that this number I
just gave you is higher than the median.
The average average, and the median number is $229,000, including the house.
So as you can see, it's a very different landscape we're working on, whether we're
talking about the mean or the median.
Now, another interesting number is that the top 1% net worth in order
to enter this exclusive territory.
You must have a minimum of $17.6 million.
Most people, you know, you, aren't going to be able to do
that on your own as an individual.
If you built a business or you had an inheritance from a previous
generation who had made it, most people will never enter that category,
but just as a number 17.6 million.
But again, The number is just a number.
It has absolutely nothing to do with how fulfilled or happy or
what we're doing for the journey.
We've heard way too many stories of people who had lots of money and life
just didn't end up well for them.
So you must just keep it in mind.
The number is the number.
Some who don't have very much money at all, who are in that middle $229,000.
Many of those people more than likely are very happy with
their journey into retirement.
And there are some who are going to be at the higher end the 1.188
million who may not be as happy even though they have more money.
So remember money is not the end all be all, it's what we do with
it, how much cashflow we have.
And if you want to find out about more about the seven key steps to
make sure that you're taking them.
So you're not going to outlive your money in retirement.
Watch our playlist.