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The Average American Spends $3.3M over Their Lifetime

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Re: The Average American Spends $3.3M over Their Lifetime

#21

Post by warner25 »

olalonde wrote: post #20
warner25 wrote: post #5

I don't know why this would be unbelievable or "whopping." $3.3M over 60 years of adult life (age 20 to 80) is $55k/year. That's pretty close to the median American income.

I don't think it's very common to work until you are 80 years old though. Also, is the 55K$ figure after taxes?

Sure, but after people stop working it's common for them to replace their working income with Social Security, other pensions, and withdrawals from retirement accounts in which their savings compounded over time.

And the median household income is actually $75k now. I'm just saying that $55k is very much in the ballpark for the median person. Does it really matter if that's before or after taxes?

Re: The Average American Spends $3.3M over Their Lifetime

#23

Post by Nifty3929 »

warner25 wrote: post #5

I don't know why this would be unbelievable or "whopping." $3.3M over 60 years of adult life (age 20 to 80) is $55k/year. That's pretty close to the median American income.

Yes, but $55k per year doesn’t get clicks or inspire a profound explanation.

Re: The Average American Spends $3.3M over Their Lifetime

#24

Post by Nifty3929 »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #10

Not sure that the 1% (or 0.1%) isn't skewing the average. Would love to see what the median American spends over their lifetime. What I'm saying is that the 400 billionaires in the Fortune 400 are likely pulling the average up.

It’s the opposite actually. Very Rich people consume far less than average in proportion to their wealth and income.

When you look at what people actually consume, the US at least looks very egalitarian.

Re: The Average American Spends $3.3M over Their Lifetime

#25

Post by 8organicbits »

warner25 wrote: post #5

I don't know why this would be unbelievable or "whopping." $3.3M over 60 years of adult life (age 20 to 80) is $55k/year. That's pretty close to the median American income.

I think you'd look at the average income, not median. I'm seeing $63k/yr which is $3.3M over 52 years. I'm seeing average retirement age as 64 and first job around 17 (47 years). Maybe I'd get closer if I added post retirement jobs (e: oh and social security payments, pension payouts) which seem common.

Re: The Average American Spends $3.3M over Their Lifetime

#27

Post by Glyptodon »

acover wrote: post #13

> Our greatest ongoing financial priority is our home, with the average cost of a single-family house totaling $428,700,” the study states. “Americans tend to change residences every 15 years, pushing the average amount borrowed on housing to a staggering $1.5 million in a lifetime.” Why are they counting homes like that? If I sell and buy my investments in my 401k, they don't count it twice.

So if you get a 30 year mortgage on $330k loan at 6% the total cost of the loan is $700-something-k. Go through three houses, reseting the 30 years a couple times, maybe while getting a bigger house, end up paying for 50 years, and it doesn't seem that hard to hit a million something.

That said, I super suspect the numbers might be averages of a multi-modal distribution...

Re: The Average American Spends $3.3M over Their Lifetime

#28

Post by martyvis »

It would be interesting to try to estimate what each person's demand triggers in government or corporate spend. For instance a new public swimming centre with say a 30 year lifetime might cost $10M. If they get 100 000 visits per year by on average 10 000 people, then each person effectively caused a spend of $33 capital each year.

Re: The Average American Spends $3.3M over Their Lifetime

#29

Post by deadbolt »

biotopia wrote: post #26
warner25 wrote: post #5

I don't know why this would be unbelievable or "whopping." $3.3M over 60 years of adult life (age 20 to 80) is $55k/year. That's pretty close to the median American income.

[flagged]

What are you doing here? This post is about American spending.

Every single post of yours is about China. We get it, you don't like China. Stop polluting threads with offtopic garbage.

Re: The Average American Spends $3.3M over Their Lifetime

#30

Post by Glyptodon »

faeriechangling wrote: post #15
leetrout wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I look around at my neighbors, my friends... everyone must be doing better off than me OR everyone is just constantly living in debt and considering a car payment a permanent "tax to live" because I see people with new cars (if used, very late model) everywhere. I am terrified of one of my cars breaking (both Toyotas, thankfully, fingers crossed, knock on wood). I dread having to buy another car when these are done.

As a long time car avoider it truly baffles me the people I see driving while on minimum wage. A lot of people will just drive around either uninsured or by defrauding their insurance hoping this never blows up in their face and well it usually doesn’t.

At least where I live there's not much choice for some of those folks I don't think... If you have to work two minimum wage jobs you aren't going to make it on time going from one job to the next taking the bus unless they're quite close to each other.
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