Posted By thestatedtruth.com on July 29, 2010

Broken Financial Generations – U.S. households only have a median of $2,000 saved in retirement accounts. The median net worth for those 25 to 34 is $3,700.  Which generation will support the economy going forward?  Social Security beneficiaries make up 19 percent of all Americans.     

This is setting up a big problem.   The demographics of the system only point to larger and larger monthly payouts:

The median net worth of Americans from 25 to 34 has consistently dropped since 1985.  There was a big drop from 2000 to 2004 and I would imagine the trend has accelerated in the current recession.  Yet how were people able to continue buying more and more?  It was all fueled by access to debt.  It was largely a debtor mirage that kept the economy going in the last decade.  In fact, the median amount Americans have saved in a retirement account (those still working) is $2,000. 

By definition:   In probability theory and statistics, a median is described as the numeric value separating the higher half of a sample, a population, or a probability distribution, from the lower half.  The arithmetic mean is the “standard” average, often simply called the “mean”.

Net Worth Chart:

A giant part of net worth was pulled from housing equity that has now largely evaporated.  The fact that half of U.S. households only have $2,000 in retirement accounts tells us that many are close to a zero net worth after the housing bubble burst.  

For more of this fantastic article: http://www.mybudget360.com/

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