Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/11/07/heres-a-map-of-the-median-ne.html
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I think an average net worth map would be far more interesting, a handfull of multi-billionaires can heavily skew the median stat…
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Is wealth considered annual salary (in which case, ok) or how much money you have in savings minus outstanding debt (in which case, oh no!)?
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I think you’ve got average and median backwards.
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There’s a link in the article to average net worth, which is more distorted by the presence of the 0.1%
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Oops, i think i did…
I shall run away now 
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From the average wealth map link:
“Credit Suisse defines “net worth” as the market value of all assets minus any outstanding debts.”
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Dammit. Well, that’s me screwed.
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In this case it looks like they include an owned primary residence in the assets (sometimes investment banks exclude it when evaluating net worth). For a lot of Americans, the bulk of their net worth is locked up in the equity in their homes. In OECD countries where you don’t get a tax break on your mortgage, the number probably represents cash and investments.
You’re far from alone, according the that map. I’m assuming those median numbers go up a bit with age, but it’s still pretty tight in the U.S. if you want to have any hope of retiring comfortably.
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I’d like if they had spelled out how much you needed in annual income to retire in each state (further bleow chart on the states) in addition to the savings portion. They do list a few examples & you can estimate based upon the those I guess.
In either case - I’m thinking some dream places will remain in dreamland.
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I am completely average. Or more accurately, I am completely median.
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When in Nicaragua 20 years ago, I hatched an early retirement plan. The guide for the field station I was at lived in a small house on the beach on Ometepe (island in Lake Nicaragua) and paid $2.50 a month in rent for the house ($300 per decade). In some places it doesn’t take 100k to retire to a beautiful island.
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My plan was to be discovered to be the long lost heir to the throne.
Still working on that…
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How can Slovakia have twice the median wealth of Czech Rebublic?
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Oh hey, look at Hungary doing by far the worst among members of the EU.* Looks like not even the new millionaires from Fidesz’s rotten and corrupt business circle can skew the numbers higher when half of the country is quite literally starving and is kept in poverty out of feudalist and racist policies, while new companies fail to get off the ground because aside of the omnipresent corruption the entire economic system is built on extracting as much money for the government in fees and taxes as possible, and EU money and the German car industry are literally the only things that keep the economy afloat.
But hey, we’re doing amazing and everyone who says otherwise is a filthy Soros lackey who wants to destroy our country and our culture. Somehow.
*Oh wait, Latvia is doing worse than us. HA! Take that! We are doing amazing. /s
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This is surprising, I expected Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland to have about the same median wealth.
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I’m no expert on Slovak quality of life/etc. as I don’t live there, but from what I can see from the neighborhood and by talking to the people I know, their middle class is doing extremely well and domestic business definitely seems to be thriving. Meanwhile, from what I hear from my Czech friends, a surprising amount of people there seem to be very deeply in debt due to low wages vs rising costs of living.
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When people take their savings and move to countries with a much lower cost of living, it makes me wonder how many join the existing community. There seem to be areas in developing nations full of expats, and that doesn’t seem safe.
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