have you ever wondered how your finances stack up to the average person what's the average amount others have saved for retirement how does your income compare to what others make in a year what about your spending taking a look at these figures will give you further insight into your situation and they can be used to gauge whether you're ahead of the average person financially pay attention because some of these are pretty surprising my name is Chris and I help teach people about money personal finance and investing if you're interested in improving your financial future make
sure to subscribe to the channel and hit the like button if this video is helpful when you go to work for your paycheck do you think you earn more or less than the average worker according to the U.S Department of Labor Statistics the median income for a full-time worker was one thousand forty one dollars per week or approximately fifty two thousand dollars per year based on a 40-hour work week this equates to about 26 dollars per hour before tax of course this income figure is strictly for an individual not household income which is the total
income of all members living in a home including spouses and their dependents according to the most recent Federal Reserve data the median Mount safe for retirement among all adults was 65 000 this amount is based on all age groups but only takes into account those who even have retirement Accounts at all about one-fourth of Americans don't even have one if someone were to retire with this amount using a four percent safe withdrawal rate it would only produce two thousand six hundred dollars per year in income those age 25 and younger had a median retirement account
balance of one thousand seven hundred and eighty six dollars the 25 to 34 age group saw a median balance of just over fourteen thousand dollars and the number Rose to almost eighty eight thousand dollars for those age 65 and older these low amounts are alarming considering the average household is probably going to need more like five hundred thousand dollars or more in addition to other income streams in order to retire comfortably just saving a small percentage of your paycheck and investing it consistently should put you in a much better position than the average person your
age when it comes to retirement savings the Social Security Administration says the average benefit amount is one thousand five hundred and fifty dollars per month many Americans rely on social security income as their only form of retirement income and for most who have nothing else safe for retirement it will need to be supplemented with income from a job keep in mind that one thousand five hundred and fifty dollars per month is just the average payment amount and those who never earned much money during the average year will likely be receiving even less than that for
others they prepare for retirement without considering the fact that they'll even receive social security income at all and instead just see it as a bonus in addition the benefit amount will vary based on what age you plan on filing for it most people can get an estimate of their benefit based on their past earnings on the Social Security Administration website the average household spends about five thousand five hundred and seventy seven dollars per month is noted by the U.S Department of Labor Statistics over the course of one year that's about sixty seven thousand dollars in
annual spending meaning you'd have to take home that much money each year as a household just to get by that figure covers everything from major costs like housing transportation and food which commonly eat up a large percentage of the average budget to be more specific the average household spends one thousand eight hundred and eighty five dollars per month on housing equating to 34 percent of total spending 691 dollars per month is spent on food and nine hundred and thirteen dollars per month total on Transportation credit scores can vary drastically from as low as 300 to
as high as 850 with the average FICO score being surprisingly high at 715 according to Experian despite the fact that some people downplay the need for a good credit score most people are going to benefit greatly by having a respectable number if you ever plan on using any type of debt you're going to want to pay attention to your score a credit score impacts what mortgage rate you'd receive when you buy a home or a rental property the terms you receive for a car loan and other forms of potentially low interest debt thankfully it's pretty
easy to keep this number up and you can do this primarily by paying your bills on time experience says that payment history is the main factor impacting your credit score followed by your credit utilization ratio credit history length what types of credit you have and the amount of new credit wallethub says that the average household has 9 260 dollars in credit card debt perhaps the worst type of debt you can carry one of the main problems with carrying credit card debt is the extremely high interest rates if you're paying a fifteen percent twenty percent or
twenty five percent interest rate on credit card debt that far exceeds what you could typically earn by investing in the stock market this completely counteracts any retirement investing you might be doing furthermore credit cards encourage wasteful spending meaning much of that debt is probably the result of overspending and buying things that weren't even needed clothes Electronics small appliances and random online purchases probably make up most of this debt and these items carry little residual value the easy solution to this is to pay your balances in full every single month don't buy anything you can't afford
or only use a debit card it's a good idea to keep track of your net worth so you can easily see progress as you build wealth net worth is an excellent way to check your financial well-being and determine strengths or weaknesses net worth is calculated by totaling the value of every single item you own such as your home vehicles and other items in addition to your retirement accounts and subtracting everything you owe like a mortgage you might be surprised to learn that the median net worth for households in the United States is about one hundred
and twenty two thousand dollars is found by the Federal Reserve for those under the age of 35 the median net worth is less than fourteen thousand dollars for the 35 to 44 age group the median is ninety one thousand dollars 45 to 54 is one hundred and sixty eight thousand dollars 55 to 64 is 212 000 in 65 to 74 is two hundred and sixty six thousand dollars these net worth figures are easy to exceed with a reasonable income and some discipline the amount of income the average person saves varies from year to year based
on various factors such as the economy in addition to others information collected from the U.S Bureau of economic analysis shows that the average savings rate is around six percent so they save about six percent of their income after taxes this money might be saved for a home purchase home renovation new car College retirement or surprise expense after funding all short and medium term savings goals this doesn't leave much left over for a retirement consider that the average down payment on a home is sixty two thousand dollars the average kitchen renovation cost about twenty six thousand
dollars in the average new car cost over forty seven thousand dollars experts suggest that people should be saving at least 10 to 15 percent of their income for retirement alone and even more than that if your goal is to retire early on top of that you need to save for other future purchases you'd like to make everyone wants the ability to retire early so that they don't have to spend the majority of their time at work but Ramsey Solutions says that the average retirement age is 61 despite the fact that most people can't even collect
their full Social Security benefits until age 67. for more context someone who reaches the age of 65 can expect to live another 19 to 21 and a half years according to the Social Security Administration retiring in your early 60s means you've been in the workforce for about four full decades for those who begin investing early this amount of time gives them ample opportunity to earn compound interest but will retiring at the age of 61 leave enough time for doing the things you actually enjoy at age 61 there's a good chance of having good health and
Mobility but how many more years can you expect to be in good enough shape to enjoy your hobbies it's hard to have a clear perspective on how you're doing with money and sometimes it feels like you're nowhere close to where you should be and you're hardly making any progress these financial statistics of the average person are sure to surprise you and give you some insight into your financial well-being you might realize that in many ways you're doing better than the average person giving you the momentum to continue improving
