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What’s striking is that net worth of MBAs is as low $30k - I am a programmer living in Eastern European country and my net worth is around $170k And I thought A

by mamon 9y ago

What’s striking is that net worth of MBAs is as low $30k - I am a programmer living in Eastern European country and my net worth is around $170k And I thought Americans are supposed to be richer

nostrademons 9y ago
The net worth of MBAs who use a student loan refinancing platform is $30K. This is not reflective of the general net worth of MBAs, as once you start to build assets and no longer have student debt to service, you would drop out of their sample.
adventured 9y ago
That depends on what you're measuring. The average individual American is worth $388,000 net, third in the world behind Australia and Switzerland. That figure is radically ahead of the rest of the world, except for a handful of countries. The average Russian has a net worth of $16,000. The average in China is $26,000. The median US figure, is far lower than the average, at maybe $60k today, with rising stocks / housing. That median figure is higher than Germany and Sweden, but well behind eg France at $120k or Belgium at $160k (they're #3 in the world at the median). The median figure in Russia is $4,000. The median net wealth in China is around $7,000. For the US it's simple: you want to be in the top 50%. Below that, wealth levels fall rapidly. In the US the gap between the average level of wealth and the median, is extremely high, as wealth tilts overwhelmingly toward the top half. Sweden and Germany also similarly have badly skewed median vs average net wealth figures (not quite as bad as the US though). As an engineer, you should be in the top 1/3 pretty easily assuming a decent career and income level (an average engineer in the US will earn close to 2x the median full-time wage).
- Melchiorarchy 9y ago
  "The average individual American is worth $388,000 net, third in the world behind Australia and Switzerland." Do you have a source for that? That's certainly not the average American across all demographics.
  - hueving 9y ago
    Read the comment. It's a great example of why understanding the difference between mean and median is critical. Imagine a room with 100 people. 99 have $100 in savings, 1 has $1 billion. What is the average wealth of the people in that room? What is the median wealth?

by mamon 9y ago

What’s striking is that net worth of MBAs is as low $30k - I am a programmer living in Eastern European country and my net worth is around $170k And I thought Americans are supposed to be richer

nostrademons 9y ago

The net worth of MBAs who use a student loan refinancing platform is $30K. This is not reflective of the general net worth of MBAs, as once you start to build assets and no longer have student debt to service, you would drop out of their sample.

adventured 9y ago

That depends on what you're measuring. The average individual American is worth $388,000 net, third in the world behind Australia and Switzerland. That figure is radically ahead of the rest of the world, except for a handful of countries. The average Russian has a net worth of $16,000. The average in China is $26,000. The median US figure, is far lower than the average, at maybe $60k today, with rising stocks / housing. That median figure is higher than Germany and Sweden, but well behind eg France at $120k or Belgium at $160k (they're #3 in the world at the median). The median figure in Russia is $4,000. The median net wealth in China is around $7,000. For the US it's simple: you want to be in the top 50%. Below that, wealth levels fall rapidly. In the US the gap between the average level of wealth and the median, is extremely high, as wealth tilts overwhelmingly toward the top half. Sweden and Germany also similarly have badly skewed median vs average net wealth figures (not quite as bad as the US though). As an engineer, you should be in the top 1/3 pretty easily assuming a decent career and income level (an average engineer in the US will earn close to 2x the median full-time wage).

Melchiorarchy 9y ago
"The average individual American is worth $388,000 net, third in the world behind Australia and Switzerland." Do you have a source for that? That's certainly not the average American across all demographics.
- hueving 9y ago
  Read the comment. It's a great example of why understanding the difference between mean and median is critical. Imagine a room with 100 people. 99 have $100 in savings, 1 has $1 billion. What is the average wealth of the people in that room? What is the median wealth?