Not sure which assets you are talking about: 1. Half of US households have no retirement savings: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-12/the-retire

Not sure which assets you are talking about: 1. Half of US households have no retirement savings: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-12/the-retirement-savings-gap-between-haves-and-have-nots-is-getting-bigger http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-12/the-retire... 2. One third of households making > $75K live paycheck-to-paycheck and are essentially one or two months of unemployment from bankruptcy: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2015/04/16/one-third-of-households-making-more-than-75000-live-paycheck-to-paycheck/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2015/04/16/o... 3. Disastrous healthcare costs (roughly $20K per family per year). You may or may not be paying it directly out of pocket (your employer may be paying for you, or you my be subsidized), but that's what it costs. Also remember that asset (mostly housing and stocks) values are on paper and may (and will) go down if the economy keeps slowing down as it has been since the dead-cat bounce of 2010-2011.