I am often spending time reading about finances, as financial independence is my goal. The best information is found on personal blogs, but I sometimes stray to the MSM personal finance sites to see what is going on.
I often regret it as it is full of low level, basic stuff. Or whining. Or some combination of the two.
But sometimes I find an interesting thing or two. The other day I found a few interesting bits of information about the 'average' or 'median' American in regards to their finances.
I found myself mentally checking where I was in relation to the responses. Here is where I stand. Read along and think about where you are, financially.
According to Zillow, my home is worth $177,000. So I live below the median, which is fine by me. I also think my house was a great investment, unlike what you will repeatedly hear on some personal finance sites. Purchased during the summer of 2014 for just over $98K, I spent a few weeks and around $10K to update it.
This is a return of 64% from the purchase and renovation costs.
I have never had a student loan in my life. Feels good man.
My salary of $66K is 43% above the average.
No, I plan to be able to FIRE in just over a year, at age 37. That seems to put me in the 11% of Americans who expect to retire before 50.
I plan on a pension plus dividend income. Throwing in whatever Social Security will have for me as an extra.
I am not found in either of these groups.
As I check my credit card balances, I see that it totals to a few hundred dollars. Credit cards are just free rewards to me as they get paid off every month with no interest. So yeah, I easily have more savings than credit card debt.
The average indebted respondent owes $140,113.
I am below the average at $60K in debt. It’s just the mortgage though. I plan on being completely debt free.
Beware: The season of “Spend Your Tax Refund Here!” is coming.
I like to have no worries about paying the bills.
That's a total of $34,204 for something that is probably worth $6,000 by the end of the loan. But that doesn't matter as I am sure you will be tired of driving that ratty ol' car around by then. Time for an upgrade! Treat yo self!
The dealer will be more than happy to roll whatever it is you have remaining into the new car loan. What could be better than that - you can pay for something you don't even own anymore!
You know what I do? I buy that "old" car of yours for $6K and drive it five more years before selling it for $3K.
My depreciation cost for 5 years? $3K
The average persons? $28K
It doesn't take long to build wealth when you aren't paying for it to literally drive away.
These numbers surprise me. Wherever I look, people are nose-deep in their phones. I would think that number should be twice as large.
As for the time spent on finances, it seems ok. Time spent doesn't really matter. If you have everything running smoothly it shouldn't take much time at all. Unless you are a finance nerd like me, that is!
I hardly spend any time on Facebook, maybe 15 minutes per week and most of that is replying to messages. I spend a bit more on Twitter as I have been promoting my articles on SeekingAlpha and my personal blog.
But if you count Steemit, then I am WAY over - and I bet you are too!
If I am not on Steemit, I am probably reading about finances. Investments. Personal development. Not really working on my finances, but learning how to be better at them. I don't think that counts towards what the survey was asking though. I maybe spend 30 minutes per week actually 'working' on my finances.
