The Average ER.org'er has $2.9M Net Worth, $84K/yr Spending, 3.4% Withdrawal Rate...

[ejman]

Thank you Midpack. Confirmation of what I've always suspected - I'm AB-normal...

 

[NW-Bound]

Good compilation.

I thought that we had a poll or thread on how much people spend on a trip, per person per day. And then, more recently also how many TVs are view-ready inside the home.

Way earlier, there's a thread on how many tires a person has, e.g. a car has 4, a bicycle has 2, a hand-truck dolly has 2, and a wheel barrow has 1. Note that only pneumatic tires count, meaning solid wheels do not.

I can sit down and recollect more, but the above polls/threads popped up immediately in my mind.

 

[ERD50]

...holds 11 or fewer mutual funds in portfolio,

with a house that's 15% or less of net worth and,

46% have a pension that provides 25% or more of income, 24% have a pension but less than 25% of income and 30% have no pension.

Based on ....

Based on .... self-selected self-reporting. It is meaningless to say this represents anything other than what those people who took the poll decided to report.

Even if they were truthful/accurate, it's still only a summary of the data of those who chose to take part in the poll. We have no idea if that group is representative of the population of ER.org'ers.

Polling 101.

-ERD50

 

[rodi]

The net worth and the withdrawal rate and spending don't line up.... Must be the pensions and primary homes.

Interesting compilation of polls. Networth is a little higher than ours, spending is about right (but we are a family of 4), withdrawal rate is close enough. I'm in the smaller pension group and my house is more than 15% (hello California prices). All in all, I guess I'm pretty average.

 

[Aiming_4_55]

Good stuff MidPack!

A few other potentially interesting data points might be:
- number of years worked
- age age of RE
- age of cars
- % of people with OMY
- # of kids (just teasing)
- # of months expense
- how much cash

 

[gayl]

The average height of ER males is 176 cm and for females 163 cm.
Our average weight is 14 stone (men) and 12 stone for women.

I feel better!
163 cm = only 5.34 ft
12 stone = 168

 

[RobLJ]

Sorry to pull down the averages! (Well, looks the house value is above the average percentage NW--thanks Reno/Cali real estate!)

 

[alaska55]

Another worthless poll! Look I got more than you>

 

[Grabberson]

I appreciate your giving us these data points! Lot of the responses to this thread say they're below those numbers (as am I), so I suspect the average poll participant is not quite representative of the average ER.org'er.

 

[Fermion]

Another worthless poll! Look I got more than you>

It is kind of interesting that it is socially acceptable to tout how much net worth one has but not really as nice and acceptable to tout how healthy one is compared to others. Both depend quite a bit on luck but do have factors one can control (saving, LBYM, staying out of sun, exercise).

I think there would be shock if we had a poll that says "I am free of cancer, don't have heart issues, don't need meds, above average!"

 

[Scuba]

Thanks Midpack. Interesting even if not fully valid data.

 

[neihn]

Uh oh - I am way under average - Not OMY for me now, FMY instead.

 

[Shabby]

46% have a pension that provides 25% or more of income

Tell me more about this mysterious "pension" thing

 

[Perryinva]

So my NW is much lower but income much higher. Guess I'd rather have it that way.

 

[audreyh1]

So my NW is much lower but income much higher. Guess I'd rather have it that way.

Income? OP was talking about spending I thought.

 

[zinger1457]

It is kind of interesting that it is socially acceptable to tout how much net worth one has but not really as nice and acceptable to tout how healthy one is compared to others.

Maybe I'm in the wrong social circle but I don't see it as socially acceptable to tout or gloat about one's net worth. I have noticed more and more of it on this forum lately though.

 

[Midpack]

Persistent though somewhat infrequent, there have always been posts here speculating on what the norms are on this forum. The purpose of the thread was to attempt to loosely quantify the most common parameters for those who want to know, using polls that have been conducted here - you can search them any time just like I did. As I acknowledged in post #1 the distributions are broad (so we all have plenty of peers) and determining the exact means for each isn't possible. The polls are anonymous with deliberately wide bin ranges. I have seen few if any members "touting" their specifics (we're all anonymous anyway), and this thread certainly wasn't meant to encourage it.

 

[Luck_Club]

Maybe I'm in the wrong social circle but I don't see it as socially acceptable to tout or gloat about one's net worth. I have noticed more and more of it on this forum lately though.

I think Fermion was referring to it being more acceptable to show your tail feathers a little on this forum as opposed to in our everyday life.

I would never go open Komono with my friends. This group has been exposed more to my financial life then even my accountant, since he only get to account after the fact and has no involvement in the strategies.

This reminds me of when one of our friends asked us ( two couples) if we wanted to know how much he made? Despite a resounding NO from the group, he told us, and we remained silent.

 

[dtbach]

Good thread. I suspected that the average ER was in the millionaire club. I'm shy of the net worth but pension above 25% so I'm probably just about average. Anyway thanks for the info.

 

[Fermion]

I don't really know what I am trying to say actually. It is just a feeling that pointing out the relatively high average net worth of people on this forum might tend to discourage some from participating. I am also trying to point out that a good chunk of the high net worth of people comes from some amount of luck (home price appreciation in certain hot markets, stock options that went boom instead of bust, pensions that didn't get driven under a truck and then backed over again for good measure). Some patting on the back is ok in my book but when we get threads like "I have more money than a small country's GDP, can I retire?" it gets a little tiresome." Similar are the threads that say their SWR is 0%. Yay?

Anyway, I can always flip back to cheaprvliving where the average net worth is more like $2900 instead of $2,900,000 and get my smugness on.

 

[GrayHare]

So my NW is much lower but income much higher. Guess I'd rather have it that way.

No one can draw useful comparisons from that data because you don't know if your household size matches that in the survey. If you're single but the survey represents a 1.9 person household on average, you might be misled into thinking, for example, your NW is much lower than average when in reality it would not be.

 

[LRDave]

Two thoughts:


1) This is really a GREAT online community and I'd have a beer with any one of you. But I opine that there is a little #humblebrag and embellishment here from time-to-time. That said, it might not impact the results much and still would not change the offer to buy you (the collective you) a drink.


2) As Big_Hitter pointed out, maybe median is a better stat to consider then mean.....

 

[LRDave]

Two thoughts:


1) This is really a GREAT online community and I'd have a beer with any one of you. But I opine that there is a little #humblebrag and embellishment here from time-to-time. That said, it might not impact the results much and still would not change the offer to buy you (the collective you) a drink.


2) As Big_Hitter pointed out, maybe median is a better stat to consider then mean.....

Forgot to point out, I'm in the lower 50th percentile - mean or median.

 

[kevdude]

This is pretty interesting data to me. That being said, it has no other impact on me other than to say, "Huh, we're (either above or below) the numbers." And I'll go on with my day.

And thanks, Midpack, for compiling everything.

 

[flintnational]

Copied from the forum header, " Early Retirement & Financial Independence Community". I am not sure how you can have this type of forum and not discuss net worth and spending. It would be like joining a fishing forum and never discussing the fish you caught.

Thanks again for the data.

FN