They’ll spin it that he’s so poor that he is incompetent or just going for VP for the paycheck will “billionaire” Trump is a good business man and doesn’t need the paycheck at all. But it will probably backfire cuz that just makes Walz relatable AF, especially to younger or more rural voters.

Yep. This.

All those pensions and lifetime benefits are worth a lot in financial planning and means you aren’t slaving as hard to build the large nest egg required to actually have a hope of retiring. They put their years of service in to get those benefits. It’s always amazing to me how much having those benefits in someone’s back pocket changes their perspective, it’s a freedom that most Americans will never know.

Perhaps it's because our society values certain professions much more than others, particularly those in the social/educational sector, which are particularly undervalued. IMO, we need to put everything on the table and reconsider what we want to be considered as useful work for society.

Regional cost of living, and the inflation around it, really skews those numbers. A million in San Francisco or Manhattan is very different than a million in the middle of the country. Housing and pay are a lot higher in the major metros.

I’d love to see what these numbers look like when adjusted for CoL.

1:15 has a net worth of a million. That includes all possessions, pensions, etc.

Treasure a retiree with a house that's worth a couple hundred grand, throw in their 401k, vehicles, etc and it adds up.

Look at it this way: my car is probably worth about 20 grand, but that doesn't mean I have that much cash. Ask me to cough up an unexpected $500 and it's gonna hurt.

At that age yes. It's the only way a relatively high earner can maintain a similar income out of retirement and they also tend to own their homes.

Oddly enough very easy to accomplish with property and retirement accounts. Doesn't apply (and probably won't apply) to most genx, millennials or gen z, as Boomers shit the pool.

It literally says in the post that his net worth is roughly equal to the median.

The median is linked right in the article.

For ages 55-64 it's $364,500

Dual income homeowners with healthy retirement funds. The fucked up thing is 1 million dollars isn't that impressive anymore -- you can easily spend that in retirement living a middle class lifestyle in the USA. Particularly when you factor in age related medical expenses and elder care.

It's not like our retirement, healthcare, and elder care systems are catastrophically broken or anything.

Anyone who owns a detached home within 50 miles of an ocean is already at least 3/4 of the way there. Not surprising.

A millionaire doesn’t mean “Has $1 million in cash sitting in a checking account”. It just means your networth is at least $1 million. So like if you bought a shitty rundown starter home you’re half way there. A 401k you can touch for another 20-30 years could get you the rest of the way.

There are some places where all you have to do to become a millionaire (at least on paper) is to live long enough in one place to pay off the mortgage.

This kinda checks out. I know more than 15 people, and I know a few millionaires. You probably do too, just it's usually their wealth is in the form of a house.

Exploding property process will do that.

Average houses in most cities are at or over 1 million easy.

I'm guessing that is based on savings + asset value (house and car) + retirement funds + individual stock investments.

1 in 15 people with a half million dollar house and a half million dollar 401k? That's what? 25 million Americans? There's over 100 million people in the US over the age of 50. Seems pretty reasonable for 1 in 4 in that age range to have own their house and have a nice retirement fund.

I think that figure is because of people in NYC, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, et cetera, where they are absolutely not, like, independently wealthy or anything, but are technically millionaires because rent is 35 thousand dollars a week for 3 square foot apartment with no pets, no windows, and a communal bathroom where the landlord spits in your mouth instead of providing a sink.

Got off the rails there at the end. Rent prices are pissing me off lately. Point remains largely unchanged, though. Lol

Do you think you know an unbiased sample of people?

The argument I've heard from my parents is why should I pay for public healthcare when I can afford my own private healthcare.

Which is so incredibly tone deaf

Yeah he and his wife both have a teachers pensions, so what? They earned it working as teachers their whole lives. We should bring real pensions back for every American anyway, not this 401k shlock.