That's exactly what I was thinking! I never account for my paid off home in my net worth calculation. In my eyes, a person with $1.5 million net worth with $1 million in cash and investments is much better off than his counterpart in the same boat but with a house worth $1 million. I had a friend who recently revealed that he doesn't even have the money to fix his garage door. I told him to find ways to cut down on his unnecessary expenses while he looks for a 2nd job and what did he do? He switched his phone company and bought a new phone to "justify" the savings. 🙄 Lastly, your ultimate goal is to be wealthy, not just rich. There is a huge difference.
Ive got a net worth thats above the average of an age group above me. Still feel broke quite often. Got into a nice house in 2012 so alot of growth on that combined with heavily putting into retirement accounts means sure im doing well on paper. I am getting by so i cant really complain.
There are more poor people's than rich people, so Median is not good as well. If you are in or close to the median, you are in trouble and won't have enough to retire comfortably. I agreed that we shouldn't count too much of the house that we are currently living into the net worth calculation. A house is actually a huge liability for me. Insurance, property tax, maintenance is just too expensive. Lower property value is actually better for me to be honest.
