The Financial Prowess of the U.S. Family

[Naturalized-Texan]

The Financial Prowess of the U.S. Family (http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTFiMDlkOTlhYTVlOGMwMzFlOTNhMjZmZDVhZDUwNGQ=)
You can’t talk liabilities without mentioning assets.

http://www.nationalreview.com/images/chart_bowyer6-20-06.gif

Thus, when we treat the U.S. as one family, we can create a balance sheet that’s quite admirable: Assets: $66 trillion. Liabilities: $13 trillion. Owner’s Equity (or Net Worth): $53 trillion.

Watching left-wing bloggers and right-wing nail-biters contort this data into bad news is priceless.

{More at the link above.}

[Borgia]

The Financial Prowess of the U.S. Family (http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTFiMDlkOTlhYTVlOGMwMzFlOTNhMjZmZDVhZDUwNGQ=)
You can’t talk liabilities without mentioning assets.

http://www.nationalreview.com/images/chart_bowyer6-20-06.gif

Thus, when we treat the U.S. as one family, we can create a balance sheet that’s quite admirable: Assets: $66 trillion. Liabilities: $13 trillion. Owner’s Equity (or Net Worth): $53 trillion.

Watching left-wing bloggers and right-wing nail-biters contort this data into bad news is priceless.

{More at the link above.}

Fine and dandy but of no relevance to the National Debt situation. Unless you think the US Govt is going to start seizing family assets to pay their debt.

[gnome]

As a whole average of the country, it IS good news.

Though, I think it would be revealing to break it down by, say, income quintiles. Do a majority of americans enjoy this level of equity?

[Naturalized-Texan]

As a whole average of the country, it IS good news.

Though, I think it would be revealing to break it down by, say, income quintiles. Do a majority of americans enjoy this level of equity?
I don't know about the average person, but our liabilities are a big fat zero. We are completely out of debt.

[gnome]

I don't know about the average person, but our liabilities are a big fat zero. We are completely out of debt.

That takes discipline and hard work. I congratulate you. I'm working on it myself, though it may be a while.

[Rhino]

I'm working on it myself, though it may be a while.My wife is working on it. I'm just muddying the waters.

[aaron11]

What Rhino said...

[Naturalized-Texan]

That takes discipline and hard work. I congratulate you. I'm working on it myself, though it may be a while.
About 20 years ago we had run up some large credit card bills, which we managed to pay off. Since then, we decided that we would only charge what we could pay off each month.

Our last liability was our mortgage which we finally paid off about 3 years ago. We started saving automatically into an interest-paying checking account the amount that we had been paying monthly for our mortgage into 4 funds - 1) "escrow" to cover property taxes and home owners insurance; 2) a travel fund; 3) a Christmas fund; 4) an emergency medical fund. That way we still had the same amount for day-to-day expenses as we had when we were still making house payments. It works for us. For example, if there isn't enough in the travel fund to make a trip, we wait until there is. As you said, that does take some discipline. If you pay off your mortgage, I would suggest something similar.

Since we are both in our 70s, we have to withdraw from our IRAs, so that also helps. If you are working and can afford it, I would recommend that you max out your 401(k) or its equivalent and put as much as you can into an IRA. When I worked as a tax preparer after I retired, I made that recommendation to all my clients.

[Rhino]

Already maxed. A fourth of my income goes into investments of one sort or another.

[Naturalized-Texan]

Already maxed. A fourth of my income goes into investments of one sort or another.
That's pretty much what we did. However, 401(k)s and IRAs were only available about the last 7 or 8 years before I retired. However, I started participating in the company's stock purchase plan in 1960, mainly to help pay for our sons' educations. We still have some of that stock left.

[Naturalized-Texan]

*bump*

[cerberus]

I wonder how much of those "assets" are in homes and property values. Not that that's a terribly bad place to put your assets, but if/when the housing market cools, those numbers may look a lot worse.

[Beowulf]

I'm no financial whiz (that's what my wife is for:biggrin: ) but one thing I do know is that families nowadays live well beyond their means. The car they want but don't really need and thus, the higher credit bills, but not all do.

I'm in a hole because back in the mid 90's WHILE CLINTON WAS PRESIDENT, I had to borrow to survive after being layed off three times. I'm still paying for it and my credit was hurt because of it. We've done a fair job of getting it down but it was a hard lesson learned.

I don't know if this is related or not but I firmly believe that war has been declared on the common man by the local and state governments, at least here in the Northeast, against homeowners based on skyrocketing property values in order to obtain more property taxes from the "working man/woman," the very person Democrats "supposedly" are for. I see alot of houses for sale around me but they aren't selling that well. Lord knows I can't do it.

[ConspiracyBuff]

My Uncle has done a good job buying up houses which need work (3 in RI), doing the work and then selling them and making a hefty sum. Seems to me to be a very smart move, one I hope to be able to make when I build a structure to start from.
I agree with Beowulfs NE assesment.