Average income in U.S.A

I could be wrong, but I believe I read recently that it was something like $22,500

According to the World Bank, average income in the US is $43.7740

That sounds about right. I have not saw census data in a couple of years, and off the top of my head, I want to say that had said $42k approx.

Always wondered that - thanks

Sounds much the same as most industrialized countries

most GFY'ers earn that per month...

Awesome PA

Does this mean the $19 I earn has a chance of increasing? *lol*

The average is 43k but the median is 37k. It is skewed toward the top because of a couple super rich people. The most common income is 37k.

That number is per household too no per person. So they say the average household in america makes around 43K a year so that number often includes more than one income.

www.salary.com is interesting

yup, and thats scary to me... i dont know how they survive, especially since they have 2.3 children and a pet...

If I made that much I'd hang myself.

EVERY gfy'er!

Yikes. That's not good.

more like $23 000 or so but not $43k

more like $23 000 or so but not $43k

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Househo..._United_States

google works for me

LOL

What difference does it make? The US dollar is a house of cards. We could all be making a bazillion dollars a year, if they print ten thousands times that much currency every day without telling anyone how much they're printing (because they hide the m3 reports from the public now), what is it really worth?

Answer: nothing.

http://goldprice.org/bob/2006/12/us-...-illusion.html

i thought it was higher.. like around 50k-60k.. that sucks.. (for them)

That don't sound so healthy!!

If it is roughly half of that figure - $23K as Antonio suggests, it's hardly going to cover expenses. Another factor is US people work longer hours than most countries and often have more than one job??

$23K is 16,600 Euros or 11,200 GBP - that sure would not be a living wage in these areas.

Thats awesome money....if I was still single and living like a scumbag. It's still doable, just not as much fun.

Which is why the amount of debt is so high. Keep in mind those $ to Euro & GBP figures are recent. Most people in the US do not travel outside the country, so the foreign devaluation of the dollar means little to them.

Sure.. can see this can be a reason for the personal debt level. It does not take much to rock that boat on a personal basis with a few large bills and cause severe financial hardship.

No idea to what degree it will have an effect, but bear in mind a low dollar will mean all imports are going to cost more and this will trickle down to end users/consumers to pay the bill. People don't even have to travel to feel the impact of that.

It's amazing that US people are .. think at the top of the list for work hours, but the net income appears so low... unless we got our figures screwed up

well, they say most people in the US are about 3 paychecks from being homeless. That may be an overstatement because it would take a bank or landlord several months to evict you, but I can say that of a group of 10 people I know that make pretty decent money (somewhere around or more than the average) there is only 1 of them that actually has any money in savings. So if the money stops coming in they are screwed.

People don't look at what they can afford, they look at what they want. They buy houses, cars and then get credit cards and max them out. While the average household makes around 43K a year, CNN reported that the average family (meaning the family that makes 43K a year) has around $9200 in credit card debt that they are paying and average of 12% interest on, owes about $58,000 in principle on their mortgage and has over $10,000 in car debt.

If you are a family that brings in 43K before taxes and you pay a total of 25% to taxes (including state, federal and social security) that means you are going to see around 30K in bring home which is around $2500 a month. If you are paying the nationwide average of $350 a month for you car, plus the nationwide average of $1300 for a mortgage and at least $150 towards your average credit card debt (and that is basically just paying off the interest each month) you already have burned through $1800 of your $2500 leaving you just $700 for insurance, food, utilities, gas, clothes and everything else.

It's not a wonder that 1 out of every 100 people in this country declare bankruptcy and that 96% of people will end up relying strictly on social security, family and charity for support when they get too old to work.

The citizens in the US should pay a bit more in taxes so they can get rid of the all to huge foreing debt.

-gladly in our contry we have zero debt only plus to the stats finances.. but we also pay up to 60% in tax

Never really asked friends in the US what they earn but the majority "appear" to be fairly OK financially - but, looks can be deceptive. There are exceptions where people can be working for the govt - some of these salaries are fairly bad, but they chose that path not for the money tho they deserve much more for the type of work they do.

That savings or contingency ratio is low in comparison to probably most other western countries. Tho noticed in the US, elderly people seem to have a degree of savings set aside for problems - that is prob much the same as other countries and is prob more related to their upbringing and "money values" - old school


Sure... impluse buying based on plastic cards is a killer. Had a meet with a guy who manages assets mainly for US and Canadian people. The meeting was really about potential currency changes, but drifted into the background reasons for this. One thing which has apparently emerged over the last 6-12 months was that there was a change of spending patterns on cards. There is a reduction in impulse/mall spending and the card balances are slanting towards being used to buy necessities - food etc. and also to pay off other debts (or possibly interest on these debts). The conclusion was a tightening up of "free money" and the cards were being used to actually live off.

In your example of $700 "free money" to pay for basics like insurance and food, that sounds very tight and unless that $700 is increased - the next step would probably be to live off cards. If this was remotely near an "average" - it sure does not look good.

There is card debt everywhere - not just the US and some card debt is Europe is totally crazy - can think of one "financial wizard" who, last I heard, is now carrying around $900K debts spread over cards and not one hope in hell of paying them. (He actually won a prize from Amex for being the "spender of the month" or something similar ) But.. that is an exception and although debt balances can be higher - salaries and living costs are pro rata - and probably less chance of defaulting. It may be a Euro culture thing, but there is also a tendency to hit towards debit card use and not credit cards - tho that is slowly changing.

Sounds like it may be time for an advanced look at what matters and possible lifestyle change if the figures don't add up

The US is much on par, give or take a few percent either way, with most other industrialized countries on taxation. How high can you bleed people?

The problem may be the way the tax revenue is spent. OK.. there is a war at the moment and that inevitably eats into the coffers, but the volumes of taxpayers money spent on defense is huge in comparison with other countries. There may be others areas as well, tho not familiar enough.

Only my - it may seem fair to have more taxation passed back to benefit taxpayers directly and where that can trickle down and have an impact on the economy and hopefully raise currency values a little and enable some of the benefits that can give.

I love this site! http://www.globalrichlist.com/


makes me feel a little better until my late bill notices come.

money is worth what it can buy you fucking moron. thats always the case. irrespective of all your conspiracy theories and bashing, money ONLY has value because people believe it has value and trust that others will accept it for that value in exchange for goods and services. thats how money works in every country on the planet unless you are living somewhere where you are paying for shit with chickens, goats, rice or underage girls.

Hehe.. You have a good month and, hey! You are in Warren Buffet class on that index

Interesting thread

I think much our debt problem stems from a few places.

First is that we are raised in a spend first culture. Our entire economy is based on people buying things so from a very young age you are barraged with advertising and sent offers to get credit cards. When you are young and stupid you don't think about the long term problems so it's not hard to find yourself being 22 years old with over 10K in credit card debt that you blew on a stereo, TV and junk you don't need. I was one of those people. When I got out of high school I bought a new car. It was a cheap car that I could afford. within about 3 years I had about 10K in other debt. I just got offered credit cards and lines of credit and I took them all and eventually spent them all and it took me years to pay them all off. now I know better. Many people seem to have what I call the "installment" mentality. They don't look at a car as a 20K purchase, they see it as a $400 a month payment. Never mind that they will end up paying 60K for the car once it is all said and done. I know a lot of people that get a raise and bring in another few hundred a month and then buy something that takes up that money each month. They leave themselves nothing to fall back on. It is almost like having a savings account is a bad thing.

Second, our economy is shifting. Our middle class was built on manufacturing jobs. These were/are jobs that anyone could get with a high school education and after putting in 3-5 years they could earn enough to make a nice middle class living. They could buy a house, get married and raise a couple of kids and be okay. Now those jobs are leaving. Every day companies are shipping those jobs overseas where they can pay some $1 an hour as opposed to $25 an hour and get the same work done. The jobs that are replacing these manufacturing jobs are mostly customer service, sales and retail type jobs. Most of these jobs don't pay anywhere near what the manufacturing jobs do and so people find themselves making less, but with a lot of debt and no way to pay for it and if they want to make more money they will need to go to school and learn a new skill or start a business on their own which is hard to do if you have no money.

Third, people just don't think ahead. A few years back interest rates on home loans were at an all time low so a lot of people bought houses. They bought more house than they really could afford and they bought it on an adjustable rate mortgage. So when rates were low they were fine. now that rates are climbing again and their $1100 a month house payment is now $1600 a month they are not so fine. A friend of mine lives near a new housing development, a few years ago the new houses in a development were bought up as fast as they could build them. Now 40% of them are for sale because the people overspent and can't afford it now.

Ultimately I see our middle class having some serious problems as we shift from being a manufacturing society to an information and technology society. The blame can fall across many different people, but ultimately it falls on the individual who just assumes that everything will stay the same forever, they don't plan for the future and they spend every penny they ever make. I always tell people to live 40% below your means and save the extra money, but for most the allure of the nicer house and cooler car is just too much.

thanks for this one.

Wow, 50 pages about US household income, amazing..

If you and your wife take in 43K and you have a $1300 mortage you're both idiots !

I agree, but the problem is that housing costs in many parts of the country have grown much faster than salaries. Where I live the average 3 bedroom house is around 200K. If you buy a house for 200K and can put 20K down and get around 5.7% interest your house payment is going to be around 1K a month and then add in around around 200-300 a month for taxes. You could rent, but it's not much cheaper. I would say if you make 43K and you buy a 200K house, great, then don't buy cars and get credit card debt and all that other stuff and you will still have some extra money each month to save and invest. The people that really get into trouble are the ones that buy the 200K house then go finance a new 25K car and put 10K on their credit cards buying stuff for the new house.

avg income varies WIDELY from state to state. Avg income in new jersey or california is going to be much higher than average income in idaho.

about 42k. With a family of Mother Father and two Children.

That is very true. As does cost of living. I have a relative that lives in Missouri and she and her husband bought a full resort that has about 10 acres of land, is on a river, has multiple cabins plus a large 4 bedroom house and they paid around 250K for it about 10 years ago. They are thinking of selling it and now it is worth about 400K. In southern California 400K will maybe get you a little 2 bedroom house with a tiny yard. I saw a show the other day that said the average 2 bedroom condo in Long Beach, CA went for 300K

To get the right picture when comparing, you need to isolate out the 1% on top that make 50% of it all.

see post by Kard63 .. easily done with median

it's crazy the amount of debt our countries have

You can eat children and pets

Ron Paul for Prez!

www.salary.com

Yep.. noticed that..

Assuming the stats are correct - who knows? - we are talking about average income overall. Not regional variations on that. Any set of stats has the same variations