How much money should a 36yo have in investments?

[niceanice]

I was listening to a talk fadio finance show and a guy called in and said he was 36 years old and had just a little over $300k in stocks and other investments, and the host of the show was like "Thats It?!?!"

The guy said he tought he was doing pretty good and the host was like unless you expect to be eating cat food when you retire you better start putting more away.

To me that sounded pretty good for a 36yo. What do you think?

[Doctor Dre]

That's too general... it depends what life you want to live, what job you have, what are your priorities etc...

But 300k at 36 yo... yeah it's not that bad at all... he'll hit the mill before he retire most likely ;)

[nba4life2k]

theres 36 year old people that have less than 10 bucks and 36 year old people who have millions...all depends but 300k sounds good to me

[polish_aristocrat]

well thats not too bad IMO...

[WiredGuy]

For the average person, that seems pretty good. If you consider a typical 36yo would have been in the workforce since age 18, thats 18 years of savings which translates to about $17k/year in savings after taxes and expenses. That seems above average to me.
WG

[Vlad]

$632,527.00

[MsWild]

$300k for a 36 yo is not bad at all...

[bizarredollars]

300k sounds pretty good to me..

[Shoplifter]

By the time you are 36 you should have $300k just in real estate (ie the family house) alone. Really you should be close to or over $500k including both real and cash investment.

[Bozena X]

I hope to make my first mil before 30

[Bozena X]

but it is silly to say that you SHOULD be at a certain spot. Depends on when (and IF) you want to retire... I heard a statistic that 34 years old is the average age for an adult to purchase their first house... So if your not there yet than I suppose somebody could say your lacking, but all those measurements are a bunch of bullshit I say. Everybody is different, some learn about money at a different speed and some stay away from it as a whole. I say the real measurement is how many people's lives you have effected in a positive way, but thats a whole other conversation.

[Antonio]

muhahahahhahahahahaha

$300 000 ????????

The average 36 years old has so much debt on his ass that when he gets his bills at the end of the month his dick goes limp for a week. So I strongly suggest you wake up and smell the roses.

Oh wait, do you concider buying that house with the money you borrowed from the bank "investment", lol

[Why]

300k aint gonna be worth shit in 40 more years. just like 50k was worth a lot more 30 years ago.

[posh rat in hell]

Consider that you will spend approximately the same after retirement as you do today (mortgage will go down, but you will have more free time to travel, do things, and spend more money on medical services).

If you spend say $100,000/yr today, you will need that amount of today's dollars per year when you retire.

Next factor in inflation, there's about 3% inflation per year, so in order to have the same spending power next year as this year, you would need $103,000.

Meaning if you are 36 and want to retire at 55, and plan to live to 105 (i always assume you should plan for living longer, because what happens if you plan too short, and you run out of money, and you DO live that long)... Anyway, you would need $5,000,000 of "today's dollars". A high-yield savings account at ~5.2% is going to barely beat inflation after you factor in income tax on the interest, so basically if you had $5,000,000 in the bank today, you would have $9M in the bank at age 55. $9M in the bank at age 55 would yield you enough to spend $100,000/yr until an age of 105. Basically he should be putting away ~200k/yr now and ramping up with inflation up to $450k/yr until retirement if he wants to reach a goal of having $100k/yr through retirement.

If you earn better yields through say stocks or mutual funds or bonds, you will do a bit better, but there's also some risk that you will do much worse.

In short, yeah, $300k for a 36 year old is too little in my opinion.

[TheLegacy]

amazing that DJ's have an opinion on everything and that listenings tend to take their word over a finanical advisor. It has nothing to do with how much actual cash you may have but how much of a % of your income you have always put away.

[Viper2K1]

I think ALOT of people will sign right here and now to have 300K when they're 36

I guess it also depends on where you live etc, but 300K on your own must be waaaaaaay above average.

Some people really need a realitycheck
Alot of people are already happy they don't have any debts

[detoxed]

Originally Posted by Shoplifter

By the time you are 36 you should have $300k just in real estate (ie the family house) alone. Really you should be close to or over $500k including both real and cash investment.

LOL. And how are you gonna have $300k in equity on a house? Thats the dumbest thing I have ever heard. $300k is huge and most average people will never afford it, much less have the equity.

[PaulB IYP]

Originally Posted by Antonio

muhahahahhahahahahaha

$300 000 ????????

The average 36 years old has so much debt on his ass that when he gets his bills at the end of the month his dick goes limp for a week. So I strongly suggest you wake up and smell the roses.

Oh wait, do you concider buying that house with the money you borrowed from the bank "investment", lol

thats what im saying
most of these guys are dreamin!!!

[LiveDose]

I know people with 20 million plus & I know people with nothing in that age range. There are no rules in life.