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What don’t you believe, DadII? That having a net worth of just north of a half million puts you in the top 10% in the country? Surprise! Maybe those who think they are dirt poor and low income really arent after all. No shock there.</p>
<p>Actually-the numbers actually are not bad for blacks and SS benefits as they get lots of SSI.</p>
<p>[African</a> Americans and Social Security| Dollars & Sense | Dollars & Sense](<a href=“http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2004/1104spriggs.html]African”>African Americans and Social Security| Dollars & Sense | Dollars & Sense)</p>
<p>We saw this in the paper the other day and it is still spread out on our breakfast table. We keep going back and gawking at it. The numbers just seem bizarre. Can it be true? Surveys can be tricky things to do correctly.</p>
<p>Perhaps it is a function of the whole subprime mortgage mess? Weren’t many of those home buyers minority members? When the home value evaporated so did their net worth.</p>
<p>We are still trying to get a read on this though. </p>
<p>If it is self reported then I would have to say that estimating one’s net worth is not that simple and a great many people might have simply stated what it is in their checking account or savings account and not added in home equity, IRAs, stock, automobiles.</p>
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<p>Actually, the article states that the top 10% threshold dipped down to $598,435.</p>
<p>Guess you’re not as poor as you thought you were, Dad II!</p>
<p>“while younger Hispanics and African-Americans who bought homes in the last decade because that was the American dream are seeing big declines,”
gov shld not have pushed people to buy homes when they are not ready just because it’s “American Dream”.</p>
<p>Nobody really got pushed. You make your own choices and deal with it. Now making financing very hard to get afterward really has made it harder to sell homes–even at a loss. That has hurt everyone with a home. There is a middle between easy money and no money.</p>
<p>By “push” I meant gov backed Fannie/Freddie relaxed mortgage standard such as no income verification, 0% down, etc to qualify subprime mortgage applications.</p>
<p>“Actually-the numbers actually are not bad for blacks and SS benefits as they get lots of SSI.”</p>
<p>If you read the article, you would have noted the internal contradiction. The longevity of Black women in equivalent to that of white MEN. The article actually confirms the disparity.</p>
<p>But the issue (which the article didn’t discuss) is that the increases in longevity over the past 30 years have virtually all favored folks in the top half of the population economically - and for all intensive purposes, all white. By raising the Social Security age, we could increase the rate of wealth transfer from the poor and minorities to my mother.</p>
<p>And as for assets? Well, figure it out. My mother collects $20k a year or so, for 28 years, money she doesn’t need to live on, invested at a rate 7% after taxes. Those are all assets that folks in the bottom 50% of the population don’t have. If we can raise the retirement age, we can keep it going!</p>
<p>“invested at a rate 7% after taxes”
Where can you get that kind of return?</p>
<p>Over 28 years? Not very difficult. (in the past 8, not. If you bought 30-year bonds under Jimmy Carter, you could have lots more. Interest rates on long-term bonds were above 15%).</p>
<p>Of course, those under the median (including virtually all minorities) don’t get to buy these bonds, or anything else. They have to use Social Security for food. It is they who we have to punish.</p>
<p>Well, most of us will need our SS for basics such as food and meds when we retire. Raising the age now means extra years of working.</p>
<p>just got hit by a 25k tuition bill today for one semester. 113k net worth is only good for 2 years of college.</p>
<p>^^^ I am pretty sure some one with that little NW will not have to pay full freight at top schools.</p>
<p>25k in one payment? You should go on the ‘plan’, for a 50 dollar fee,you can spread the 50k over 10 months…i make that back on interest,and cash flow is better</p>
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<p>Weren’t those typically callable?</p>
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<p>You can get close in Australia right now.</p>
<p>[Term</a> Deposits in Australia - Compare Australian Term Deposit Rates](<a href=“http://australia.deposits.org/term-deposits.html]Term”>http://australia.deposits.org/term-deposits.html)</p>
<p>Interest rates on simple accounts here in India are currently 9.2-10.2%.</p>
<p>“Well, most of us will need our SS for basics such as food and meds when we retire. Raising the age now means extra years of working.”</p>
<p>If you need it, you deserve to be punished.</p>
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Show them how it is done, so they can learn from the master.</p>
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<p>If you go to the SS site and use the calculator, you can estimate on what benefits someone with a $25K salary gets versus what the $100K income person will receive. You can clearly see that the while the latter puts in some four times as much as the former, the latter’s benefits are about double. So the wealth transfer is in reality from the rich to the poor, and factoring in the lower life expectancy, is at best a reduction of the rich to poor wealth transfer than the poor subsidizing the rich.</p>
<p>Raising the SS age is an attempt to stop forcing our children and grandchildren to subsidize us, rich or otherwise.</p>
<p>Qdogpa- by paying for 4 years of tuition upfront you could lock in the cost, considering recent raising cost of college tuition it is probably the best form of investment.</p>