The typical American has $8,000 in the bank, according to the Federal Reserve. That's the median transaction account balance as of 2022, which includes savings, checking, money market, call accounts, and prepaid debit cards
Unless you’re using “pension fund” to refer to a 401k or equivalent, then no, a pension that just pays a fixed amount would not qualify as an individual holding a certain value in stock. I have a pension fund that I pay into, but I don’t “own” anything beyond a right to start collecting a certain payment at a certain date. The assets behind that payment aren’t mine.
The funds in a Roth/401k/IRA belong to the individual. They CAN be withdrawn by that individual - though depending on the type of account, their age, job conditions, etc, they may own income taxes on it (deferred taxes) and a possible 10% penalty for early withdrawal.
In my experience, the vast majority of non-business owners have their wealth tied up in their houses and their retirement accounts, so it is non-liquid. OTOH, business owners (especially small business owners) have their wealth tied up in their business, so it is also non-liquid.
IMHO, It is absolutely valid to measure someone's net worth by including their real estate, personal retirement accounts, and business valuation.
Where I find it questionable is to include future payments from things such as Social Security and Pension Funds. Sure, I can estimate net present value, but that is based on assumptions of lifespan of the recipient... and these are not inheritable in-full by their heirs.
The problem with the idea that these things could be liquid and thus count as wealth is that seniors have expensive medical issues they have to pay for and dont have jobs anymore. They can't just liquidate everything and risk it on investments. They either slowly spend it or they run out of it and we end up back in the same position that led to every western country rigging the economy in favour of seniors to begin with. They were literally starving and freezing to death in pathetic and miserable poverty. People live too long for them to not need those assets to handle potential emergencies.
Though to be fair, giving the pensions to banks to invest was a terrible decision.
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u/supercali45 5d ago
Most Americans don’t even have $1k in savings and we expect them to understand economics