Comments on: Net Worth Calculator: How Do You Stack Up?

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:02:32 +0000

PTC, you live in a (albeit rather nice) bubble. Like many big world cities, NYC has a stark contrast of rich and poor. If you work in finance, in Wall Street, then 6-figure incomes are bound to be very common. How nice for you. But in other occupations, the entry incomes are nowhere even remotely near that level.
I live near London, the financial capital of the world, and city bankers earn 6-figure incomes at entry level with no sweat. And this is in pounds, not dollars don’t forget. But then you also have a significant number of Londoners on much lower wages, which despite being considered decent elsewhere, struggle to get them by in such an expensive city.
Overall, the average income per person is higher in London then in NYC, but take out the finncial services sector and I guarantee it’d crash down considerably. I suspect NYC is in a similar boat.

By: PTC

PTC — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:05:38 +0000

OK, perhaps saying six-figures for entry level jobs is common was not accurate – however I will argue that it is not uncommon. And I should also mention that when I say entry-level job I mean within your first two years. For instance a typical first-year analyst on wall street may or may not make six-figures their first year (if they don’t it will be close). But by their second year it is pretty much guaranteed. As of last year I think the average for 2nd year guys was over $150k. Those are 23 year olds. It is similar for people involved in various aspects of servicing wall street as well, so you have all those jobs. The financial industry is one of the largest employers in NYC and is largely made up of younger people. Granted I am focusing largely on the “fast-track” type people, those who went to various Ivy League schools (like you), over-achievers, etc. But that is not a narrow-focus given how many of those people are in places like NYC relative to the rest of the country.

By: Pinyo

Pinyo — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:44:52 +0000

@PTC — I wish you’re my friend, because I can guarantee you that making six-figures in entry level jobs in NYC is NOT common.

By: PTC

PTC — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:28:01 +0000

Those numbers just seem extremely off from my point of view. I live in NYC and am 32. Most people I know are between 27-35 and pretty much everyone makes six-figures (that is common in NYC even for entry level jobs). My net worth is about $880k largely because I lived rent free for a few years with my parents in Long Island. My net worth is all in cash/investments – no house and the only “illiquid” thing is my 401k which relative to my net worth is fairly small at only around $110k. I am renting now simply because my work situation will probably require me to move overseas soon. Most of my friends are in a similar situation, the net worths vary (e.g. my wall street friends have higher but other friends have less) however everyone has at least a couple hundred grand from what I know. I’m sure it is the same in other big cities like SF, LA, Chicago, Boston, etc.

So I think those numbers are either just very wrong or way too broad. For instance do you really care to compare your net worth to the net worth of people living in tiny towns who dropped out of high school and make $6 per hour? Of course not. It would be good if they broke it down by education, geographical location, industry, etc. Than you could truly see how you stack up.

By: AJ Cartwood

AJ Cartwood — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:59:40 +0000

Whatever ‘number’ the Net Worth Calculator pops out, it won’t be the ‘right number’. To understand how much MONEY you need to support your life, you first need to know how much LIFE you need to support.

By: Pinyo

Pinyo — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 02:11:40 +0000

That’s probably because you are older. May be a better test would be:

Net Worth = Age * Income / 10

If you have that much saved, you are doing okay.

By: Minimum Wage

Minimum Wage — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 00:44:37 +0000

I’ve used that calculator and got ridiculous results. Based on my age, my net worth should be a really big number…based on my income, my net worth should be $1,100.

Which extreme should I believe?