2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forum400 billionaires have more than doubled their net worth over the last 10 years- have you?
Do you think the status quo is working?
Did you know during the same ten years, the middle class has shrunk and actually become a minority in the USA? There are now more poor people in the US, and less people in the middle class.
Armstead
(47,803 posts)liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)Geez what the hell kind of future are my kids going to have in this country? Is this the progress you pragmatists were bragging about?
olddots
(10,237 posts)except it is real and we do nothing about it because we wish we were one of those 400 .
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)WDIM
(1,662 posts)But not for the rest of us.
The hardest working people in this country have the least to show for it.
hill2016
(1,772 posts)I have more than doubled my net worth.
Csainvestor
(388 posts)thanks for your honest answer.
randr
(12,412 posts)Wonder how Mr. IHATEAMERICA did during the Obama years.
angstlessk
(11,862 posts)Last year this time I had $100 in the bank, I now have $200
It's easy to double ones net worth!
whatthehey
(3,660 posts)Basically to do that it helped to not panic and keep investing during the recession, and not panic when house prices dipped and ruin my credit by stiffing the bank. I'm no financial geniius and I have no fatcat connections whatsoever. I just don't buy into the doomer keep gold in your mattress and prepare to eat vermin stew nonsense that permeates economic "analysis" on both left and right hyperpartisan websites.
Anybody who didn't do anything stupid and kept putting in normal IRA contributions into equities in the down market (and yes I was out of work for part of it like many others) should have at least comfortably padded their net worth.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)their unemployment ran out. Exactly how were they supposed to contribute to their 401(k)? I'm glad you got yours, but there are a lot that didn't.
Csainvestor
(388 posts)the rest of the US got poorer. There are more people in poverty today, the middle class is poorer today, retirement savings have gone down, 401k's are worthless for most people.
most US citizens do not have 1000 dollars in the bank. But the rich doubled their networth.
whatthehey
(3,660 posts)listening to Kunstlerite doomsayers and keeping their money "safe" in cash when inflation exceeded interest rates.
All my sympathy is for the first group not the second, but to answer how I did it it was by living below my means my entire working life so I had a cash cushion to maintain my lifesayle including investments when laid off for a year. I paid for that by living in a cheaper house and driving cheaper cars than my subordinates for many years, not having kids and not spending lavishly. I've pretty much splurged once in my life on a car, and I paid cash.
Every time these things are discussed here the assumption seems to be that everyone lost everything through no fault of their own just because the markets dipped for a few years. If anybody lost their 401k it's because they cashed out in panic, or didn't have a cash cushion to prevent them having to raid it to survive. Sure there are people who can't afford to save a penny, but many many more made stupid choices. The poor have my sympathy and my support for hiugher taxes and a better social safety net. The stupid choice makers don't.
pat_k
(9,313 posts)...and I don't think the intolerable "distribution" of assets gets enough attention.
A little tidbit from wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_United_States)
According to PolitiFact and others, in 2011 the 400 wealthiest Americans "have more wealth than half of all Americans combined."
Unfortunately, at lot of the other numbers cited in the wikipedia article are older than 2011. I find it a bit mysterious there aren't more recent figures in the article (or perhaps I overlooked in my scan).