Story of my city - drive around and you'll see bloated McMansions that are 8,000 sq ft on .10 an acre and a 90's Ford Taurus in the three car garage, wedged in among a riding mower and a city of boxes and junk. I think its indicative of who pulls the purse strings in the family - ie the wife, but to a rich person, land is a better investment than most cars, so who knows for sure. :shrug:

That's another great point. If you use income, clawing your way into the top 10% doesn't really mean jack. Heck, my wife and I are probably in the top 5-6%, and I'd guess our cars are worth maybe $33k (new Jetta is probably worth $18k, S2000 worth maybe $15k?) I do think you overstated the top 1% though; I think that starts at $350k a year.

I remember that from high school. I was from the nice part of town, and my parents were better off than most others, but I had a crappy car I bought for myself, and many other people have new Accord/Civic level cars. People would kind of bag on it, and ask why my parents didn't buy me a new car. The fact that my garabage car had a sticker for the $45k/yr private college I was going to attend, and theirs had a sticker for the local community college they were trying to pay for didn't really register to them. My parents lived conservatively, and then paid probably $200k for my sister and I to go to excellent colleges; a lot of others I went to school with didn't have that opportunity.

Yup, a $100k household income puts you into that top 10%.

Also, along the lines of net worth, the median net worth of folks 30 to 39 years old is only $44k. Top 10% for the same age group is only $300k. Start a 401(k) early enough in a professional, college-degree job and that's reasonable without having to be "rich".

Continue on that path, and the top 10% net worth for 50-59 year olds is a cool $1.2 million. By the 2.4% factor mentioned in the article, that's a reasonable $28k car. No need to be "rich", no million dollar yachts, no private jet rides to Paris for the weekend, just be reasonable about savings, purchases, and the house.

We're not talking about people who can afford F430s and 911 Turbos. I suspect that a significant portion of S2000 owners fall into that "rich people" category talked about in the article. (Well, maybe not today since prices have dropped so much, but four to eight years ago I'd be very confident of that.)

In other words, this article is pretty much comparing what we all consider "middle class" to what we consider "poor." Remember, the median household income for the US population is only about $50k - that's two parents supporting their 2.5 kids.

The exception isn't "Jay Leno with his fleet of cars." The exception is "Jay Leno and his millions and millions and millions." He's probably in the top 0.001% (that's one one-hundred-thousandth; 1/100,000; 0.00001) of net worth.

That 30-39 number seems actually pretty high when you consider how many of those people probably own a paid-off house; ie, very few. The mortgage is the big swinger of net worth for most people; owing about $275k on a $320k house means my students loans and car loan, to say nothing of savings account and 401(k), are a pretty minimal part of my overall net worth picture. But, when I get to be in that 50-59 bucket, and have probably paid off my home, my net worth is much better off just because I don't have that huge debt (which isn't completely terrible to have, btw) skewing the numbers.

[QUOTE=QUIKAG,Sep 10 2008, 12:23 PM] The main point I took away from this article is that the top 10% of wealthy households had a median value of $25k worth of vehicles and the average for everyone is about $12k.

I work with some stinking rich people.. Most drive either entry level luxury cars (BMW 328 type thing) or an old beater. A guy I know has got to be pulling half a mil a year and he drives an old rusty Toyota Camry.

That's not what the stat means though. It means that at the time of the survey, they owned cars that were worth $12k. If you figure the average person buys, what, a $20k sedan? $12k is about 3 years into ownership, I would expect.


Which brings us to another question, leasing. Since many wealthy people lease their cars instead of buying, I wonder how the survey treated leases, as you don't really "own" any of a leased car. Since something like 80% of BMWs are leased, for instance, I'd think this throws a curveball at their numbers.

The average person does not have a new car. The quote stated that the average was $12k worth of vehicles. That doesn't mean the retail price when new was $12k.


Look at the cars Warren Buffet, Ingvar Kamprad, Paul Allen, Steve Ballmer and Jim Walton, all billionaires, drive.

I'd say Kamprad's car has an approximate value of $400.

I lost the link that I just had but it had the top 1% in the $3 mill a year plus category.


Keep in mind that the guy who steals $150 mill from the company he runs brings up the average for about anoth 100 people in the top 1% category.

For myself I have my mortgage, only put on the credit card what I can pay at the end of each month and limit myself to a $450 a month car payment. But I stash 25% of my gross into retirement. Gotta ball on a budget. I'd really love to buy a Supercharger right now but don't have $5500 in cash to blow so I wait til next spring. Having a couple grand in credit card debt makes me lose sleep even if I am only going to have a balance for a month or two. Seriously. I am anal about money.

The wife makes more and lives by the same rules but drives a Mazda 3. She feels shoes are more important.