Baby Boomers are an incredibly wealthy generation, with a median net worth of $1.19 million and over $30 trillion in inheritance expected to be passed down over the next couple of decades.
Baby Boomers own half of Australia's wealth, despite being just one-fifth of the population.
The median baby boomer household isn't doing much better, with $134,000 in retirement savings in 2019, the most recent federal data.
In total the Baby Boomers (45 to 64) are a quarter of the population (25%) but own more than half of Australia's national wealth (53%).
The average millennial under age 35 has a net worth of about $76,000; those over age 35 stand at over $400,000. Members of Generation X have average net worths between $400,000 and $833,000, and older generations including baby boomers and the Silent Generation have average net worths of over $1 million.
A common rule of thumb for determining what your net worth should be at any given age is to divide your age by 10, then multiple that by your gross annual income. So if you're 40 years old making $100,000 a year then you should have a net worth of $400,000.
People with the top 1% of net worth in the U.S. in 2022 had $10,815,000 in net worth. The top 2% had a net worth of $2,472,000.
Baby boomers are collectively 10 times wealthier than millennials. Millennials are 24% behind Generation X in terms of wealth accumulated.
During the past 20 years, Australian inheritances have added up to almost $1.4 trillion — about $67 billion a year. The average inheritance is about $125,000 and goes to a recipient about 50 years old, who is usually well-established in their career.
THERE ARE TWO IN FIVE ADULTS WHO ARE BABY BOOMERS WHO DO NOT HAVE RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS. IT IS A PROBLEM. THIS IS ONE OF THE BIG PROBLEMS WE ARE FACING IN. MANY PEOPLE ARE NOT SAVING THE DOLLARS THEY NEED TO RETIRE.
Compare that to 36% for Generation X, 48% for Baby Boomers, and 65% for the Mature Silents. Millennials put marriage off, or avoid it altogether, at higher rates than ever.
Theirs was the largest generation in history and will likely remain that way for the foreseeable future. What wasn't foreseen was how long Baby Boomers would live. When the first Boomers were born, the average life expectancy was 63 years old. Today, Boomers can expect to live to almost 79 years.
"A study shows that millennials will hold five times as much wealth as they have today and the group is anticipated to inherit over $68 trillion from their baby boomer elders by the year 2030," Morley Winograd, author of three books on the millennial generation, told Newsweek, quoting a 2019 research by Coldwell Banker ...
In Australia, the equivalent of the Greatest Generation is known as the "Federation Generation."
Baby Boomers have a higher level of education than any previous generation, with 88.8% having completed high school and 28.5% holding a bachelor's degree or higher.
A new study finds that the average donor is age 64
Boomer generation is a significant force in charitable giving. A new survey of 1,339 donors finds that boomers give the most to charities, accounting for 41 percent of all contributions in 2017.
$500,000 is a big inheritance. It could have a significant impact on a person's financial situation, depending on how it is managed and utilized. As you can see here, there are many complex, moving parts involving several financial disciplines.
That said, an inheritance of $100,000 or more is generally considered large.
The data show the median household had a net worth of $579,200 in 2019-20. This figure captures the total value of assets such as real estate, shares and superannuation, and deducts a household's liabilities such as credit card debt and home loans.
Is Gen Z the poorest generation? Gen Z has experienced higher poverty rates than millennials, Gen Xers and baby boomers, according to the KIDS COUNT Data Center, but Gen Alpha is the poorest generation to date.
A groundbreaking 20-year study conducted by wealth consultancy, The Williams Group, involved over 3,200 families and found that seven in 10 families tend to lose their fortune by the second generation, while nine in 10 lose it by the third generation. However, there are ways to be at the odds.
Gen Z is also the smartest and best educated generation. Having an unlimited wealth of information at our disposal has not gone to waste.
Additionally, statistics show that the top 2% of the United States population has a net worth of about $2.4 million. On the other hand, the top 5% wealthiest Americans have a net worth of just over $1 million. Therefore, about 2% of the population possesses enough wealth to meet the current definition of being rich.
Oldest children tend to become the richest and most successful, research shows. An article in the National Bureau of Economics Research Reporter argues that firstborn children are likely to become smarter, more successful, and richer than their siblings.
Australians wanting to be in the country's top 1% for wealth need to have an individual net worth of US$5.5 million ($8.3 million), Knight Frank's 2023 Wealth Report has found.