To think it’s unlikely £300k is the median household wealth in the UK

[Justacigarette]

saw this on Facebook: apparantly the telegraph are saying that median UK wealth is £300k per household.

From who I know personally, i find this so unlikely. Sure; some people do have wealth over this amount; no doubt about it. But I know many many more people who have a lot less

Remember, a household includes anyone living in a house, typically between 2 and 4 people.

The best measure of wealth is median wealth per adult, with further analysis possible by median wealth per adult by age.

A lot of it is owned by couples though - so did So equity and savings.

Gosh; this is really interesting; thanks to those who replied without being dicks about it.

so, it seems that most wealth is concentrated with older people, whereas younger people have less wealth in general. And yet… so many benefits are given to the elderly because they are “so poor”

I haven’t reviewed the stats in any great detail, but I think you are just looking at financial wealth there, which is a component part.

sorry - you just answered this yourself

I think what it shows so far, is that 43% of mumsnetters don't understand statistics.

I think it is location based as well so the SE median is 490k compared to NE 180k which is property

so, it seems that most wealth is concentrated with older people, whereas younger people have less wealth in general. And yet… so many benefits are given to the elderly because they are “so poor”

Well on one hand you would expect to accrue wealth as you age eg equity gains & pension savings however it's a very different landscape for younger generations. Successive governments have definitely prioritised the old over the young.

I don't think it is that crazy if it includes pensions and property. My pension pot is over £500k alone on paper but that is still a fairly paltry pension when the time comes. Anyone with a defined benefit scheme would have much greater "worth" even it they have a fairly averagly paying job.

The average defined benefit pension certainly won't be well over half a million for people under 50

It’s about right as includes property equity and pensions- private and state.
It is also by household not individual which usually means 2 adult full time earners.

Just think, the full state pension by itself has a PMV of £240k per worker.

They’re talking the PMV of a pension. Which roughly equates to how big a pot would you need to provide the same income a DB pension is projected to provide?

I agree, and as life expectancy increases, the proportion of population that fall into the "older" category increases, too. Most of my friends/family are middle aged and older, so we're largely mortgage free. And we're almost all in London or the SE, where property values are relatively high.

I suspect the median wealth among people I know would be significantly higher than £300k, so that figure doesn't surprise me at all. There are at least 3 or 4 I can think of where their total wealth is probably over £1m, but it's almost all down to the value of their homes.

I imagine that at one end of the scale you have extremely wealthy households but at the other end of the scale you have families where nobody works, everyone is on benefits, they live in a council house and they have to keep their savings under £16k or their benefits are reduced. A median figure of £300k sounds very realistic to me.

On paper that sounds about right, a lot of unearned income is tied up in property especially in London. Wealth doesn’t mean disposable income remember. Obviously there’s people with zero, negative wealth but others have many millions, the midpoint (median) being £300k sounds realistic

It includes property equity and pensions though. So not that surprising surely? DH and I have nearly £1m in pensions alone, and I guess £500k of equity and we are both mid 40s.

We don't drive fancy cars or wear designer labels though so maybe people assume we have nothing.
My friend has a big SUV with a fancy number plate and about fifty quid in her pension

@LakieLady

i agree, I don’t personally know many with under apart from the dc who are in their 20’s just starting out. We like most of our friends own homes outright (around £500k) and have pension pots around the same, isas etc on top because we are all in the want to give up working soon age bracket, dh has. If you ask me in 30 years, assuming I live that long, I expect to be down to state pension, my small final salary pension plus a bit of savings left in the 10’s not hundreds of thousands. How much you have is very dependent on life stage, we are at max assets, now dropping since Dh retired

From who I know personally, i find this so unlikely. Sure; some people do have wealth over this amount; no doubt about it. But I know many many more people who have a lot less

Not to be rude, but most people’s social circles are comprised of people in a fairly similar economic position to themselves.

Personally, I know very few households with anywhere near that little. My household wealth probably comes to about £4m (£1.5m house, £1m in DH’s pension pot, £1.5m in savings and investments) - and DH and I are definitely not at the upper end of our friend group. I know plenty of people who net upwards of £300,000 - after tax - in a single year.

The plural of anecdote isn’t data.

Easily with property and pension. Pensioners have all the wealth because they’ve paid off their mortgages and their house value has risen.

If that £300k per household includes the value of people’s houses & pensions, it seems very low. There are literally tens of millions of over 50s in this country who own their homes outright & have substantial pension pots.

It’s household wealth too, not individual. I’m not surprised, it’s not a huge amount for a household when house equity and pensions are included. We’re mid-late 30s and have quite a bit more then that with those things added in and we’re not unusual in our circle.

Exactly. DB pensions are very valuable. If you have a DB pension of £20k the "value" of the pot is something like £500,000.

It’s not a lot of money, we are very average and our combined assets for our divorce are approx £600k (mostly pension and equity). I can well believe that when you include those that are renting it will be well under what we have.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/dvc1802/calculator/index.html

This may help in figuring it all out.

@SummerFeverVenice what makes you think I think I didn't understand that?

Doesn't seem that much to be honest.