Economy Now
Where Americans stash their wealth
March 22, 2013: 12:24 PM ETAmericans have gotten poorer over the past decade.
The median net worth of American households came in at $68,828 in 2011, down from $81,821 in 2000 (in inflation-adjusted dollars) and far below the peak of $108,585 in 2005, according to recently released Census Bureau stats.
The composition of that wealth has changed over time. Back when Ronald Reagan was president, home equity made up nearly half of young adults' net worth, while interest-earning accounts, like those at a bank, accounted for a quarter of senior citizens' wealth.
Those figures are very different today, with retirement account assets playing a larger role in the portfolio of Americans of all ages. This comes as folks become ever more dependent on 401(k) accounts -- which companies started offering in the early 1980s -- to see them through their Golden Years as traditional pensions dwindle.
And stashing away your money in the bank gets you bupkis these days. CDs offered rates of around 12% in 1984, as the U.S. exited an era of hyper-inflation, but paid out less than 2% in 2011.
Check out some of the wider swings in what makes up Americans' wealth:
Correction: An earlier version of this post had an incorrect figure for retirement accounts in 2011 for those 65 and older. The data has been updated.
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Viral video shows how wealth is really distributed
Think you know how wealth is distributed in America? Think again.
A YouTube video that's gone viral recently shows that our perceptions of who has money and how much they have is quite skewed. The poor and middle class have a lot less than most people think, while the rich have a lot more. And the Top 1% are off the charts.
The video, which has been viewed more than 3.8 million MORE
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Americans are earning more than their parents
The good news: Americans are much more likely to have higher incomes than their parents. But just how much more depends greatly on their race, education and their parents' income level, according to new Pew Economic Mobility Project data.
Some 83% exceed their parents' income by at least $1,000.
Those born rich are more likely to greatly out earn their parents. For instance, 27% of those raised in the highest-income families made MORE
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Million dollar incomes on the rise again
The number of millionaires in the U.S. is moving on up.
There were nearly 268,000 tax filers who reported more than $1 million in adjusted gross income in 2010, according to a Tax Foundation analysis of Internal Revenue Service data.
That's about 31,000 more than the previous year, but is still lower than the boom times. Between 2005 and 2008, the number of millionaires topped 300,000 annually.
The vast majority of millionaire taxpayers MORE
Tami Luhby - Jun 18, 2012 7:53 AM ET -
Who's got the money?
Who makes the big bucks in America?
Middle-aged white couples.
We all know that income is concentrated in the United States, but Sentier Research has crunched the data to show just who has the money.
Take a look at the breakdown by race:
White households have an aggregate income of $6.2 trillion, while Hispanics have an aggregate income of $710 billion and blacks $641 billion. Asians, meanwhile, have $419 billion.
To be sure, there are MORE
Tami Luhby - May 31, 2012 2:00 PM ET
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