What is the Average and Median Income for those under 35 Years of Age and How do You Stack Up | Retirement Planning for the Future

Troy Sharpe: When it comes to gross income, before the government takes their taxes, how do you compare to people in your age group?

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Hi, I’m Troy Sharpe, CEO of Oak Harvest Financial Group, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Professional (CFP®), and host of The Retirement Income Show. Before we get started, if you could take one second to hit that thumbs up button, that’ll encourage YouTube to show this video to other people so they can know where they stand and hopefully catch up if they’re not quite on track.

When we look at gross income, we’re talking about the combined family income that people in your age range receive before taxes come out. This information comes from the Federal Reserve. It’s not easy to find. You have to [dig through their website. Our team has went through and compiled all this data, and we’re sharing this with you in a video series. Hit that subscribe button and that little bell icon, and you’ll be notified when we release new data, so you can understand how you compare when it comes to how much is in your retirement account, how much you own in stocks, all these other data points that our team is sifting through, we’re going to send to you as we get them and produce these videos.

When we talk about pre-tax family income, whether you’re single or married, this study does not differentiate. It’s just looking at the average and the median gross income before taxes for people in your age range. The median is right in the middle. If we had 1,000 people and 500 of them earn this much, and 500 of them earned this much, the person right in the middle would be the median. The average adds up what every single person makes and then divides by 1,000 to get the average, and you’ll see that the difference is in this video for the middle or median and the  average or me is quite substantial.

For people under 35 years old in this country, the average pretax family income is $65,160. The median is $48,870. If you’re under 35, this is where you should be really forming your skills. Hopefully, you have a trade, you have some marketable skill, and you’re getting into your career. If you’re in your 20s, you’re just trying to build as much skill as you possibly can, get into it to a good company, or start your own business, but your prime earning years are in the future.

Whether you are at this number, above this number, or below this number, don’t stress about this too much. The most important investment that you can make is in yourself at this stage of your life. What matters is that you’re taking time to invest in yourself that you’re building more skills, that you’re making yourself more marketable. When you get into your 40s and 50s, those are your prime earning years. That’s when people earn the most amount of money.

Of course, we should be saving this. We should be investing as much as we can, but right now, make as many investments into yourself as possible. As you progress through your career, you’ll have a right to demand more income because you will have more skills, and the market will pay you more for those skills.

If you’re under 35, the main takeaways here are invest in yourself, make yourself more marketable so you can demand more income over time, and the market will reward you for those skills. Make sure you’re investing in yourself. Don’t worry if you’re above or below or at this range, these are just the averages and this is the median, but your prime earning years are ahead of you.

We put these videos together to help you stay more connected to your money and help you understand where you are relative to others, so you can make better decisions with your money, and this keeps you more connected. This keeps you on track. Make sure to hit that subscribe button and hit that little bell icon, and you will be notified when our research team compiles the rest of the data that we’re going through in this series so we can give it to you and, of course, hit that thumbs up button, which encourages YouTube to show this video to other people.

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