This week we’re here with the final part of our Retirement Facts series. We covered the largest reported wealth segment in Part 3, and this week we’re covering the smallest reported wealth segment – “mega-millionaire.”

The Institute defines high-net-worth as assets of $3.5 million or more. Of the total 125,981,701 households the Institute surveyed in 2017, 2% of them fell into this “mega-millionaire: $3.5m or more” wealth segment.

That’s 1,991,343 million households total – as compared to the 85,392,092 million households in the low-net-worth: under $100k segment.

As a reminder, non-financial assets include vehicles, other residential property excluding primary residence, equity in non-residential property, business equity, and other assets. Net worth is the sum of assets (what is owned) minus liabilities (what is owed).

Of the 1,991,343 households counted in this section, 430,332 households were partially retired and 642,852 million were fully retired.

Partially retired households had an average of:

• $8,884,235 in financial assets
• $6,123,186 in non-financial assets
• $910,863 in debt
• net worth

The average debt for partially retired households was almost 4 times more than the average financial assets.

Fully retired households had an average of:

• $9,814,950 in financial assets
• $3,566,346 in non-financial assets
• $467,750 in debt
• net worth

The average debt for fully retired households was around 2.5 times more than the average financial assets.

Age Demographics:

Aged 35 or Younger

Average financial assets at $9,604,425

Least in average non-financial assets at $4,454,114

Most in average debt at $2,213,573

Least in average net worth at $13,956,359

Aged 36 to 49

Most in average financial assets at $12,524,944

Most in average non-financial assets at $10,998,230

Second highest average debt at $1,967,355

Highest average net-worth at $21,931,783

Aged 50 to 59

Least in average financial assets at $9,128,513

Second highest average non-financial assets at $8,710,548

Third in average debt at $781,246

Second highest average net-worth at $17,259,640

Aged 60 to 69

Average financial assets at $10,103,825

Average non-financial assets at $6,426,353

Lowest average debt at $537,053

Average net-worth at $16,207,819

Aged 70 or Older

Average financial assets of $10,219,365

Average non-financial assets of $6,720,932

Average debt of $745,755

Average net-worth of $16,632,874

Debt

Overall, 65% of partially retired households (279,179) and 42% of fully retired households (272,479) had some type of debt. The average amount of debt for partially retired households landed at approximately $910,863 – nearly twice as much as average for fully retired households, $467,750.

The four main types of debt are mortgage, credit card, student loan, and vehicle loan debt.

Mortgage Debt

45% (193,974) of partially retired households had mortgage debt, with an average debt amount of $358,113.

33% (204,128) of fully retired households had mortgage debt, with an average debt amount of $334,164.

Credit Card Debt

3% (13,191) of partially retired households had credit card debt, with an average debt amount of $136,013.

7% (43,569) of fully retired households had credit card debt, with an average debt amount of $4,263.

Student Loan Debt

No partially retired households had student loan debt.

1% (8,976) of fully retired households had student loan debt, with an average debt amount of $8,755.

Vehicle Loan Debt

17% (73,585) of partially retired households had vehicle debt, with an average debt amount of $29,770.

5% (31,084) of fully retired households had vehicle debt, with an average debt amount of $43,770.

 

You can go back and compare this smallest but richest wealth segment to the largest but poorest wealth segment covered in Part 3 of our Retirement Series.