I guess Altucher never read The Millionaire Next Door. His numbers are so far off base it is humorous. Housing costs for example. Uhh, what happens if you have no mortgage. And so on. Every number can be ripped to shreds.
Sorry but it is you that does NOT know the definition of average. What you describe above is the median. And that differs from the median. Wrong, 50% have not died at age 78. To get the average you sum all the data points (age of death) in the sample size and divide by "n" (the sample size).
On the flip side, is it fair for the gov't to take everything you have left, worked for all your life because the gov't figures you don't need it anymore?
Right, so life expectancy at birth. That would mean that if you are say, 30 years old, your life expectancy would be more than 78 years old. In fact, the more older you become, the more the life expectancy increases.
His calculations must be taking into effect the 100 dollar loaf of bread and 15 dollar a gallon gasoline. Post hyperinflaiton scenario.
Ones expected lifespan increases every moment one is alive until one is dead as it always has a positive value. Altuchers scheme sounds like yet one more bailout for the usury economy. Talk to your grandparents they never used credit for anything. The capital gains on housing and all else that is paid for with credit has been manufactured by the leveraging up of the entire economy, which is not sustainable and breaks for the same reason any pyramid scheme does.
I know the difference between average and median. I did graduate from high school. The numbers that I have stated have been reported as the "average" by the Center of Disease Control.
This is an old thread but more relevant than ever. With debt and spending not going to be controlled, it would leave a very high likelihood of runaway inflation. In today's numbers i have plenty put away, but it might not be nearly enough after massive inflation hits. What's the answer? Gold, buying apartments or buying a 7 / 11 franchise and hiring someone to manage it?
That's a common misconception. The average car of today is 10x better than the average car of the 70s. Hence the bigger pricetag. You can buy a piece of shit car from China today for $5000 that is technically as good (or better) as your 1970s average car. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_regression
That's perhaps the worst financial book ever written --- not to mention the most dangerous. What a load of crap. Altucher is 100% correct. surf