Comments on: What Does NetworthIQ Statistics Say about Net Worth?

By: MossySF

MossySF — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:20:13 +0000

There’s definitely bad data which makes the average impossible to use but the median could be close enough with a large enough sample size. 10 people lying about having several billion dollars just bumps the median up 10 notches up the actual scale.

By: Ryan Williams

Ryan Williams — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 22:58:18 +0000

Hi Sun, thanks for the analysis, this is pretty cool to see people running the numbers. As we go forward, and start to see a larger statistical sample size, cleaning up the data (reducing skew, isolating the ‘liars’, etc.) will become a big point of emphasis for us. But, it’s encouraging to hear that the overall trends match up with the census data.

@Mapgirl: Glad to hear you’re a repeat user and that you use the widget, thanks!

@Moneymonk Hopefully the other features of the site (the net worth tracking, community comments, tips, etc.), besides the data, are useful to people too. I’m not sure if you mean you don’t believe 100% in the data or the site itself, but I’ll be optimistic and assume you just mean the data .

By: Moneymonk

Moneymonk — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 21:58:52 +0000

Im with Mapgirl, I do not believe 100% in networth IQ, for that matter any networth. Most people can always exarrgenrate a little.

But I do agree Education makes the gap wider.

By: mapgirl

mapgirl — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 21:08:34 +0000

I’m always a little suspicious of self-reporting things like NetWorthIQ. I think there are some liars on there. But on the other hand, I use the site and I think your comparison shows that people who bother to track their net worth at all are more likely to have higher net worth. I am sure there is a statistical test for that assertion. If so, can you run it?

I think even as an unscientific observation, it still holds true. I mean, people who care to know where they stand, probably also care to make their position better, so it stands to reason that just measuring your net worth will put you on a better path to wealth accumulation than ignoring it altogether.

Thanks for the analysis!

If you don’t mind, I’ll plug my blog here. I have the NetWorthIQ widget on my sidebars. I like it because it was one of the few pictures on my blog before I decided to run ads. I try to update it monthly and because NWIQ lets you put comments, I also sometimes put commentary there, but I warn you, they read like audited statement notes sometimes. (It’s the burgeoning accountant in me!)

By: broknowrchlatr

broknowrchlatr — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 20:14:07 +0000

I love the education chart. Lesson learned:
“If you think you might drop out of college, your better off not going in the first place.”

I like seeing my home state of Ohio being well represented, but I do recall that there is someone that has like $53,000,000 that is probaly bringing up the curve.