Tue October 23, 2012 Income For Young, Middle-Aged And Elderly
Americans, In Two Graphs Originally published on Tue October 23,
2012 9:20 am But there's another, useful variable to consider:
Age. The households of middle-aged people earn about $20,000
more each year, on average, than households of people in their
late 20s and early 30s. And they earn roughly $30,000 more than
people age 65 and over (note that this difference includes
income from Social Security and retirement). None of this is
terribly surprising — income over the life cycle is a curve, and
it peaks when people are in their late 40s and early 50s. Still,
it's useful to recall that when we talk about average household
income for the nation as a whole, we're lumping in lots of
disparate households. A 24-year-old who makes $27,000 a year is
in a much different position than a 45-year-old making the same
amount. A few notes on the data: * All numbers represent pre-tax
income. * Income earned through work includes both money people
earned on their