2026-08-16
A fortune is seldom in one drawer
In short. This Weltee Journal note argues that individuals must track the full estate, not only cash and brokerage accounts. It cites the Federal Reserve 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances: homeownership of 66.1 percent; median net housing value of 201,000 dollars for owners; retirement accounts held by 54.3 percent of families, with a conditional median of 86,900 dollars; and privately held businesses owned by 20 percent of all families and nearly half of families in the top income decile. It cites the Federal Reserve Distributional Financial Accounts, which combine the Financial Accounts of the United States with the SCF to produce a quarterly, comprehensive household wealth measure. The OECD household net worth indicator likewise includes dwellings and financial assets. The note is for households whose wealth is split across a residence, pensions, and private interests. The next step is to put those rooms on one page, including liabilities secured by the home.
The middle of the country lives in the house
The Federal Reserve's 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances is unambiguous. The homeownership rate was 66.1 percent. For families that owned a home, median net housing value (the house less debts secured by it) was $201,000. The Board notes that the middle of the net-worth distribution is dominated by housing. A household that tracks only a brokerage window is counting a fragment and calling it the estate.
About 42 percent of families carried debt secured by the primary residence. The median amount of that debt was $155,600. An asset without its lien is a courtesy title.
Pensions are not a rumour
Retirement accounts (IRAs, Keoghs, and employer plans such as 401(k) and 403(b) arrangements) were held by 54.3 percent of families in 2022. Among those who held them, the conditional median was $86,900 and the conditional mean was $334,000. Just over two-thirds of working-age families participated in a retirement plan of some kind.
These balances do not appear on a current-account statement. They are still the household's. A ledger that omits them is a social fiction.
Private interests hide in plain sight
In 2022, 20 percent of all families, and nearly half of families in the top decile of usual income, owned a privately held business. Families that owned businesses had higher income and wealth than those that did not. The interest is often illiquid, unevenly documented, and therefore the first to vanish from a casual inventory.
The Board's Distributional Financial Accounts exist because a serious wealth measure must be comprehensive and quarterly. They combine the Financial Accounts of the United States with the Survey of Consumer Finances. The OECD household net worth indicator likewise refuses to pretend that a dwelling is not an asset.
A private household may copy that completeness without ceremony. Residence. Pensions. Marketable paper. Private interests. Liabilities. One page. If a room is missing, the fortune is still in that room.