Median v average returns.

[Tsumitate Wrestler]

And for Japan not everyone is a professor at a university.

Is the implications here that all Uni professors are poor? (Younger ones who are part-time, now that tenured and full-time positions are rare). Or wealthier (the old guard who are tenured and teaching with only a master's or perhaps only a bachelor's)?

[Bubblegun]

As a general rule of thumb, you need 20 – 25 times your retirement expenses. So, if you spend £30,000 per year, you'll need £600,000 – £750,000 in pensions, investments and savings to be able to retire. Joe median saver won’t get close to that.(especially if they are expected to buy a house, have kids, save for college for the kids) just seems like a mountain to climb for us oldies. LoL

And for Japan not everyone is a professor at a university.

General rules of thumb are helpful to get started, but they are not very useful for individuals in my experience. Better to work with YOUR numbers (how much you are likely to need, how much you will have in pension income, etc.) then make a plan to deal with that reality.

Totally, agree.

[Bubblegun]

And for Japan not everyone is a professor at a university.

Is the implications here that all Uni professors are poor? (Younger ones who are part-time, now that tenured and full-time positions are rare). Or wealthier (the old guard who are tenured and teaching with only a master's or perhaps only a bachelor's)?

No,but I am hinting that "SOME" may have a better deal than say Joe teacher at ECC/NOVA or private small family English School.
REF
https://jobsinjapan.com/working-in-japa ... -in-japan/

[Bubblegun]

...
We can also do this with life expectancy ...

Totally irrelevant, but I first read that as "wife expectancy"...

Totally, but it is something when figures are being banded about by certain groups. Wife expectancy is probably much higher than our life expectancy. As they say, it takes 6 men to carry our coffin, but only one wife to us in it. LOL

[zeroshiki]

When I took a statistics course many many moons ago, I learned that on the average (heh) the mean is a better measure than the median for distributions because it gets the closest to the true middle value. However, googling around in 2023, it seems like for distributions with high variance or skewed data (which net worth of old Americans would probably fall under) then the median is better.

[AreTheyTheLemmings?]

When I took a statistics course many many moons ago, I learned that on the average (heh) the mean is a better measure than the median for distributions because it gets the closest to the true middle value. However, googling around in 2023, it seems like for distributions with high variance or skewed data (which net worth of old Americans would probably fall under) then the median is better.

I've always thought that people with a grounding in statistics must inwardly seethe with rage every time someone just says "average."

[Bubblegun]

When I took a statistics course many many moons ago, I learned that on the average (heh) the mean is a better measure than the median for distributions because it gets the closest to the true middle value. However, googling around in 2023, it seems like for distributions with high variance or skewed data (which net worth of old Americans would probably fall under) then the median is better.

I've always thought that people with a grounding in statistics must inwardly seethe with rage every time someone just says "average."

I have to agree with that.
Thanks for everyone’s input and if there is one thing to be aware of, the average really isn’t really the average “person” it’s just a number that can be used by certain groups/politicians/and yes, even the financial services industry, for the layman to accept certain things. No single clear answer except to say we probably don’t earn the average, save the average,or live to the average. So might as well save what we can, retire a few years early (with something part time to keep our brain working) and enjoy it.

Ps. I wonder what the “average” fees are for a financial product? As I’m sure every single company will say they are inline with all the other companies. And for joe blogs that’s even more important to be aware of.

Thanks for everyone’s help in answering.

[DragonAsh]

Ok, this is interesting. Thank you. I wonder why the average return is lover than the median...I always thought the averages were higher than the medians as it strips out those huge outliers.

There are some pretty good Intro Stats courses on Coursera / edx - you need to understand the distribution to know the relationship between the mean and the median.