Comment by micromacrofoot
Comment by micromacrofoot 4 days ago
median emergency savings in the US is $500-600
1 in 5 have $0
50% have enough to cover 3 months of expenses
Comment by micromacrofoot 4 days ago
median emergency savings in the US is $500-600
1 in 5 have $0
50% have enough to cover 3 months of expenses
I mean no offense, but your understanding of a median seems flawed. The median is the number/point that separates the upper half from the lower half - it is not what 50% has.
The math does add up. There is no contradiction in your parent’s post.
I'm not sure I catch your explanation, so let's try with some simple numbers and you'll tell me where I'm wrong.
I have a family of 10 people. These people have, respectively,
$0 ; $0 ; $1 ; $5 ; $49 ; $51 ; $190 ; $8,000 ; $150,000 and $1,000,000.
What's the median amount of savings in this group?
And what amount would complete the sentence : "50% of people have ..."?
The median of those ten numbers is 50.
If the count of observations is even, it is usually the arithmetic mean of the two mid-points, so (49+51)/2 in this case.
The median does not have to be in the finite set of values.
Maybe Wikipedia can explain better than I can: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median
The math doesn't add up here?
You're saying that $500-600 (the amount you claim 50% of people have saved up, if it's the median) covers 3 months of expenses?