Above or below the Wealth Median

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Way below for both of my respective countries, Australia and the USA. I won't ever 'amount to anything' in that regard, and I have learned to be ok with that because I don't really have much choice at 46. I think a lot of wealth accrual has to do with family of origin and whether or not one has financial opportunity passed down through generations. People who inherit anything from family are usually better off long term than people who do not.

I subscribe to a more material analysis of wealth and social structure, though. How we are as individuals can definitely affect our ability to 'accrue wealth' but more often our capacity to achieve in that area is dependent on many other factors outside of our individual bootstraps, etc.

Yes, there are many factors. Barriers to higher education are getting higher all the time now, and provision for underprivileged families are shrinking (at least in New Zealand). We are busy creating an ever greater underclass and provide tax cuts and loopholes for the rich. These factors are structural and it is not all about who tries the hardest to succeed. We have never before in New Zealand had the vastly unequal society that we have now, and it is a disgrace IMO.

According to my calculations, on October 23, 2043, all the world's wealth will become concentrated into the hands of less than one person. At this point, the system will instantly implode and transform into pure, democratic communism.

That's why I think we have to be careful not to be too hard on ourselves and understand our situations are not wholly our own 'responsibility' like the powers that be might suggest. I never had an opportunity for higher ed in the USA because my adopted parent claimed me as a dependent so she could be in public housing. I never knew that, was living on my own years before she was claiming me, couldn't qualify for grants due to both adoptive parent incomes (despite them not helping me financially in any way after I was 18 - when I guess I aged out of the adoption like one might age out of foster care). So I took out a loan of $1500, tried working full time and studying, failed at it, defaulted on my loan and had to have it dismissed years later due to 'total and permanent disability' which meant never being eligible again.

Now I'm in Australia and have the opportunity for higher education and have been studying since 2009 to better myself. I want to go on to post grad when I am done with my BA (taking a long time with it due to quite a few factors, the largest of which is I home ed and single parent with a chronic illness). I want to keep on studying here until I have a PhD and would like to fashion my PhD into something that allows me paper 'expertise' in autism so I can do some good work for our community.

I may not finish that under ten years, but it's something I want to do, and here I have that opportunity. For now. If the Tories have their way a lot of us might not have that opportunity here anymore. One of the reasons I appreciate Australia in comparison to the USA is we do seem to have a greater grasp on social equity and 'a fair go' but the powers that be are quite interested in entrenching poverty here, like many other 'American ally' nations.

With an allowance around 300/350 euros a month its very basic living. It's a challenge sometimes and depressing when feeling depressed. There won't be better years as I'm over 50 now, with no diplomas or work-experience I might be lucky to find anything cleaninglike occasionally.
Basically its more the lack of any achievement or recognition thats depressing and the hardest is the idea of beeing a good(enough) mother that got lost. (Well, alright when the schoolmaster of my children came to me telling how great it was having had my children in class for they were so pleasant and helpful and for discussing with him in class in a constructive way,that he'd aways remember that with joy, thats a good compliment. But it's about a long time ago)
I don't know if I could go for the top 5% of IQ but definately in the top 10% but with problems in the communication skills and not doing the song and dance for getting credits. Beeing strong willed and low ego-ed, what a silly combination.
Accepting the worthlessness and uselessness of everything and life is a struggle!
Ooh.. high expectations!!

Above it, however, if I lost my job, and didn't get another one within 6 months, my financial situation could be much different. Aside from the periods where I was barely making ends meet, either for tuition, or later when I started my family, I've always been careful about saving. Even as a teenager, when I was working nearly full time since I was 16, I was always good at money management. I wouldn't run out and buy everything I wanted, but would save, plan and only occasionally treat myself, after my car (gas, maintenance, insurance) was taken care, which was drastically different from my friends, or siblings. They would get their paycheck, go out and splurge, and then be asking their(our) parents for money for gas, etc.

I work in IT, but as the economy was tanking, and I "hedged" my bets and completed a one year accelerated Masters in Accounting program, as there are way more jobs available where I live than IT related jobs. This was a drastic change to getting my Bachelors, where, after 3 years going part/full time I dropped out and did not have very good grades.

For what it's worth, I am not diagnosed as of yet (not sure I will), but I highly suspect I would fall into the Spectrum (Aspie), and already have at least one kid that is diagnosed.

Above average.

I'm employed by the government, so while its good salary, but not a luxurious one. Some of my friends who work with IT-in the commercial sector makes a bit more than me, a friend of mine owns his own house now.

I have some savings but i try not to touch them since i'm saving up to a house/apartment in a much more quieter place, i live in a condo right now with very noisy neighbors and some peace and quiet is what i need in life.

When I read this, I thought of leaping out of my chair and yelling, YES! I used to work with foster care kiddos and I'm so happy to hear of one getting through school and launched into a career. And you're a part of my aspie community, too! Woo hoo!

Life is hard when you don't have a typical nuclear family to fall back on, and it's even harder if you are one the spectrum because we don't reach emotional maturity as quickly, on average. But you did it anyways. That's really impressive.

I'm way below my community and the expectations of my family, which are in the upper range of middle class. I have a graduate degree, and an undergraduate degree in education. I was supposed to be secure for life with a teaching career. But I can't handle the schools. From a sensory point of view, its a nightmare. From a social point of veiw - I always get asked to move on. I just can't get traction. I finally got settled in my own business. I am SO grateful for this, since it gives me a chance to really feel good about my career, but I'm still poor. I also haven't managed to create the kind of social connections that make one more secure in life. I worry all the time about how I'll survive if my business crashes. I don't think I'm really employable otherwise. Its a scary thing. When I was young, all I saw was a world of possibilities, each one potentially better. I didn't think that the central problem was me, and that I couldn't fix that problem. I thought that the environment was to blame. Now I see the reality that I'm not going to be happy employed by others unless its a very special situation.

The generic problem of creative workers is called "surviving on a small and variable income." Voluntary Simplicity has a lot of good advice on economizing with comfort. For security, the preferred solution is multiple income streams. Just as you don't want to depend on one or two clients, you don't want to depend on one or two businesses, if possible. One friend calls his sidelines "nickel generators." They are usually easy to set up, and then run automatically for a while. Good ones grow branches.

I agree with voluntary simplicity. I'm completely happy living in a room at the back of my clinic. There's nothing I lack and I don't have to commute to work.

I'm interested in this idea of sidelines. I can't imagine what I would do. All of my skills are so service orientated. If I where to start tutoring again, for example, I would take away too much time and attention from my acupuncture practice. I am starting to do some herbs, and I'm about to start a program where I'll be able to teach for a certain kind of acupuncture lineage. Maybe that counts? I agree. Its nice when more than one thing is going on. I taught at a acupuncture school a few years ago and doing so made my income nicely comfortable. But I got let go. I said no when they tried to double my work-load and so they let me go all together.

Yeah, I had a seasonal job that stretched out too long one year, so I split it with a friend. It worked out for a while, but he goofed up and we both got replaced. There was one "guy" on the GM production line who never missed a day. "He" was a team of five university students covering a shift, and passing their job share on when they graduated. Only the foreman really knew about it, and he was sympathetic, glad to never have to cover a sick day himself. The students were glad to be getting really decent wages.

My multi-talented massage teacher was last heard from selling water purifiers. Other healing centers have a small trade in health/spa goods. If I was cynical enough, I'd sell some harmless herb an an elixir, and warn people that it was so strong that they had to take it with lots of water. The water, of course, is what most people need.

lol. You would be in good company if you tried that one. People will spend hundreds of dollars in fancy suppliments and then balk when I tell them to drink more water. I wish I was of a mind to sell "snake oil." There's a real demand for that stuff.

Either because of, or in spite of, being an Aspie, I'm way above the median financially. It's partly because of my job (physician), but mostly due to luck (investments).

I don't feel above or below the average of IQ, but I definitely am in the lower portion of means, in general.

I'm in the "high" end IQ-wise, and the "low" end of economically surviving. I have only ever just "got by" financially in menial forms of work that simply pay the bills but nothing beyond the most basic level. Even the level at which I live is a struggle to maintain.