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Uncle Sam has released its latest financial report card and it doesn’t look good.
Treasury Secretary Scott Besant recently warned that America is on an “unsustainable fiscal path” driven by large government spending and high debt (1). The Treasury reported $6.1 trillion in total assets against $47.8 trillion in total liabilities as of September 30, 2025 (2). In other words, the net worth of the government is Negative $41.7 trillion.
To make matters worse, this estimate of total liabilities does not include the unfunded liabilities of social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare. That liability is reported separately, keeping it off the federal government’s core balance sheet.
According to estimates published by Fortune, Johns Hopkins economist Steve Hanke and former US Comptroller David Walker estimate that, over 75 years, those unfunded liabilities could be worth $88.4 trillion (3). Add that to the $41.7 trillion shortfall on the federal government’s core balance sheet, and you have a total liability of $130 trillion.
Here’s what all these astronomical numbers mean for your personal finances in the coming years.
The huge gap in Uncle Sam’s finances must be closed somehow. There are only a few options, none of which may be pleasant for ordinary American taxpayers.
For example, raising taxes may give the government some additional revenue to manage the debt burden over time. In 2024, legendary investor Warren Buffett predicted a long-term increase in corporate taxes to help close the government’s fiscal deficit (4).
Restructuring the social safety net could be another option.
Raising the retirement age, capping benefits for high-income households or expanding legal immigration to bring more young contributors to the trust fund would close some of the Social Security trust fund gap, according to the Brookings Institution (5).
Unfortunately, many of these solutions are likely to be inconvenient for ordinary workers and savers. You may need to plan for higher taxes or delayed retirement to prepare for any of these possible moves by the future government.
But you don’t have to navigate this uncertain and uncomfortable future on your own.
Advisor.com can help connect you with an experienced professional tax advisor who has already looked into many of these potential policy ideas.
A knowledgeable planner can help you prepare for the worst-case scenario by optimizing your tax efficiency and investment strategies.
Finding the right advisor isn’t easy, but Advisor.com lets you set up a free initial consultation to see if someone in their network is right for you with no obligation to hire.
An advisor can also help you prepare for another factor that affects your wallet in the same way as the government: inflation.
Read more: Taxes are changing under Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ – 4 reasons retirees can’t afford to waste time
It may sound counterintuitive, but inflation is actually helpful for borrowers. As the value of money gradually depreciates, the liability becomes less burdensome over time.
So, if you assume a constant 3% annual inflation rate over the next 75 years, Hanke and Walker’s estimated $88.4 trillion in unfunded liabilities could be reduced ninefold in real terms by the end of the century.
This has played out in the past – US debt-to-GDP fell from 106% in 1946 to 23% in 1974, largely due to inflation during that period, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University (6).
Unfortunately, this means that ordinary families must prepare not only for higher taxes, but also for stubborn inflation.
You can try to avoid this loss of purchasing power by keeping your uninvested cash in an account that can keep up with inflation.
A high-yield account like the Wealthfront Cash Account can be a great place to grow your uninvested cash, offering competitive interest rates and easy access to your money when you need it.
A Wealthfront Cash account currently offers a base APY of 3.30% through program banks, and new customers can get an additional 0.75% increase in their first three months of up to $150,000 for a total variable APY of 4.05%.
That’s ten times the national deposit savings rate, according to the FDIC’s March report.
Additionally, Wealthfront is offering new customers who enable direct deposit ($1,000/month minimum) into their cash accounts and open and fund new investment accounts an additional 0.25% APY increase with no expiration date or balance limit, meaning your APY could be up to 4.30%.
With no minimum balance or account fees, plus 24/7 withdrawals and free domestic wire transfers, your funds are always accessible. Plus, you get access to up to $8M FDIC insured eligibility through program banks.
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CNBC (1) Government Accountability Office (2) Fortune (3) Reuters (4) Brookings Institution (5) John Hopkins (6)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
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