I know quite a few people who have net worths in excess of 1 MM. And except for me, they are all under 40. Just consider anyone that bought a decent house (500k+) in the last few years. They could be millionaires pretty easily. Think California. The study probably also considers retirees. Anyone that had a decent job and saved all their life would have a lot of money now if they were fully invested in the markets along the way. Traveler
The study does not include primary residence. Most of these studies do not consider primary residence to be an asset, so it is generally excluded across the board.
True, but a lot rich folk's home equity has been borrowed out of the home and made it's way into other assets that do count.
Here is my favorite Net Worth Breakdown from Ben Kepple. Unfortunately it is from 2003. NET WORTH OF AMERICAN HOUSEHOLDS* TOTAL: 104,644,000 HOUSEHOLDS (NET WORTH ABOVE $550M: 400)** -------- NET WORTH ABOVE $30M: 18,000 (TOP 0.0172%) NET WORTH ABOVE $20M: 32,000 (0.0305%) NET WORTH ABOVE $10M: 85,000 (0.0812%) NET WORTH ABOVE $5M: 227,000 (0.22%) -------- NET WORTH ABOVE $1M: 2,219,000 (TOP 2.12%) NET WORTH ABOVE $500K: 8,467,000 (8.1%) NET WORTH ABOVE $250K: 19,036,000 (18.2%) NET WORTH ABOVE $100K: 39,546,000 (37.8%) -------- NET WORTH ABOVE $50K: 54,310,000 (TOP 51.9%) NET WORTH ABOVE $25K: 65,193,000 (62.3%) NET WORTH ABOVE $10K: 73,983,000 (70.7%)
Here is the original ML / Cap Gemini Report. $1M really isn't anything these days. A 800 ft apt in NYC cost that much, the same apt would be $1.6M in London. Next time when you go into a bar or a small restaurant (a new one), look around, the place cost $1M to start. I think the new definition of rich is probably in the 8-12M, probably even higher. and even then, ppl don't consider themselves "rich". Back in '97, a bunch of my co-workers (I was in IT then) were doing the usual lunch time talk about stocks, etc, and one of the guys just quietly said he bought 5,000 shares of MSFT at IPO, and he still has the original stock certificates. The stock is worth close to 65M now (yes he still has it). And he (a good personal friend) certainly doesn't consider himself "rich" by any means. Hmm, too Big. 2M. Here is the original link. I can put it somewhere if ppl don't want to register. http://www.us.capgemini.com/DownloadLibrary/requestfile.asp?ID=564
I know it isn't a fortune but how many people as a % of all the jobs out there make $80-100k per year or more? You should be able to live on that unless you cannot manage money.