+36 In a couple of decades, being a Millionaire will cease to be a measure of wealthiness, amirite?

by NewEfficiency4628 7 months ago

I'm a thousandaire! woohoo!

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Im tenair!

by Anonymous 7 months ago

oneair 🔛🔝🔥💯-99

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Oooo look at all you fancy pantses out here having positive net worth. I'm a negative multithousandaire!

by Anonymous 7 months ago

I'm a 0.aire

by Tmedhurst 7 months ago

Actually probably moreso a .1aire Any chance my math skills are hindering me in some way?

by Tmedhurst 7 months ago

Damn bro you got pennies

by Anonymous 7 months ago

If you bought a house 15 years ago and are middle aged, it's not hard to have a net worth of a million these days.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Exactly. Here in Western Washington, if you're retired, you better be a millionaire or you're not really retired. You're just "not working".

by allieheidenreic 7 months ago

It really, really depends on where you live, though.

by WeekendNo 7 months ago

Checks bank account… dang

by Xzavierbauch 7 months ago

Don't forget net worth also includes all assets. So if your home is worth 1.1mil, and you have a 900k car, your net worth is at least 2mil

by Wolfarielle 7 months ago

It's just an example

by Wolfarielle 7 months ago

Fair enough but it was quite a stretch 🤣

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Checks savings account, home value, 401k, 9k car… nope

by Xzavierbauch 7 months ago

Does car really count?

by Suspicious_Law 7 months ago

If it's worth $900 thousand gat dang dollars it sure as sugar does.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

That must one hell of a car 😅

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Net worth includes retirement savings. Married couples with jobs in engineering, nursing, teaching etc can each have $300,000 in their 401k, plus a $400,000 house. So they're millionaires, and they'll be broke a decade after they retire. 🤣

by Anonymous 7 months ago

From some outside of the USA. Million does nothing but buy you half a house.

by Agreeable_Put 7 months ago

you get a whole half?? lucky!

by Anonymous 7 months ago

What market are you in that you can't get a place for 2M?

by Anonymous 7 months ago

In some places you can buy groceries from a million in their currency ;)

by United_Afternoon7280 7 months ago

I was laying down a million duongs a day when I was in Vietnam 💰

by Anonymous 7 months ago

My grandpa laid a million dongs too when he was back in Vietnam

by Fearless-Custard 7 months ago

1/10 of a house here.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Based on anecdotal experiences of people i know - 15-20M NW seems like entry level rich.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

True, you have that in liquid cash though you're ballin

by Complex_War_4610 7 months ago

… no one would

by RecoverAgreeable2800 7 months ago

Uhhh, i dont know, I'm not an expert. If I guess I'd say above $20M is enough to not have to work anymore as a young person, be able to do whatever you want to within reason, make passive income from investments, and have a solid nest egg to let your kids be starting off on very solid footing. I feel like the way people define wealthy is different when youre looking for a specific cutoff. Like is it enough that your kids never have to work either? It's kind of a squishy word and it's hard to draw a specific line. I just feel like $1M in a lot of places is enough to buy an ok house and then you still have to work your whole career to be able to have retirement and a good upbringing for 1-2 kids. Id say $10M to $50M depending how you define it and where you live. What do you think?

by Fdonnelly 7 months ago

I'd honestly be happy with £12-15k a year. Whats that, £1.5-2 million generating interest? I'd be fine with that for a few years at least.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Today, the threshold is almost universally considered to be $30M. (Which is what $1M was worth ~100 years ago). Assuming an average of 5% annual ROI above the rate of inflation, that comes out to $1.5M annual income (and still protecting their wealth from inflation).

by virginie11 7 months ago

I think the opposite. Yeah lots of boomers got wealth, but most arnt rich. To me being rich is loaded.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Huh interesting. I've always seen rich being used as like normal doctors and lawyers and tech workers. Comfortable white collar type people who are never going to struggle to put food on the table or a roof over their heads. Wealth to me seems more like generational wealth where they dont have to work and their children dont have to work.

by Fdonnelly 7 months ago

I've never seen someone win the 20 million lottery and yell "I'm wealthy!!!!"

by United_Afternoon7280 7 months ago

Valid point

by Fdonnelly 7 months ago

I like points, especially valid ones 😊

by United_Afternoon7280 7 months ago

No but if they are smart 5 years later it's what they will say. Less smart they are back at work but had a great time.

by nmoen 7 months ago

Hahaha yeah fair

by United_Afternoon7280 7 months ago

I agree, I think everyone has different definitions but I think it's reasonable to define rich as this category of white collar job workers. You own your home or have a manageable mortgage Regularly vacation Don't have to check prices at the supermarket or think too much about going out to eat Ability to invest a fair portion of your income and ability to retire early Retirement savings will easily continue to afford you the same lifestyle If you can check this list off you're in a comfortable position and rich compared to the majority of people. Of course a lot of people's idea of being rich is multiple homes, cars, yacht etc. which is only achievable for a tiny portion of the population.

by shanahanthea 7 months ago

I remember when this was considered middle class. Imagine a world where the average person got to do this now.

by Electrical-Battle199 7 months ago

I still consider this middle class. I guess it's location specific but there are lots of places where you don't need to be raking it in to afford all that stuff.

by CableSpiritual8758 7 months ago

I know boomers who own multiple properties but drive a dinged up beater , not to save money, but literally because they can't afford to buy another car. Majority of their money goes towards mortgage payments, they live frugal "poor people" lives and are living paycheck to paycheck. But man do they have a lot of assets! To me, what kind of rich person can't afford to drive a nice car? Doesn't sound very rich to me. I'd say these people are wealthy, on paper they're doing way better than most for just working regular careers. But they are not rich and living life like you'd expect they are.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Rich is less money than wealthy

by Antique-Judgment-533 7 months ago

Someone with $100,000,000 in the bank looks at the person with $100,000,000,000 and considers themself poor.

by Ok-Winner 7 months ago

$1M is enough to get $30k a year, or $40k to retire on. Not enough to be wealthy any more (it is wealthy from a percentile perspective, I'm specifically referring to a retirement perspective). $3-5M should be the retirement goal for anyone middle aged. $1M is a LOT of money, but doesn't nearly get to "retire at a normal age" nor "leaving a nest egg" any longer.

by Excellent-Papaya 7 months ago

99% of people will never have this much for retirement. What does that say.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Hopefully, they're a tradesman, teacher, state worker, or other job covered by a union and pension, at that point it's totally different maths. But for my age bracket (42-48), over 15% of individuals have over $1M net worth

by Excellent-Papaya 7 months ago

Having a house does not pay for your retirement. Non housing net worth is far far lower for most of these people

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Fair. That goes from 15% to 5% if I remove housing. Still not 1%, but much less. However, that $1M now for that age bracket implies $5M at retirement age. The 15% point for 45-49 is $400,000, or about on track for $2M at retirement age. Enough for $80k/yr in retirement. And pensions… 10% in this age bracket, but higher in older and younger brackets.

by Excellent-Papaya 7 months ago

Its a literal cliche for a boomer to sell their house and retire to a community in Arizona/Florida. Home equity powering a retirement is quite common.

by virginie11 7 months ago

That is just factually untrue, the majority won't, but there are tens of millions of Americans with $1m+ in their retirement.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

9.19M Americans have >=$1M in retirement savings. (Source dqydj based on Berkeley analysis tools of Survey of Consumer Finances)

by Excellent-Papaya 7 months ago

Tens of millions? In that age bracket? Not counting house? No.

by Hyattfae 7 months ago

Exactly. I'm 45, so my target was $4M. I've adjusted that for myself to $5M based on my current cost of living and income.

by Excellent-Papaya 7 months ago

So this really changes a lot based on wealth configuration. A million in cash separate from all assets is still a great deal of money and allows you to live a very high end lifestyle most would consider very rich — even without putting it in jeopardy. For example you have a million in cash/stocks. You have a 4 million dollar house you're renting or paying a mortgage on, you are making 500-700k a year. You're gonna be living rich and not even paycheck to paycheck kind of way. Still building net worth. Then there is the guy who has a "million" dollar house he got by luck and makes 80k a year. Two VERY different stories.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Hence why I said you still need to work your whole career and retire at a typical age. I'm assuming for someone who earned $1M naturally through their career as a reasonably high income person, not someone who makes minimum wage and suddenly got $1M dropped in their lap.

by Fdonnelly 7 months ago

Nest egg with 1 million dollars? I wish. You can not retire with 1 million, let alone setting any of it a side for your kids.

by Dry-Pomegranate886 7 months ago

Yeah you're off. You're missing a zero in that generational wealth. $1m to retire isn't much or enough now a days. $10m is more generational…

by pstoltenberg 7 months ago

I meant $1M at a young age and then work for another 30 years lol. My bad I was projecting my own age and family situation onto the example.

by Fdonnelly 7 months ago

Tbh we're not that far off now. If someone offered you 1M for the rest of your life in 1924 you'd be happy as Larry (notoriously happy guy). You'd easily buy a few properties and make a few investments and live off the income. You might be able to do that in 2024 but you'd be struggling and need some really lucky breaks in the markets.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Put a million dollars into a HYSA and thats around 50k per year without you having to do literally anything, that is more than enough to live off of.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Six-figure salary really isn't the flex it used to be...

by Kbuckridge 7 months ago

It already is. Now a millionaire is someone who makes a million dollars a year, not someone worth a million dollars. Now a millionaire is just someone working in middle management with a home in California

by Significant-Chard 7 months ago

Mega-billionaire tries to relate with his millionaire friends

by fadeladelbert 7 months ago

That was such garbage. wtf are you wasting your time with that for?

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Why do you think it's garbage?

by fadeladelbert 7 months ago

Mmmm. Sounds hot :3

by fadeladelbert 7 months ago

Life truly is what you make of it, great username

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Why do you care

by Vegetable-County2722 7 months ago

I would say it already has.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

It's not even enough to quit your job over anymore lol. That used to be the first thing most people said they'd do if they won a million. Don't get me wrong, mine and most people's lives would change drastically for the better and it's nothing to scoff at. It can eliminate debts and pay off homes. It can be invested and generate returns. It's just not enough to uproot everything and live comfortably for an extended period of time alone.

by Main_Reading 7 months ago

It could be if you move to a low cost of living country

by Dangerous_Budget_421 7 months ago

Yeah, there's a reason there's been a move to redefine it as earning $1M+ a year instead of having a $1M+ net worth. In some markets, just owning (and paying off) a decent house (not a mansion by any stretch) can give you a $1M net worth.

by Sziemann 7 months ago

Have well over a million. Do not feel rich or wealthy. Don't feel like I could be quit working.

by Federal_Sweet 7 months ago

Exactly - at 55 I have almost 2 million in 401k, $300k in other accounts - no way could I retire just because of health insurance and costs of prescription drugs. Being a multimillionaire is not meaningful now. (I have also been poor - it's awful and I know I'm better off now, but the difference between middle class and wealthy is HUGE.)

by Anonymous 7 months ago

The first time an American won Who Wants to be a Millionaire they asked him what he was going to do with the money. He said he'd pay off his house, his cars, his kids student debt, and that was about it. Which to him, was a Godsend as otherwise he'd have to spend the rest of his life paying those things off.

by chesleykunze 7 months ago

Well yeah, you win a million, but you don't take home a million. And that's even if it wasn't an annuity of $40k for 25 years or something.

by BigCryptographer 7 months ago

And just think, today he could probably pay off most or all of a medical debt and maybe even have some left over for taxes.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Yeah, that's happened already. $1M buys you a decent apartment or a very small house (where I'm at in Chicago). $10M I would say is the threshold to be ready for retirement, with $60M being rich, and $250M the very starting point of wealthy.

by hilbert58 7 months ago

I'm 41, and your millionaire next door. My wealth is tied up in my 3br 2.5ba house and my business. It's not like I have piles of cash lying around. We make a good living but we have to run a budget like everyone else. Financial independence numbers keep getting higher. If you want to live on $120k/yr, you'll be needing $3M in invested money at retirement.

by No_Fox 7 months ago

We are there. I'm a paper millionaire if you count my house equity and 401k. But I couldn't send my kids to private school, if I lost my job we would be screwed, etc

by Anonymous 7 months ago

It already is - even having 2 million is almost meaningless - definitely not "wealthy."

by Anonymous 7 months ago

My net worth (401k, savings, home equity) is over $2 million. I am laughably far from being wealthy - I still have to budget and worry about money. I need to have my driveway replaced and dread how much it's going to cost. I have a medical prescription that I decided not to fill because it was $139 for one month. I don't have to worry about being homeless or having my utilities turned off (there was a time when that was an issue for me) - does that make me rich?

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Already happening in the place I live. Having a house in Dublin plus 1 year savings and matched pension contributions can easily be worth around a million, and it doesn't mean you're wealthy, just means you're doing good in the middle class.

by Otherwise_Lab 7 months ago

You spelled "decades" wrong, it's "weeks"

by Anonymous 7 months ago

In Zimbabwe there are trillionaires that can't afford bread

by Anonymous 7 months ago

It already is…..these days it just means you can (probably) pay your bills.

by Brycebeier 7 months ago

No it doesn't. Come on.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

And on the flip side, plenty of people who aren't millionaires can pay their bills just fine.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

It could also mean you just been alive for a while, Most people who live to 65 years old and have a 401k have around $70k invested. $1,000,000 is a massive amount of money to basically everyone.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

There's many places where owning a home means you're a millionaire.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

You'd think the former residence of the Loch Ness Monster would be worth a bit more than that.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Depends. "Having a million dollar" can mean very different things. If you have a million in say, retirement savings or home equity, while getting an income that got you there in the first place, you're doing just fine. If you're trying to live perpetually off a million with no other income, that means roughly 30-40k pre-tax yearly, things can get pretty dicy, and chances are good you'll end up broke.

by Jparker 7 months ago

Which on the other hand means that retired people with a pension of 30-40k are, in equivalent terms, millionaires.

by ggaylord 7 months ago

If you're trying to live perpetually off a million with no other income, that means roughly 30-40k pre-tax yearly, things can get pretty dicy, and chances are good you'll end up broke. I mean... yeah? That doesn't really have anything to do with whether being a millionaire means you can (probably) pay your bills.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Depends where you live my man.

by Carol01 7 months ago

Yeah if you live in downtown Manhattan or San Francisco then maybe. For the vast, vast majority of people in the US this is just ridiculously untrue.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

That's a hell of a lot of people... And those aren't the only cities where it matters. Average price of a house in LA is a million. That a lone is 1% of the countries population. A quick Google suggests that there are more than 500 cities in the US with an average house price of 1 million.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

In the Seattle area, the average home is $1M. Many big cities are like this.

by Nicolette29 7 months ago

Seattle is one of the most expensive cities in the country. The vast majority of cities do not have an average home cost of $1M. Also even if you own a home that is worth $1M it does not mean that you yourself are a millionaire.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

I can assure you there are more places than just San Francisco and manhattan that are like this.

by Carol01 7 months ago

I can assure you there are far, far more places that are not. Most cities don't have an average home cost of $1M in the US, let alone most homes in general.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

You're right, but there are over 500 cities with the average home costs over 1 million.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

It means you can retire if you're in your mid to late sixties

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Can you actually retire with only a million dollars right now? I didn't mean cash, I mean a million in net worth. These days, that's like a house and a retirement fund of about $500k. If you retire with that and live long enough, you're going to exhaust that retirement fund.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

If you're old enough and don't plan to live over 10 years.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

It depends, 500k house, 500k retirement, a car with 6k a month spend doesn't get you too far. 100k house, 900k retirement with 2k spend, pretty good shape

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Yup it'll be replaced by the guillotine 🙂‍↕️

by harberlanden 7 months ago

Huh. Apparently, "wealthiness" is a real word. It means "wealth".

by Anonymous 7 months ago

My grandmother and I pronounce the word differently, IMO even that shows how much things shift in a couple generations. She says "millionAIRE", I say "MILionaire" so people know I'm not talking about billionaires.

by Ok_Entertainment 7 months ago

I'm a millionaire and am worse off than my fathers generation was at my age

by Anonymous 7 months ago

yep. lol

by ellisprice 7 months ago

265,000,000 weekly users and they aren't all carbon copies of each other?

by Academic_Resident 7 months ago

Let me play a song for you on the world's smallest violin 🎻

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Have you tried being a multimillionaire?

by Potential_Place_1146 7 months ago

I haven't... Can you hook me up? I'd be open to trying it

by Stock-Wallaby 7 months ago

cry about it

by Santinayundt 7 months ago

Same

by Resident-Extent 7 months ago

People have been saying this for decades and being a millionaire is still a measure of being very wealthy. It's very, very few people (even if you narrow it down to the US alone) that cross the line into being a millionaire.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

There are currently somewhere around 25 million people in the US with net worths over a million dollars. so about 13% of the US population, more than 1 in 8 are millionaires. It's already worthless as a measure of significant wealth. We can see this in the fact that there has been a trend to redefine it as someone who makes over a million dollars a year as opposed to someone who has a net worth of million dollars (That's around 0.1% of the US population). But by the traditional definition, having a net worth of around a million is much more upper-middle class than the implications of "rich" that it used to have.

by Sziemann 7 months ago

In a couple of decades rich people won't be defined by money..

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Just go to a different country and you can be a millionaire through currency conversion. For example a million yen is not that much.

by Hot-Potato-8939 7 months ago

Relevant only to the currency you are thinking in. 1 million pesos in The Philippines is about 18,000usd or 1 million Vietnamese Dong is 40 usd.

by Breitenbergbula 7 months ago

also six figure salaries won't be seen as wealthy, merely a livable wage in HCOL city

by Anonymous 7 months ago

These days it just means you own a small house or small appartment. A million doesn't go very far in 2024.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

They'll just cut a bunch of zeroes off and we can go back to "Take your hat off boy that's a dollar bill!"

by Visible-Age1020 7 months ago

I have tens of dollars!

by Asleep_Bluejay7548 7 months ago

If the dollar is still a unit of measurement as far as currency goes, it will be necessary to put food on the table.

by CaterpillarMany2403 7 months ago

You should see the sort of ‘house' 1 million USD will get you in my wildly overpriced city. You'd probably assume it was occupied by crackheads.

by Lanky_Bike 7 months ago

Don't worry, the military industrial complex will make WW3 before we use the money to burn in the stove like in interbellic Germany.

by colt83 7 months ago

millionaires wont exist. you will either be a billionaire or a basic income recipient.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

It will still be a measure of wealthiness. Every amount of money will still be a measure of wealthiness.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

It basically just means having paid off your own home at this point. A massive privilege, that wasn't just a few decades ago.

by Russelhilton 7 months ago

already has. t. millionaire

by Local_Air5853 7 months ago

Although if your middle class and saving for years - the first million takes a very long time. The 2nd million if you stay on target and have time is like 60% faster. The third million is even faster. The old saying it takes money to make money is very true.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

More like 20 years ago, which is when I retired.

by SaltSure8610 7 months ago

The poverty line is still a measure of wealth.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

In A Million Ways to Die in the Old West, there's a scene where Neil Patrick Harris whips out a dollar bill and a man goes "Take your hat off son, that's a dollar bill" So… another century maybe?

by Anonymous 7 months ago

People have been saying that for decades

by berthabarton 7 months ago

Sure it will. It will just mean less than it means now. How many thousands a person has is a measure of wealth.

by barry22 7 months ago

A millionaire in Vancouver really just means upper middle class.

by Jolly_Statement8437 7 months ago

Within the next 4-5 years, the number of millionaires will increase by 50%. By the time someone enters retirement in 2060, $1m will probably be equal to $200k-$300k.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

I found out this week that I'm already a millionaire.... in Yen.

by Jeromyschoen 7 months ago

Couple of decades? I realized the other day that this is NOW. When just buying a house means dropping a half million dollar loan on it then being a millionaire doesn't even mean rich anymore, it just means you can afford a comfortable roof over your head without paying a landlord.

by Lisandromoore 7 months ago

No way is it going to take that long.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

I would argue it already not for the single digit millionaire.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

.... no that's happening NOW.

by luettgenmac 7 months ago

Uhh, It already has. A million dollars is not a lot of money anymore.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Only if they've paid off their mortgage or bought with cash

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Owns a paid off home. The vast majority have a mortgage and have no where near a million in equity in the home

by Exciting_Arugula2034 7 months ago