According to a report in 2017, there are 36 million millionaires in the world. That is a 170% jump from 2000. But can you consider yourself wealthy or rich after you earn your first million? Or in other words, how rich you need to be to be considered wealthy?
According to a poll, Americans say you need an annual income of about $100,000 to be considered rich. In the poll, Americans said that if you earn $90,000 per year, you are considered “neither rich nor poor”.
In addition to having money, Americans say there are other factors that contribute to their personal definition of wealth. For example, they consider leading a stress-free life and having “a peace of mind” as personal definition of wealth. In the same time, small portion of Americans (11%) say that having lots of money is not the definition of wealth and it cannot buy happiness.
How much money you need?
According to some statistics, in America, in order to be financially comfortable, you need an average of $1.4 million, which is an increase of $1.2 million a few years ago. And in order to be wealthy, you need to have a net worth of an average of $2.4 million.
What are the luxuries of wealthy people?
When you are considered wealthy, there are certain perks. According to most Americans, these are the luxuries you can afford once you are wealthy:
- – Having meals out or food delivered to you on a daily basis
- – Services such as Netflix, Spotify, and Amazon prime make feel richer
- – Access to healthcare
- – Being able to help close friends and family financially
Portrait of a millionaire
Here is a portrait of the prototype millionaire in America.
- – Age between fifty and sixty years old
- – Married with three children
- – Earn more than 80% of the household’s income
- – Two thirds of millionaires are self-employed
- – Businesses they work in can be classified as dullnormal, including auctioneers, rice farmers, welding contractors, owners of mobile-home parks, pest controllers, paving contractors, coin and stamp dealers
- – Half of the wives of male millionaires work as a teacher
- – Average income of $247,000, and annual taxable income of $131,000
- – Average household net worth of $3.7 million
- – Live in a home valued at an average of $320,000
- – More than 80% of millionaires are first-generation affluent
- – Wear inexpensive suits and drive American-made cars
- – Have accumulated enough wealth to live without working for ten or more years
- – Save at least 15% of their earned income
- – Invest nearly 20% of household realized income each year
- – Hold 20% of the household’s wealth in transaction securities like publicly traded stocks and mutual funds
How many millionaires are there in America?
If we take all of the factors above into consideration, we come to the conclusion that 3.5% of households in America are considered wealthy. More than 95% of the millionaires in America have a net worth of between $1 million and $10 million. The small 5% are those extremely rich people like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
