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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wealth_distribution_by_percentile_in_the_United_States.png https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wealth_distribution_.

by GuB-42 5y ago

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wealth_distribution_by_percentile_in_the_United_States.png https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wealth_distribution_... About 1 in 10 families are worth more than a million in the US, 1 in 20 for 2 millions. So essentially, in the US, millionaires are the 5%, the upper middle class rather than the "rich". Most millionaires don't fly in private jets, they can afford business class, but there is a good chance for you to seat next to one in economy class. Millionaires have budgets too, and in fact, that they are flying coach may be the reason why they are millionaires, they don't spend all their money on luxury.

noduerme 5y ago
This describes most working people I know, who mostly with houses and assets would be worth $100k-$1M or so. But they do range across a wide strata of society, from nurses and medical workers to comic book artists to programmers [edit: Those would be my artsy friends. Apart from them, guys in HVAC are buying new houses left and right]; a nurse anaesthetist friend of mine just celebrated her and her husband crossing the line to $1M (including her house equity). Had a little party =D But these are hourly, wage working people, not speculators. If you have $1M you can't live off the interest if you have a house, a car and kids, especially if it's mostly tied up in the house.
- jacobr1 5y ago
  This is why most calculations of Net Worth ask you to exclude the primary residence.
  - GuB-42 5y ago
    It makes no sense. In theory, you can sell your house to a landlord without leaving it. You can then invest the money you got by selling the house into stocks and use the dividends to pay the rent. By doing that, you didn't change your lifestyle, didn't become richer or poorer, you just moved money from an account to another, but if net worth calculations didn't include the primary residence, you would have created wealth out of nowhere. Also, what about mortgages? Are they excluded too? If you don't consider the primary residence as an asset, you can't reasonably consider the associated mortgage a debt.

by GuB-42 5y ago

noduerme 5y ago

This describes most working people I know, who mostly with houses and assets would be worth $100k-$1M or so. But they do range across a wide strata of society, from nurses and medical workers to comic book artists to programmers [edit: Those would be my artsy friends. Apart from them, guys in HVAC are buying new houses left and right]; a nurse anaesthetist friend of mine just celebrated her and her husband crossing the line to $1M (including her house equity). Had a little party =D But these are hourly, wage working people, not speculators. If you have $1M you can't live off the interest if you have a house, a car and kids, especially if it's mostly tied up in the house.

jacobr1 5y ago
This is why most calculations of Net Worth ask you to exclude the primary residence.
- GuB-42 5y ago
  It makes no sense. In theory, you can sell your house to a landlord without leaving it. You can then invest the money you got by selling the house into stocks and use the dividends to pay the rent. By doing that, you didn't change your lifestyle, didn't become richer or poorer, you just moved money from an account to another, but if net worth calculations didn't include the primary residence, you would have created wealth out of nowhere. Also, what about mortgages? Are they excluded too? If you don't consider the primary residence as an asset, you can't reasonably consider the associated mortgage a debt.