According to recent data from the Federal Reserve, a net worth of at least $3,795,000 places you among the coveted top 5% of U.S. households. While this may seem like a substantial sum, it pales compared to the ultra-affluent's stratospheric wealth.
Data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, which utilizes the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, indicates that only about 0.1% of retirees have over $5 million saved for retirement. Additionally, about 3.2% have savings exceeding $1 million.
Yahoo Finance
In 2024, Americans stated that the average net worth they consider “wealthy” is $2.5 million.
According to estimates based on the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, a mere 3.2% of retirees have over $1 million in their retirement accounts. The number of those with $2 million or more is even smaller, falling somewhere between this 3.2% and the 0.1% who have $5 million or more saved.
If you guessed "very few," you're right. Less than 1% of retirees hit this milestone, according to data from the Federal Reserve and the Employee Benefit Research Institute. To put that into perspective, even saving $1 million is a challenge – only 3.2% of retirees manage that.
Since 2017, Schwab has collected data annually on Americans' perspectives on saving, spending, investing, and wealth. This year's study reveals that Americans now think it takes an average of $2.5 million to be considered wealthy – which is up slightly from 2023 and 2022 ($2.2 million).
Interestingly, the 90th percentile is pretty flat, around $2.5M to $3M, from one's early 50s to one's 80s. The 95th is slightly less flat, with a peak slightly under $7M in one's late 60s; while the 99th percentile rises sharply with age until peaking over $22M in one's late 60s, from which point it mostly drops.
Most Americans dream of being rich. But how much does it take to be considered wealthy? A net worth of $2.5 million is what Americans think it takes to earn the wealthy moniker, according to Charles Schwab's annual Modern Wealth survey.
The poll also found that among those who have been saving for retirement, 6.7% have saved between $10,000 and $49,999, 12.6% have saved between $50,000 and $99,999, 12% have saved between $100,000 and $199,999, 9.9% have saved between $200,000 and $299,999 and 16.5% have saved $300,000 or more.
Your net worth is what you own minus what you owe. It's the total value of all your assets—including your house, cars, investments and cash—minus your liabilities (things like credit card debt, student loans, and what you still owe on your mortgage).
Believe it or not, according to the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances, only 9% of American households have saved half a million dollars or more for retirement. That's right, less than one in 10 families has reached this milestone. It's an impressive feat, but it also highlights the challenges many people face.
The top 10% of earners have an average net worth of $2.65 million. Even if you're squeaking into the upper class (the 80-90% range), you're looking at about $793,000. Moving down to the middle class, things get a bit more varied. The upper-middle class folks have an average net worth of around $300,800.
According to Kiplinger, by 2025, entering the top 2% of America's wealth will require a net worth of approximately $2.7 million, marking the threshold for elite economic status.
Accordingly, marketing firms and investment houses classify those with household incomes exceeding $250,000 as mass affluent, while the threshold upper class is most commonly defined as the top 1% with household incomes commonly exceeding $525,000 annually.
“Individuals should limit the amount of money in savings accounts to the amount they need to live for two months as long as they can easily access their funds in a safe money market account that pays much higher interest,” said accredited financial counselor Camille Gaines, founder of Retire Certain.
Someone who has $1 million in liquid assets, for instance, is usually considered to be a high net worth (HNW) individual. You might need $5 million to $10 million to qualify as having a very high net worth while it may take $30 million or more to be considered ultra-high net worth.
How many multi-millionaires are in the US? About 8,046,080 US households have a net worth of $2 million or more, covering about 6.25% of American households. 5,671,005 US households have a net worth of $3 million or more, covering about 4.41% of all US households.
What is a good net worth for my age? People in their 20s and 30s should target net worth of $100,000 to $300,000. A net worth of $1 million or more should be the goal in your 40s and beyond. A seven-figure net worth is usually necessary to ensure a comfortable retirement.
According to Kiplinger data, to be in the top 1% of wealth in the U.S. in 2024, one must have a net worth of about $11.6 million. That's up significantly from past years, showing just how concentrated wealth has become at the top. But the 1% isn't the only benchmark worth considering.
Americans believe it now takes an average net worth of $2.5 million to be counted as rich, a 14% increase from last year's $2.2 million, according to a new survey from Charles Schwab.
The most recent data from the Fed's Survey of Consumer Finances took a snapshot of the American public at the end of 2022. At that point, a net worth of $3,795,000 was enough to put you in the top 5% of all American households. If that number has your head spinning, there are some important details you should consider.
Dated ways of describing someone worth n millions are "n-fold millionaire" and "millionaire n times over". Still commonly used is multimillionaire, which refers to individuals with net assets of 2 million or more of a currency.