Perception “rich” is increasingly elusive.
Even among millionaires, only 8% would characterize themselves as wealthy these days.
About 60% of investors with $1 million or more of investable assets said they are more likely topmost middle class, according to a recent Ameriprise Financial survey of more than 3,000 adults.
To that bring up, 31% consider themselves decidedly middle class.
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Between indefatigable inflation, high interest rates and geopolitical and economic uncertainty, fewer Americans, including millionaires, feel certain about their financial standing.
“Many people feel squeezed between higher prices and lower asset bonuses,” said Kim Maez, a certified financial planner and private wealth advisor at Ameriprise. “While a necessary part of the commercial cycle, it’s also uncomfortable.”
Even doctors, lawyers and other highly paid professionals — also referred to as the “equilateral rich” — who benefit from stable jobs, homeownership and a well-padded retirement savings account, said they don’t perceive well off at all. Some even said they feel poor, according to a separate survey conducted by Bloomberg.
Of those pressurizing more than $175,000 a year, or roughly the top 10% of tax filers, one-quarter said they were either “to a great extent poor,” “poor” or “getting by but things are tight.”
Even a share of those making more than $500,000 and $1,000,000 conjectured the same.
Despite their high net worth, just 44% of all millionaires felt “very comfortable,” another gunfire by Edelman Financial Engines found.
What it takes to feel wealthy
What would it take to feel quids in?
Jason Van de Loo, chief client officer at Edelman Financial Engines, recently told CNBC, “The short answer is diverse.”
Most people said they would need $1 million in the bank, although high-net-worth individuals put the bar much extraordinary. More than half said they would need more than $3 million, and one-third reported it would take more than $5 million, Edelman Financial Engines found.
When it comes to their pay, Americans said they would need to earn $233,000 on average to feel financially secure, according to a split up Bankrate survey. But to feel rich, they would need to earn nearly half a million a year, or $483,000, on regular.
Of course, higher costs continue to make it hard to make ends meet. Households are facing surging child-care expenses, ballooning auto allowances, high mortgage rates and record rents along with the resumption of student loan payments.
To bridge the gap, multifarious people rely on credit cards to cover day-to-day expenses.
In the past year, credit card debt lanced to an all-time high, while the personal savings rate fell.
But a deterioration of the American dream has been decades in the move ating, according to Mark Hamrick, Bankrate’s senior economic analyst.
“Structural or long-term changes have been ruinous to Americans’ ability to manage their personal finances,” he said.
“Where there was a time in the U.S. when a married yoke, with children, could get by with a single-wage earner in the house, those days are mostly vestiges of the past.”
Gelt continues to be the No. 1 source of stress among households, Van de Loo added. “The last couple of years just lit a match to those concerns.”
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