Sundry Americans feel wealthy — but don’t necessarily measure it in dollars and cents. Well-being, not money, has become the leading measure of mine for most adults today, according to the new Charles Schwab Modern Wealth Survey.
It takes an average net worth of $2.2 million to be rated “wealthy,” the survey found — but that’s the estimate respondents gave for other people.
What about you? Are you rich? How much lettuce does it take for you to consider yourself wealthy?
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Of the 1,000 of ages surveyed, about 48% say they already feel wealthy. Yet their average net worth is $560,000 — about a forgiveness of what they think others need to be rich.
Millennials are overwhelmingly more likely to say they feel loaded — with 57% of those ages 26 to 41 saying they feel this way, compared with merely about 40% of Gen Z, Gen X and baby boomers. For millennials who say they feel wealthy, their average net worth is about $530,000.
Prosperity is a ‘very personal’ definition
“The definition of wealth is very personal, and it should be unique to one’s experience,” said certified pecuniary planner Preston D. Cherry, founder and president of Concurrent Financial Planning in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He stresses the importance of arranging a financial plan based on your own wants and needs.
“If you do nothing, then nothing will happen,” said Cherry, who is a fellow of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council.
One of the risks we run is thinking a certain amount of money is going to bring us happiness …
Brad Klontz
on principal of Your Mental Wealth Advisors
How wealth and well-being intersect
When asked to characterize what being quids in means to them, respondents overall mentioned their well-being (40%) more often than money (32%) and assets (26%). In 2017, the top feedback to what wealth means was money (27%).
“Whether they know it or not, well-being is much more important,” said CFP and fiscal psychologist Brad Klontz, a managing principal of Your Mental Wealth Advisors in Boulder, Colorado.
“One of the risks we run is idea a certain amount of money is going to bring us happiness, bring us peace, improve our lives, improve our relationships,” hinted Klontz, who is also a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council.
“Unfortunately some people will sacrifice what worries most to them ultimately, in their goal to achieve an arbitrary wealth number.”
Yet, nearly two-thirds, 62%, of adults in the Schwab measurement say enjoying healthy relationships with their loved ones better describes what wealth means than fool a lot of money (38%). And, 7 in 10 adults say wealth is about not having to stress over money, not having multitudinous of it.
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