Rich people don’t even feel rich these days

Sometimes, they say, less is more… but, with money, more tends to be more. Even millionaires these days think they could do with some extra dough: a new survey from Northwestern Mutual, reported by Quartz, found that only one-third of Americans with at least $1 million worth of investable assets considered themselves “wealthy”.

That’s rich

From 2019 to 2022, the average American family’s net worth increased 23% to just over $1 million, per Business Insider. So, is being a millionaire actually the norm now? 

Well, no. In fact, the median American family’s net worth is only $192,900.

This huge disparity between the average (mean) and the average (median) is because America’s wealth is skewed by its mega-rich. For example, if Bill Gates got into an elevator with me and 8 of my friends, the average net worth of that lift would work out as a little over $13 billion (once we'd finished wondering why the hell he was there).

But exactly how uneven is wealth distribution in the US?

Household wealth data from the Federal Reserve reveals that, in the first quarter of 2024, the top 1% of American households (~1.3 million in total) held 30% of collective wealth, up from 23% in 1990. Meanwhile, the other side of the coin shows the share of wealth held by the bottom 50% (~66 million households) shrunk to just 2.5%.

It seems that the ever-growing reserves of America’s ultra-wealthy have also tilted perspectives on what a lot of money really is. Now, rich people don’t even feel rich, and a sense of ‘money dysmorphia’ (feeling “irrationally insecure about finances”) is trickling down to the masses: in a recent survey by Qualtrics for Credit Karma, 29% of US adults reported experiencing money dysmorphia, while ~45% of Gen Z and millennials said they were “obsessed” with the idea of being rich.