Here's What 'Wealthy' Means In 2023 America, In Five Numbers

Daniel de Visé, USA TODAY  Mon, October 23, 2023

What does it take to be wealthy in 2023? A million dollars in the bank? Two million? How about a salary in the high six figures?  In different ways, the average American family feels both wealthier and poorer now than a few years ago.

Median household wealth hit $192,900 last year, up 37% since 2019, the largest jump in the history of the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances.

But inflation also hit a 40-year high in 2022, and in 2023, interest rates surged to the steepest mark in 22 years, developments that left everyone’s purse feeling a bit lighter.

Many Americans still strive for that first million. Yet, thanks to inflation, an item that cost $1 million in 2019 would cost $1.2 million today.

In a recent survey of 2,000 Americans by the personal finance site LendingTree, 59% said they do not believe they will ever become wealthy.

Here, then, are five numbers that illustrate what it means to be wealthy in America today.

$2.6 Million

That lofty sum represents the net worth of the median American family in the upper 10% of income, a range that most of us would deem wealthy. The figure comes from the federal Survey of Consumer Finances, released Wednesday.

“Generally speaking, we might consider the top 10% of households by income as wealthy,” said Cristian deRitis, deputy chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.

Household wealth swelled at a record pace between 2019 and 2022. The government handed out an unprecedented series of stimulus checks. Lockdowns kept Americans at home and encouraged saving. Stocks and home values surged.

But inflation and rising interest rates have slowed the celebration.

“The market was down last year, and it still has not recovered from the peaks of late 2021, so there’s that,” said Robert Brokamp, senior retirement adviser at The Motley Fool and a certified financial planner.

$483,000

That is how much Americans believe they would need to earn in a year to be rich, according to an online survey of 2,521 adults conducted for Bankrate by YouGov on June 5-7 2023.

Sound daunting? The number is more than six times the $75,203 in average salary earned by full-time workers in 2021, as reported by the U.S. Census.

In the Bankrate survey, 72% of Americans said they feel financially insecure because of lingering inflation and rising interest rates.

Financial experts caution, though, that income doesn’t always equal wealth.

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