Investing - Theory, News & General • How did you make your first $1M?

I continue to see this on BH and it blows my mind.. I don't know if many BH are just tone deaf or live in a bubble.
yesterday someone posted $2M makes you middle class

Neither tone deaf nor in a bubble. In fact I am not a millionaire yet. (If you don't count pension.) But a person with 1 million net worth is just middle class.

less than 10% of the USA has $1M ( ignoring home equity) Does that mean 92% (87% corrected) of the country is below middle class? isn't Middle class based on the middle of a bell curve or some similar measure?

I wouldn't ignore home equity in the calculation. There is no fixed definition. But no, it isn't the middle of the bell curve. Vast numbers of Americans are poor and/or have almost no net worth. Some Americans with zero net worth are middle class too. All I am saying is that having 1 million does not push you into the upper class. 1 million is a typical amount of money to have for a teacher, truck driver, or anyone who has a decent job and saves money. The average net worth for people in their 50s is over a million. A reasonable definition for wealthy would be the top 1%, which is about $10M. Upper class fits nicely in the 1-10M range, middle class in the 100K to 1M range, and lower class, or the working poor, between 0-100K.

Citation please? if this is your opinion on middle class, great, we can agree to disagree.

I believe Middle class is by definition in the middle. I am also willing to use the "American dream" definition of middle class that i have seen. It's shown as "owning a home, two cars, able to afford 2 children and being able to afford an annual vacation. This is a fuzzy definition, but if so, you still don't need $1M to achieve it

norm chad provided a networth calculator that dispute your comments that most people at 50 have $1M. These may be your feelings or the circles you travel in. It is , however, not accurate by averages or median numbers. I agree a truck driver can save $1M but most don't.

I specifically left out home equity . I looked only at "money to burn" if you will. unless someone is planning to downsize or live in an apartment, home equity typically doesn't help a middle class lifestyle beyond a place to live.

I read a post a couple days ago about a 45 year old with a net worth of $2,85M. stating he "feels poor" because he has to pay $600k in tuition for his two kids to go to college.
First world problems yes...... but his feelings doesn't make them facts.

Statistics: Posted by 1moreyr — Mon Jan 15, 2024 5:57 am — Replies 127 — Views 16320

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