Many people in the upper middle class are now millionaires thanks to college, savings, bull markets and timing
By Josh Zumbrun of The WSJ. Excerpts:
"according to the Fed’s Survey of Consumer Finances, . . . the level of median wealth was much lower than the average, it actually rose more than the average between 2019 and 2022—by 37%, adjusted for inflation—to $193,000. That means wealth inequality actually narrowed."
"About 16 million American families—just over 12%—have wealth exceeding $1 million, up from 9.8 million families in 2019. Nearly eight million families are multimillionaires, i.e., their wealth exceeds $2 million, up from 4.7 million."
"Who are these mini-millionaires? They generally earn between $150,000 and $250,000 a year."
"they have in fact seen bigger wealth gains over the past three years than the top 10% of families. Indeed, the biggest wealth gains between 2019 and 2022 were among the approximately 13 million families in the 80th to 90th percentile of the income distribution. Their median wealth jumped 69% from 2019, adjusted for inflation, to $747,000 in 2022."
"They benefited extraordinarily from low interest rates, cutting debt payments as a share of their incomes from 19% in 2007 to 12.9% in 2022."
"Rather than being swallowed by the 1%, the economy, according to these numbers, is creating a growing upper middle class. Many people got there by pursuing college degrees, steadily building retirement accounts and purchasing homes."
"only 1% of families under 35 are millionaires, but that rises with age. By ages 55-64, 21% of families are millionaires."
"the idea that only the 1% are getting richer is at odds with the numbers"
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