Millionaire Wealth Debate

Comments debate whether $1 million in net worth or assets qualifies as being wealthy or rich, citing global and US millionaire statistics, inflation, lifestyle costs, and perceptions of financial status.

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Keywords

www.cnbc US spectrem.com OP HN INR reduces.aspx kiplinger.com USA SF million millionaire million dollars wealth dollars net worth worth 5m assets 1m

Sample Comments

furyofantares Aug 29, 2023 View on HN

Some people do have a million dollars.

scarface_74 Jan 28, 2025 View on HN

“there were 56 million people worldwide whose assets exceeded one million US dollars”That doesn’t take starting your own business or even working for one of the top paying companies. If you bought a house ten years ago in an area with rapid price appreciation - congratulations you are now close to a million easily.Now if you work for any of the tech companies that pay top of market for a few years and live below your means, reaching 1 million is even easier.

flave Nov 8, 2021 View on HN

Sorry but being a dollar millionaire isn't the same as wealthy.

awinder May 7, 2019 View on HN

holding a million dollars is way different than earning a million dollars in a given year. the number of people who earn 500K/1M in a given calendar year is a much, much smaller subset.

capableweb Mar 11, 2023 View on HN

Even if you end up getting back "only" 250K USD, you end up being in the 1% of the world when it comes to wealth. That sort of cash is really not "normal" or "common" to have in a bank account, in the world at large. Looks differently in concentrated high-wealth areas like Silicon Valley of course, but still plenty of wealth compared to the rest of the world.

ReactiveJelly Feb 13, 2022 View on HN

Almost nobody has $100M worth of anything, so...

DamnYuppie Aug 13, 2021 View on HN

I don't understand what this comment has to do with mine. Most people are not millionaires, there looks to be around 10.5M in the USA as of March 2020. https://spectrem.com/Content/millionaire-count-reduces.aspx

psunavy03 Apr 30, 2025 View on HN

Millionaire money is not "second home in NYC" money these days.

wolverine876 Jan 11, 2024 View on HN

The value is money/time. $1M over 40 years is only $25,000/yr, minus inflation and tax. Wherever that person lives, I don't suppose they feel 'loaded'.

Swizec Feb 4, 2023 View on HN

Fun fact: The average American perceives “wealthy” as having just over $2.2million in net worth.https://www.kiplinger.com/personal-finance/605075/are-you-ri...This is very achievable to most HN types. Maybe not in our 30’s, but easily by retirement. Just maxing out your 401k for an entire tech career will get you there.