There’s a peculiar narrative that’s taken hold in recent years: that having a million dollars doesn’t mean what it used to, that millionaires are just ordinary middle-class folks squeaking by, that you need ten or twenty million to truly be wealthy. This is nonsense, and it’s worth setting the record straight.
Let’s start with the most basic reality check. According to recent data, fewer than ten percent of American households have a net worth exceeding one million dollars. That means if you’re a millionaire, you’re wealthier than more than ninety percent of your fellow citizens. Being in the top ten percent of anything doesn’t make you average. It makes you exceptional.
The confusion seems to stem from conflating several different concepts. Yes, a million dollars isn’t enough to live like a tech billionaire with private jets and mega-yachts. But since when did “rich” mean “able to afford your own 747”? There’s an enormous distance between comfortable middle-class life and genuine wealth, and millionaires occupy that rarefied space above the middle.
Consider what a million dollars actually enables. If you have a net worth of one million dollars and it’s invested conservatively, you could reasonably expect to withdraw around forty thousand dollars per year indefinitely without depleting your principal. That might not sound extravagant, but remember this is passive income. You’re not working for it. Combined with Social Security or a modest part-time job, a millionaire can live comfortably without ever worrying about being forced to work a job they hate or wondering if they can afford an emergency. That’s not being “just getting by.”
That’s financial freedom, something the vast majority of people will never experience.The housing market argument is where people often get tripped up. It’s true that in expensive coastal cities, a modest home might cost a million dollars or more. But this actually proves the point rather than refuting it. If you own a million-dollar home outright, you’re rich. The fact that some houses cost a million dollars doesn’t make millionaires middle-class; it makes homeownership in certain markets a luxury that most people cannot afford. Someone who owns a million-dollar home in San Francisco or Manhattan has an asset that puts them far above the typical American, who has a median net worth of around two hundred thousand dollars for families headed by someone aged 65 to 74, and far less for younger households.
There’s also a strange tendency to measure wealth by the standards of the ultra-wealthy rather than by comparison to ordinary people. Millionaires don’t fly private, therefore they’re not rich? By that logic, people who fly commercial but can’t afford first class aren’t middle-class either. This is a trick of perspective that benefits only those trying to avoid acknowledging their privilege.
The retirement calculation arguments are similarly misleading. Financial advisors might tell you that you need a million dollars to retire comfortably, but “comfortably” in financial planning terms means maintaining your pre-retirement lifestyle without working. For most Americans, that’s an aspirational goal, not a baseline expectation. The median retirement account balance for Americans aged 65 to 74 is around two hundred thousand dollars. Having five times the median retirement savings doesn’t make you middle-class. It makes you wealthy.
What about the erosion of purchasing power through inflation? It’s true that a million dollars in 1990 had more purchasing power than a million dollars today. But this is true of every dollar amount. The median household income has also increased over that period. The question isn’t whether a million dollars buys less than it did decades ago; it’s whether being a millionaire still places you far above the typical American. And it absolutely does.
Perhaps the most telling sign that millionaires are genuinely wealthy is what they can afford not to do. A millionaire can turn down a miserable job. They can take time off to care for a sick family member without destroying their finances. They can weather an economic downturn without losing their home. They can retire before their bodies give out. They have options that most people simply don’t have, and having options is what wealth actually means in practice.
The narrative that millionaires aren’t rich seems to serve two purposes, neither of them particularly helpful. For some, it’s a way to avoid acknowledging their own privilege and the responsibilities that come with it. For others, it’s a way to feel hopeless about their own prospects, reasoning that if even having a million dollars isn’t enough, why bother trying to save at all?Both of these perspectives miss the point. Recognizing that millionaires are wealthy doesn’t mean demonizing them or assuming they’ve done anything wrong. Many people become millionaires through decades of saving, smart decisions, and yes, often some good fortune. But it does mean being honest about what wealth means and who has it.
Being a millionaire means you have resources that most people don’t. It means you have security that most people lack. It means you have freedom that most people can only dream about. That’s not being middle-class. That’s being rich. We can acknowledge this reality while still recognizing that billionaires exist in an entirely different stratosphere, and that many people are struggling to make ends meet. Wealth isn’t binary, but a million dollars still places you firmly on the side of those who have more than enough.
The bottom line is simple. If you’re wealthier than nine out of ten of your neighbors, if you have financial security that most people lack, if you can meet your needs without working and still maintain a comfortable lifestyle, you’re rich. A million dollars makes you rich in today’s age, just as it did before. The goalpost hasn’t moved nearly as much as some would like to believe.