Here's how much money you need to feel 'rich' in 2024
Expert on retirement savings
Indira Venkat serves as the Senior Vice President of Research at AARP, she joins LiveNOW from FOX to discuss a recent survey that found more than 20% of adults ages 50 and older have no retirement savings. Venkat explains how Americans are worried about covering basic expenses.
Americans believe it takes millions of dollars to be considered rich in 2024.
According to an annual survey from financial investment firm Charles Schwab, Americans think it takes a net worth of $2.5 million on average to be considered wealthy, up slightly from 2023 when it was $2.2 million.
Geography and generations play a big role: boomers believe you need more money than millennials and gen Z, and California residents have the highest threshold of what they believe it takes to be wealthy.
RELATED: Report: Millennials have gained wealth faster than their parents did at same age
When it comes to living comfortably, Americans believe you can do so with much less. People surveyed think you need an average of $778,000 to be financially comfortable.
How much money you need to feel ‘rich’ in the US
According to the survey, here are the cities where Americans think you need to make the most to be rich:
- Dallas: $2.2 million
- Phoenix: $2.3 million
- Houston: $2.3 million
- Chicago: $2.3 million
- Atlanta: $2.4 million
- Boston: $2.7 million
- Seattle: $2.8 million
- Denver: $2.8 million
- Washington, DC: $2.8 million
- New York: $2.9 million
- Southern California: $3.4 million
- San Francisco: $4.4 million
Most Americans are not ‘on top of their finances’
Fewer than one in five Americans (18%) surveyed said they are currently on top of their finances, and only 21% of Americans say they’re on a path to wealth.
READ MORE: Parents rely heavily on borrowing to pay for college costs: survey
About a third believe they are on track to improve their finances, while another 34% said they need to do something different to fix it.
(Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Millennials are getting rich faster than their parents did
Another recent study from the Center for American Progress shows that younger Americans have seen the strongest surge in inflation-adjusted wealth of any age group since the COVID-19 pandemic.
READ MORE: Study: Americans must make over $1 million per year to be in the top 1% in these states
The institute found that the average wealth of households under 40 years old was $259,000 in the fourth quarter of 2023 – a 49% increase since the 4th quarter of 2019, even after adjusting for inflation.
Looking specifically at millennial households, or those born from 1981 to 1996, their inflation-adjusted wealth more than doubled during this period.