The recovery is official—at least for millionaires.
The number of millionaire households in the U.S. surged by 640,000, or 7 percent, to 9.63 million last year, according to a new study from Spectrem Group. That marks an all-time high for the number of millionaire households in America since Spectrem began tracking the data in 1997.
It's also the first time the millionaire population has exceeded the pre-crisis peak of 9.2 millionaire households in 2007, showing that last year's stock surge drove a corresponding growth in wealth for the rich.
The number of households worth $5 million or more also surpassed its pre-crisis peak for the first time, rising by 100,000 to 1.24 million households. The number of households worth $25 million or more surged by 15,000, to 132,000 households.
"In terms of the affluent investor, it is fair to say they have finally recovered from the economic downturn," said Spectrem Group President George H. Walper Jr.
However, the number of households worth $500,000 has yet to recover to its pre-crisis population peak. Those so-called "mass affluent" households grew by 1 million to 15.3 million in 2013—just below the 2007 top of 15.7 million.
Spectrem defines millionaire households as those with a net worth of $1 million or more, not including the value of their primary residence.
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last commentPapi - personally, I'm working on my 2nd million,,,
I have up on the first :)
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stupid autocorrect, ruining my shtick
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Seriously, $1M net worth can be deceptive, if its tied up in 401ks, IRAs, investment property, a business or the like
It's not like sitting around with piles of cash like a rapper or NBA star
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What Steve229 said.
And I bet a lot of it is in stocks, which due to demographics (boomers building them up are going to move to safer assets as they age) as well FED wuzzaloo (opinion, but hey, we are 17T in debt) - that IS going to fall. When? Who knows. (Sorry Doug, no sweet tips from me.)
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Not surprising, seeing that stock market has risen considerably since early 09 trough- good for 401k, IRA accounts. For a progress check: One would need $1.45M today to equal 1997 $1M value. I suspect that most of us (majority of Tusclers seem to be north of 40 y.o.) formulated our ideas of what a millionaire is prior to April 1988. $2M would be required today to equal $1M early 1988 $$, ~ $5M for 1973 $1M equivalent.
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I suspect what happened was that people listened to txtittyfan and RickyBoy's financial advice... and did the opposite. Now they are doing well.
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Apparently a million dollars net worth won't even make you part of the one percenters in this country. I'd be happy to jump into this 3 percent group. To do so I need to consistently make a few percent every month. Working makes that difficult.
The way congress and Obama are spending and printing money, I'll need several million or billion just to buy groceries when I'm old enough to retire.
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There will be broke trillionairs someday
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With hard work and investing, it's not hard to accumulate $1 million of assets by the time you're in your 60's. But I think most people's view of a millionaire is someone who can live an extravagant lifestyle--spending a million dollars a year.
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To be blunt, a million bucks is peanuts. In my game an 18 year old rig pig will have earned $1,000,000 (or more) in salary by the age of 25. About 99% of them will have nothing but big-boy-toys to show for it. The rig pigs with a few brain cells will acquire a trade ticket and then they are set for life.
My youngest brother followed me into the oil patch and did just that......started out as a roughneck then acquired a trade. He is now in his late 50s, works only when he wishes, charges a day rate of $2,000 (10 hour day). He raised a family and invested his money conservatively for about 30 years and now has a net worth probably pushing $10,000,000, mostly in real estate (farm land and rental houses) to my best guess.
I envy my brother. He has all the financial security he needs and he enjoys the blessings of a fine family.
My brother thinks I am an idiot to be continuing to bust my ass in business.
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First Bush saved Wall Street, then Obama made them rich. What is mind boggling is that while people believe Democrats help the poor and Republicans the rich, the simple fact is that a soaring market helps the wealthy and low unemployment helps the poor and middle class. Unemployment under Bush was 4% with a Republican Congress and 6%, with a Democratic Congress, while Obama gave us 10% with a democratic congress and 7.2% - 9.5%, with a Republican Congress. Obama gave us the better stock market, thereby helping the rich and no one else, but to be fair the market hit it's previous highs in February 07 and unemployment was 6% then. What happened? 1/27/07 the Democrats took control of both houses of Congress and in 6 months the market lost 50% of it's value and Unemployment went up 50%. Make of it as you will, but as a Republican who made more in the market last year than I had the prior two years at my job I feel my beliefs win when Republicans win and my wallet wins when Democrats win so I just smoke weed, pay strippers and play poker, as I did in my third place finish last night. Word to the wise A/K suited looks very impressive when you go all in pre-flop, right up until your buddy laughs and turns over pocket aces. The drive home was nice though.
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Farmer how many do you have to interview to get 10 guys that will show up for a 7 years.
I was talking to a pipeline guy a few weeks back and he had to interview 40 to find one willing to try and than has a 25% attrition rate in the first week and more than 50% the first month. He pays $40+ per hour to start plus expenses.
At 60 I work more hours than most young people I know. They are unwilling to put in OT and what ever it takes to get ahead. They want to be paid time to travel (I'm talking about salaried employees) even when the company pays all travel expenses. After 8 hours are late for the door. I guess they have been told that the government will pick up the slack if they get laid off and can't make their payments.
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@minnow. I think your numbers significantly understate the loss of value relative to time but yeah, a million dollars isn’t worth what it used to be and there is no exclusivity to being a millionaire anymore.
@crazyjoe “There will be broke trillionairs somedayâ€
Spot on. That’s why my back up plan for securing my dotage is the old fashioned way, siring as many little pikey bastards as I can manage. Payback is a bitch you little fucking terrors.
@jackslash “With hard work and investing, it's not hard to accumulate $1 million of assets by the time you're in your 60'sâ€
The same formula can produce millions in your twenties. Getting it out of the way early is the better option.
@farmerart “My brother thinks I am an idiot to be continuing to bust my ass in businessâ€
“People intoxicate themselves with work so they won't see how they really are.†- Aldous Huxley
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@Tiredtraveler,
Turn-over is not as bad as it was in earlier years for the general labour positions. Now, I very rarely hire guys off the street and let them learn on the job. I will make the odd exception for a kid whose work ethic and character I know. New employees don't even get a look-see from me without going through one of the industry training centres where they get a pretty realistic feel for rig jobs.
As for the skilled jobs? I am pretty plugged in to the industry networks of skilled tradesmen and 'consultants'. It seems that the most experienced skilled guys call themselves 'consultants' these days and want to work on a contract basis rather than as employees. I am OK with that.....sign up a few of these valuable guys contractually and another vulture (like me) can't hire them away from you.
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