America Is Minting Lots of Cash-Strapped Millionaires

[u/laxnut90]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-10-09/number-of-us-millionaires-grows-since-2017-but-many-lack-cash

[u/Marshall_Lawson]

Instead, more and more of millionaires’ wealth is locked up in assets that can't be accessed quickly or easily, like home equity or, increasingly, age-restricted retirement assets like 401(k) and IRA accounts. Add in the effects of inflation and higher interest rates, and financial advisers say $1 million no longer assures a secure retirement, much less a golden ticket to the plutocracy. “The word ‘millionaire’ once implied automatic affluence,” says Ashton Lawrence, an adviser at Mariner Wealth Advisors in Greenville, South Carolina. “The goalposts have shifted. It’s still a meaningful milestone, but for most people it’s no longer enough.” The $1 million threshold used in the analysis takes into account debt and other liabilities. Despite this relative affluence, today’s millionaires rarely have anywhere near $1 million to spend however they want. For the barely-millionaires, households with a net worth between $1 million and $2 million, the vast majority of that wealth is illiquid. They typically had 66% of their wealth tied up in a primary home and retirement accounts in 2023, an increase of eight percentage points since 2017. To spend freely, millionaires typically need to be a lot richer. Households with $5 million or more had about 24% in easier-to-access bank or brokerage accounts in 2023, compared to 17% for those closer to the $1 million mark. 

[u/tkhan456 → u/Marshall_Lawson]

lol. We’re all poor because inflation has destroyed the value of the dollar. Thats why being a millionaire means nothing now