Why Today's Millionaires Still Don't Feel Rich And What It Actually Costs To Feel Wealthy Now

The Cold Open Where Rich People Panic Too
Congratulations, you have a million dollars. You are now eligible to feel exactly as anxious as everyone else, just with nicer furniture. New research shows that most American millionaires do not consider themselves wealthy, which is either deeply reassuring or deeply insulting depending on your own bank balance. Turns out the finish line for feeling rich keeps sprinting away like it owes someone money.

The Moving Goalpost Of Feeling Rich
For generations, hitting a million dollars in net worth was the financial equivalent of an Olympic medal. You crossed the line, people nodded respectfully, and you got to relax. Not anymore. New survey data shows that most millionaires do not feel wealthy at all, and the reasons say more about the current economy than about anyone's spending habits (Pino, 2025).

The Northwestern Mutual Reality Check
According to Northwestern Mutual's 2025 Planning and Progress study, only about a third of Americans with at least one million dollars in investable assets consider themselves wealthy (Pino, 2025). Nearly half say their financial planning still needs work, citing worries about outliving their savings, taxes in retirement, and long term care costs. Financial expert Tom Mathews points to inflation, rising taxes, market swings, and the high cost of housing and healthcare as the forces eating away at what a million dollars actually buys (Pino, 2025). Add in longer lifespans and a portfolio that has to stretch across more decades, and the math simply feels tighter than it used to.

What Counts As Rich Keeps Climbing
Charles Schwab's 2025 Modern Wealth Survey found that Americans now believe it takes an average net worth of 839,000 dollars just to feel financially comfortable, and 2.3 million dollars to feel truly wealthy (Pino, 2025). About two thirds of respondents said it feels harder to reach that number than it did the year before, largely because of inflation, a shakier economy, and higher taxes. As the bar for feeling secure rises faster than wages for most people, the psychological gap between the technically wealthy and the genuinely comfortable keeps widening, which matters for how society talks about who actually has it made.

Confidence Beats The Number On The Statement
Mathews frames the shift well, arguing that wealth today is less about the size of a portfolio and more about confidence, education, and having a clear strategy (Pino, 2025). That reframe matters because it moves the goal away from an arbitrary number and toward something people can actually build regardless of their current balance.

What This Means For You Right Now
If you have been measuring your own progress against an outdated idea of what counts as rich, it may be time to update the scoreboard. Building a written financial plan, prioritizing debt paydown alongside savings, and talking to a financial advisor are the moves the research consistently links to higher confidence, regardless of net worth. Millionaires in the study were more than twice as likely to work with an advisor than the general public, so professional guidance is clearly part of the confidence equation, not just the money itself.

References
Pino, I. (2025, December 18). Most millionaires don't consider themselves wealthy. So what does it really mean to be rich? Yahoo Finance. https://finance.yahoo.com/personal-finance/banking/article/what-is-considered-wealthy-175033814.html