The Post-Covid Wealth Scoreboard  

It’s time, once again, to see where we stand on the Big Ladder, the one we all think about climbing at one time or another.

Yep, I’m talking about the ladder of wealth. All of us are on it somewhere.

Some will swear that their fingers are bruised (or broken) from the heavy boots that come down from above at regular intervals.

Others, having thought they were squarely middle-class, will be surprised to find that they’re pretty close to the top of the wealth pyramid. And still others, filled with haughty expectations, will discover that they aren’t nearly as high on the hog as they thought.

But that’s the way it is. Read and weep or smile and give yourself a pat on the back. Just don’t expect anyone else to provide a pat on the back for you.

This information comes from our friends at the Federal Reserve, our esteemed central bank that has exercised its authority to starve savers for two decades while providing low-cost, nearly free money to people who prefer to borrow money rather than earn it by actual labor.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, it turns out that there is a vast difference between the amount of money we think we need to be wealthy and the amount of money we need to feel wealthy. We know this from the Charles Schwab Modern Wealth Survey, released earlier this year. It found that people thought you needed $2.2 million to “be wealthy,” while a mere $560,000 was enough to “feel wealthy.”

That’s a big difference.

As you can see from the scoreboard below, you can “feel” wealthy as early as your mid-40s and be in only the top 25 percent of all wealth holders. But you’ll have to be in your early 50s and in the top 10 percent of all wealth holders to actually “be” wealthy. The difference makes you wonder if there is a benchmark that would be more useful than surveys of volatile opinions.

Of course, it’s entirely predictable to say there is more to life than the pursuit of money and wealth. We also know that repeated surveys have shown there is a limit to the pleasure that having income and wealth brings. The amount has repeatedly been found to be a bit more than most other people have. It is often pegged somewhere around the top 25 percent. That’s why my annual “Life of Riley Index” measures how much you need in wealth to provide an income at that level.

In other words, if you look at that 25 percent column, adding more wealth after a net worth just over $1 million may not bring the feeling you wish for. Face it, a million dollars isn’t what it used to be.

It’s also certain that $1 million in, say, Sanderson, Muleshoe or Study Butte would make anyone feel richer than it would in Highland Park, not to mention special places like Aspen, Jackson Hole or St. Barts.

Today, in America, you can have $1 million and not have enough income to afford rent.

You think I’m kidding?

I’m not. A few weeks ago, in California for a wedding, my wife and I visited San Clemente. Searching Zillow.com, I found a 2-bedroom, 2-bath manufactured home available for $315,000. The home, however, was on leased land. The land lease cost $4,023 a month.

Yes, it’s still available.

That’s more than weird. We may all need to rethink everything we ever believed about money. Soon.

Related columns:

Scott Burns, “The Eight Stages of Financial Being,” 8/19/2023: https://scottburns.com/the-8-stages-of-financial-being/

Scott Burns, “The 2020 Wealth Scoreboard and Social Security,” 10/31/2020: https://scottburns.com/the-2020-wealth-scoreboard-and-social-security/

Scott Burns, “Our Wealth Scoreboard,” 8/12/2018: https://scottburns.com/wealth-scoreboard/

Scott Burns, “The Thinness of Wealth,” 5/14/2015: https://scottburns.com/the-thinness-of-wealth/

Scott Burns, “The New Wealth Scoreboard,” 8/26/2012: https://scottburns.com/the-new-wealth-scoreboard/

Scott Burns, “The Bigger Scoreboard: Implied Wealth,” 9/9/2003: https://scottburns.com/the-bigger-scoreboard-implied-wealth/

Scott Burns, “Score Yourself for Wealth,” 6/4/2000: https://scottburns.com/score-yourself-for-wealth/

Scott Burns, list of columns measuring the cost of the “Life of Riley:” https://scottburns.com/?s=Riley

Sources and References:

www.dqydj.com: wealth calculators: https://dqydj.com/net-worth/

www.dqydj.com: income calculators: https://dqydj.com/income/

Manufactured home listing in San Clemente, CA: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/606-Sea-Breeze-Dr-San-Clemente-CA-92672/2094043389_zpid/

This information is distributed for education purposes, and it is not to be construed as an offer, solicitation, recommendation, or endorsement of any particular security, product, or service.

Photo: Scott Burns,

(c) Scott Burns, 2023