A financial analyst has determined the precise points at which an American citizen’s net worth might be considered poor, middle-class or wealthy using the latest data from the Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances.
Economics expert and author Geoff Schmidt has told Benzinga that such figures, calculated by subtracting liabilities from assets, vary dramatically across the country, but, broadly speaking, a U.S. household with a net worth of approximately $20,856 or less might be categorised as poor.
Anyone to whom that applies is unlikely to own their own home and is likely to have to commit their capital to essentials like groceries, rent and utility bills.
A middle-class household, by contrast, has an average net worth of $193,000. Such a family unit would typically have home equity, savings, and a 401(k) account.
A well-off family, according to the Federal Reserve benchmarks, would have a net worth of around $1.6 million – enough to have disposable income available for family trips, college funds, and regular charitable donations.
To be considered wealthy, a household’s net worth would be closer to $3.8 million – the sort of money that might open up the possibility of owning multiple properties.
Finally, those in the top one percent are likely to have a wealth of $11.6 million or more and enjoy lives of obvious freedom and luxury.
Schmidt’s conclusions, by his own admission, are slightly out of step with the findings of Schwab’s 2024 Modern Wealth Survey, which found that a majority of Americans considered an average net worth of $778,000 to mean “financially comfortable,” $2.5 million sufficient to signify wealth, and $11 million an indicator of elite wealth.
The current average annual wage in the United States is $82,933, according to the OECD, which ranks it fourth in the world, behind only Luxembourg, Iceland, and Switzerland, and well ahead of Canada ($69,417) and the U.K. ($63,691).
Nevertheless, many Americans still feel uneasy about the state of the economy and want President Donald Trump to do more to address the affordability crisis, according to the latest polls.
The economy remains the primary concern for many, with 55 percent in a CNN/SSRS survey earlier this month saying they believe Trump’s policies during his first year back in office had only made matters worse, compared to 32 percent arguing they had made an improvement, a damning verdict on his controversial reciprocal tariffs program, through which he is attempting to reset the terms of international trade.
A huge 64 percent said the president has not done enough to bring down the cost of living, a key reason many people voted for him over former Vice President Kamala Harris in November 2024, with even 42 percent of Republicans saying more needs to be done to lower the price of everyday goods.
With one eye on November’s midterms, the president will hope to correct that perception Tuesday when he follows up his December trip to Pennsylvania to address the economy with a visit to Des Moines, Iowa, to address the same theme.
Trump’s previous appearance at a casino in Mount Pocono saw him veer off script and, rather than offer reassurances, lash out at Democrats for pushing an “affordability hoax,” telling his audience in the Keystone State that “prices are way down” and that they had nothing to worry about.
The president can expect more pressure on the issue, given that he repeatedly promised voters during the presidential election that he would usher in a new “golden age,” revitalize manufacturing, and create untold numbers of jobs, meaning they would soon have more money than they knew what to do with, a dream yet to be realized.
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