WHAT AND WHO IS RICH

We define affluence as the wealthiest 10 percent of the population based on net worth. To be in the top percentile requires a net worth of $750,000, assets minus all liability. There are probably about eight million households with a net worth of $1 million or more. Based on the $750,000 figure, about 11 million households reach that qualification.

About 80 percent of the millionaires are self made — it’s not old money or inherited money. You have the big-money flash people from entertainment and sports and top corporate executives. But that’s just one segment of the affluent. Then there’s the stock-market wizard and dot-commers and those in real estate. Then you’ve just got the quiet entrepreneur who plugs along making $200,000 or $300,000 a year and saving. Those tend to be the majority of the millionaires.

From an article in he archives of The Miami Herald