Millionaire = Net Worth of $1 Million or More
Your net worth is everything you own minus everything you owe. If the result is at least $1,000,000, you are a millionaire in the everyday sense of the word. Income is how much money comes in each year; net worth is what you have kept. The two are related, but a high salary does not make anyone a millionaire on its own.
- $100,000 salary: about $8,333 a month before tax. Even saving every dollar (impossible in practice), reaching $1 million would take 10 years. Saving 20% ($20,000 a year) and investing it at 7% takes roughly 21–22 years.
- $1 million salary: about $83,333 a month before tax (see $1 million a year per hour, day and month). Someone earning that can still have a low net worth if they spend it.
- $60,000 salary: investing 15% ($750 a month) at 7% a year reaches about $1 million in roughly 31 years — the classic "millionaire next door" path.
In Ramsey Solutions' National Study of Millionaires, a survey of more than 10,000 U.S. millionaires, only 31% averaged $100,000 a year in household income over their careers and one-third never earned six figures in any single year. It is a survey by a company that sells financial education, but it illustrates the point: wealth comes mostly from saving and investing over time.
What Counts Toward Net Worth
| Item | Counts? | Notes |
|---|
| Cash, savings, CDs | Yes | At face value |
| Stocks, ETFs, funds, crypto | Yes | At current market value |
| 401(k), 403(b), IRA, HSA | Yes | Traditional balances are pre-tax; Roth balances are not taxed on qualified withdrawal |
| Home | Yes (equity) | Market value minus mortgage; excluded from some definitions |
| Rental property | Yes (equity) | See how to count real estate |
| Business ownership | Yes | Hard to value; be conservative |
| Cars, furniture, collectibles | Optional | Resale value only; many people leave them out |
| Future salary or pension promises | Usually no | Income you have not received yet is not an asset on a personal balance sheet |
| All debts | Subtract | Mortgages, car loans, student loans, credit cards |
Official and Industry Definitions
- Everyday "millionaire": net worth of $1 million or more, home equity included.
- SEC accredited investor: among other routes, net worth over $1 million excluding the value of your primary residence (alone or with a spouse or partner), or income over $200,000 ($300,000 jointly) in each of the last two years with the expectation of the same this year.
- High-net-worth individual (HNWI): wealth reports such as Capgemini's World Wealth Report count people with at least $1 million of investable assets, excluding primary residence, collectibles, consumables and consumer durables.
So someone with a $700,000 home equity stake and $350,000 in a 401(k) is a millionaire by net worth, but would not meet the SEC or HNWI tests.
How Common Are Millionaires?
The Federal Reserve's 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances put median U.S. family net worth at $192,900. UBS's Global Wealth Report 2026 estimates that the United States added more than 440,000 new dollar millionaires in 2025 alone, almost half of all new millionaires worldwide, helped by rising stock markets. Most of that wealth is held in homes, retirement accounts and stock funds — not in salaries.
How to Get to $1 Million
Because net worth grows by saving and by returns on what you have saved, the two levers are the amount you invest and time. Use the millionaire-by-age calculator to find the monthly amount for your target age, or the salary to millionaire calculator to work from your income and savings rate.
General information only, not financial, legal or tax advice. The SEC definition summarized here is simplified; see the SEC's investor.gov page on accredited investors for the full rules.