成人X站

NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� As a child, Heidi Barley watched her family pay for groceries with food stamps. As a college student, she dropped out because she couldn鈥檛 afford tuition. In her twenties, already scraping by, she was forced to take a pay cut that shrunk her salary to just $34,000 a year.

But this summer, the 41-year-old hit a milestone that long felt out of reach: She became a millionaire.

A surging number of everyday Americans now boast a seven-figure net worth once the domain of celebrities and CEOs. But as the ranks of millionaires grow fatter, the significance of the status is shifting alongside perceptions of what it takes to be truly rich.

鈥淢illionaire used to sound like Rich Uncle Pennybags in a top hat,鈥� says Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital Advisors, a wealth management firm in El Segundo, California. 鈥淚t鈥檚 no longer a backstage pass to palatial estates and caviar bumps. It鈥檚 the new mass-affluent middleweight class, financially secure but two zeros short of private-jet territory.鈥�

Inflation, ballooning home values and a decades-long push into stock markets by average investors have lifted millions into millionairehood. A June report from Swiss bank UBS found , with 1,000 freshly minted millionaires added daily last year.

Thirty years ago, with a net worth of $1 million or more. UBS 鈥� using data from the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and central banks of countries around the globe 鈥� put the number at 23.8 million in the U.S. last year, a nearly 15-fold increase.

The expanding ranks of millionaires come as the gulf between rich and poor widens. The richest , according to the Federal Reserve, averaging $8.1 million each. The bottom 50% hold 3% of wealth, with an average of just $60,000 to their names.

Federal Reserve . Asian people outpace white people in the U.S. in median wealth, while Black and Hispanic people trail in their net worth.

Barley was working as a journalist when her newspaper ended its pension program and she got a lump-sum payout of about $5,000. A colleague convinced her to invest it in a retirement account, and ever since, she鈥檚 stashed away whatever she could. The investments dipped at first during the Great Recession but eventually started growing. In time, she came to find catharsis in amassing savings, going home and checking her account balances when she had a tough day at work.

Last month, after one such day, she realized the moment had come.

鈥淒id you know that we鈥檙e millionaires?鈥� she asked her husband.

鈥淕ood job, honey,鈥� Barley says he replied, unfazed.

It brought no immediate change. Like many millionaires, much of her wealth is in long-term investments and her home, not easy-to-access cash. She still lives in her modest Orlando, Florida, house, socks away half her paycheck, fills the napkin holder with takeout napkins and lines trash cans with grocery bags.

Still, Barley says it feels powerful to cross a threshold she never imagined reaching as a child.

鈥淏ut it鈥檚 not as glamorous as the ideas in your head,鈥� she says.

All wealth is relative. To thousandaires, $1 million is the stuff of dreams. To billionaires, it’s a rounding error. Either way, it takes twice as much cash today to match the buying power of 30 years ago.

A net worth of $1 million in 1995 is equivalent to about $2.1 million today, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A seven-figure net worth is, to some, as outdated a yardstick as a six-figure salary. Nonetheless, 鈥渕illionaire鈥� is peppered in everything from politics to popular music as shorthand for rich.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a nice round number but it鈥檚 a point in a longer journey,鈥� says Dan Uden, a 41-year-old from Providence, Rhode Island, who works in information technology and who hit the million-dollar mark last month. 鈥淚t definitely gives you some room to breathe.鈥�

No other country comes close to the U.S. in the sheer number of millionaires, though relative to population, UBS found Switzerland and Luxembourg had higher rates.

Kenneth Carow, a finance professor at Indiana University鈥檚 Kelley School of Business, says commonalities emerge among today鈥檚 millionaires. The vast majority own stocks and a home. Most live below their means. They value education and teach financial responsibility to their children.

鈥淭he dream of becoming a millionaire,鈥� Carow says, 鈥渉as become more obtainable.鈥�

Jim Wang, 45, from Fulton, Maryland, says even if hitting $1 million was essentially 鈥渁 non-event鈥� for him and his wife, it still held weight for him as the son of immigrants who saved money by turning the heat off on winter nights.

The private jets he envisioned as a kid may not have materialized at the million-dollar threshold, but he still sees it as a marker that brings a certain level of security.

鈥淚t鈥檚 possible, even with a regular job,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou just have to be diligent and consistent.鈥�

The resilience of financial markets and the ease of investing in broad-based, low-fee index funds has fueled the balances of many millionaires who don’t earn massive salaries or inherit family fortunes.

Among them is a burgeoning community of younger millionaires born out of the movement known as FIRE, for Financial Independence Retire Early.

Jason Breck, 48, of Fishers, Indiana, embraced FIRE and reached the million-dollar mark nine years ago. He promptly quit his job in automotive marketing, where he generally earned around $60,000 a year but managed to stow away around 70% of his pay.

Now, . Despite being retired, they continue to grow their balance by sticking to a tight budget and keeping expenses to $1,500 a month when they鈥檙e in the U.S and a few hundred dollars more when they travel.

Hitting their goal hasn鈥檛 translated to luxury. There is no lawn crew to cut the grass, no Netflix or Amazon Prime, no Uber Eats. They fly economy. They drive a 2005 Toyota.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not a golden ticket like it was in the past,鈥� Breck says. 鈥淔or us, a million dollars buys us freedom and peace of mind. We鈥檙e not yacht rich, but for us, we鈥檙e time rich.鈥�

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Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org and