He’s 55, brings in over $150,000 a year, has a mortgage, a retirement fund, little debt — and a wife who doesn’t have to work. On paper, he’s doing fine.
But something about those yachts and beach homes keeps messing with his head.
In a Reddit post titled “Are there a lot of rich people?” in the r/middleclass subreddit, a user wrote:
“I think I’m middle class. At 55, I finally have some retirement money, a mortgage and not much other debt. My wife doesn’t have to work and I make north of 150k in middle America.”
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“But I swear when I go to a coastal city and see all the boats and beach homes, I wonder if there are tons of rich people? Are we being lied to that it’s only a few?”
He’s not the only one wondering.
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‘2 Million Isn’t Rich Anymore’
The Reddit comments came flooding in — some reassuring, some cold, hard math.
“WAAAAY more than that. $2M isn’t even top 5% anymore.”
“2 million household net worth isn’t rich.”
“Every 10 years that 2 million of ‘worth’ will dilute about 500k of value.”
One user tried to add some clarity with stats pulled straight from the Richmond Fed’s 2023 data:
- 50th percentile household net worth: $162,350
- 75th percentile: $553,100
- 90th percentile: $1.56 million
- 99th percentile: $11.6 million
Based on that, another user estimated around 13.1 million U.S. households hold $1.6 million or more in wealth. That’s about 10% of households — a number way bigger than most people assume.
“Now that is on a nationwide basis,” they added. “In the U.S., wealth and income is not evenly distributed with the coastal areas having both more wealth and more income.”
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Beach Homes, Boats — And Some Debt-Fueled Illusions
Not everyone believed what they saw was real wealth. Several users suggested the coastal fantasy could be just that — a façade. “Maybe people are in debt to their eyeballs trying to keep up with the Joneses,” the original poster wrote.
Others backed that theory up:
“As someone born and raised on Long Island, I can tell you half of those people living on the water are drowning in debt to maintain appearances. The other half are really rich though.”
“People that own beachfront houses on Long Island don’t keep up with the Joneses. They are the Joneses.”
But Are There Really That Many Rich People?
Actually… yes.
According to the 2025 USA Wealth Report by Henley & Partners and New World Wealth, over 6 million Americans now qualify as high-net-worth individuals with $1M+ in investable assets. That’s more than one-third of the world’s millionaires — 37% to be exact.
And they’re not just in New York or Los Angeles.
The San Francisco Bay Area, Miami, Austin, Houston, and Dallas have all seen double-digit millionaire growth over the last decade — with Scottsdale, Arizona leading the charge at 125% growth.
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So…What Class Is $150K?
The original poster’s confusion is understandable. By income, he’s well above average — even for his age bracket.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income in 2023 was about $80,610. Pew Research defines “middle class” as anyone earning between two-thirds and twice that amount — which shakes out to a range of roughly $54,000 to $161,000 for a two-person household.
So while the poster technically sits at the upper end of the “middle class” range, the goalposts have clearly moved.
Many Redditors pointed out that perceptions are warped by social media, geography, and inflation.
“$1.6 million household net worth is not beach house money. It’s ‘you will be able to retire’ money.”
“It’s a normal, low-key retirement. Watching your money and hoping you or your partner don’t get very sick.”
The guy’s question was simple — but the response was anything but. Yes, there are a lot of rich people. Yes, the bar for being “rich” keeps moving. And yes, some of those beach house neighbors might just be leasing the lifestyle with credit cards.
But it turns out he’s not alone in asking the question that started it all: “Are we being lied to?”
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