Are you a millionaire if your combined assets with spouse is over 1 mil?

Silicon Valley wrote:

Wolf's Bane wrote:

You're not a millionaire unless you have >/ = 1 million in cash in various bank accounts. Your spouse is not included in this calculation. I fail to see how someone who marries a rich person is suddenly a millionaire. Letsrunners will tell you differently.

Thank you wolf. We all have multiple homes, stocks, investments, etc. the poster above described an everyday engineer here in Silicon Valley. If you don’t have cash totaling 1 million in your checking accounts you just don’t have the real money to call yourself a millionaire.

Billionaire status is different but I assure you the high rollers certainly have over 500 million cash available at all times.

If you keep $1M in a checking account with negligible interest you will be losing something like $20,000 a year in purchasing power to inflation.

mortgage != ownership wrote:

John Utah wrote:

Assets less liabilities (i.e. debt)

Do you think someone is a millionaire if they own a house valued at a million with an $800k mortgage?

You don’t own the house if you have a mortgage on it. Read the actual contract. You are literally assigning ownership of the home to the lender when you execute the mortgage. You only own the home once you’ve paid the loan in full.

You accumulate equity as you pay the loan down. That equity, not ownership of an asset, is the value that contributes to your net worth.

You are entirely wrong. Perhaps you're thinking of what is called a "land contract".

mortgage != ownership wrote:

John Utah wrote:

No s#it, mr pedantic. That’s my point. Assets minus liabilities. I think some are incorrectly using an assets only measurement to calculate “millionaire” status.

The asset is only the equity you have in the home. There is no liability to subtract, as this is already accounted for in the equity calculation.

You realize there is no difference in what I said vs what you are saying. Market value of home less debt equals equity. If you are thinking the value of the home would not appear as an asset on a balance sheet you are wrong.

Having a net worth of 1 million in CA. doesn't mean squat. Having a mill in say, West Virginia and your living large. Location, Location, Location...

You do own the home even of you have a mortgage on it.

The deed is in your name.

This bank has a lien on it. It does not own it. It can posses it of you fail to pay what you owe.

The bank cannot sell it it and cannot decide how to modify it.

I agree with the premise of the thread that you need to have net assets of two million with your spouse to be a millionaire.

Silicon Valley wrote:

Being a millionaire means you have 1 million in CASH in your checking account. It’s not stocks, 401k, house, oranyother assets. And it’s not a big deal there’s millions of us.

As an actual Silicon Valley multi-millionaire, I assure everyone this is absurd.

Maybe six months ago people started rolling some money into cash. But not that much. NOBODY keeps a million dollars in cash earning less than 2%. Poor people hoard cash. Once you are rich you don’t need that much cash.

Stocks and bonds are ultra liquid assets. If you need cash you just go get it.

Agreed it’s not a big deal.

disgraceful_admin wrote:

Silicon Valley wrote:

Thank you wolf. We all have multiple homes, stocks, investments, etc. the poster above described an everyday engineer here in Silicon Valley. If you don’t have cash totaling 1 million in your checking accounts you just don’t have the real money to call yourself a millionaire.

Billionaire status is different but I assure you the high rollers certainly have over 500 million cash available at all times.

If you keep $1M in a checking account with negligible interest you will be losing something like $20,000 a year in purchasing power to inflation.

If you’re worried about 20k a year you’re not a millionaire.

And by a click of a button you “could” liquidate you assets. Cool story bro but the fact is your not a millionaire. And you wouldn’t be afyer taxes so keep trying.

And don’t give me this 6% garbage. You lost 6% this year if you’re lucky.

Silicon Valley wrote:

ChadBrad wrote:

As an actual Silicon Valley multi-millionaire, I assure everyone this is absurd.

Maybe six months ago people started rolling some money into cash. But not that much. NOBODY keeps a million dollars in cash earning less than 2%. Poor people hoard cash. Once you are rich you don’t need that much cash.

Um... yes, millionaires do. You are likely counting your 1200 pos house in Sunnyvale & stock options to call yourself a “multi-millionaire.” Truth is your not. And plenty of people I know have that kind of money on hand. Who cares about 2% interest when you got millions already doing work for you.

You’re not a millionaire. Nice try.

Stocks and bonds are ultra liquid assets. If you need cash you just go get it.

Agreed it’s not a big deal.

Ok. Thanks for the input!

A little weird that a Silicon Valley financial wizard can’t figure out basic message board UI, but that’s neither here nor there I suppose.

Silicon Valley wrote:

disgraceful_admin wrote:

If you keep $1M in a checking account with negligible interest you will be losing something like $20,000 a year in purchasing power to inflation.

If you’re worried about 20k a year you’re not a millionaire.

And by a click of a button you “could” liquidate you assets. Cool story bro but the fact is your not a millionaire. And you wouldn’t be afyer taxes so keep trying.

And don’t give me this 6% garbage. You lost 6% this year if you’re lucky.

Pissing away 2% of assets (for someone having $1,000,000) is atypical of an intelligent millionaire.

And it's not even a cool story, bro, but you are not winning any grammar prizes.

comfortable net worth here, and following this discussion.

Minor points - this guy would never keep more than a $100 K in cash, and that's just for convenience as it accumulates at the bank before i would throw it into some investment. If at any time i had more than that in cash, it's as a conscious strategy playing the markets - right now is a good time to keep some powder dry, so to speak, in that the markets are unpredictable at the moment, and i temporarily have a lot in cash in my brokerage accounts.

But to the main point - I used to wonder exactly the same thing - is millionaire status pertaining to the individual or does it apply to household net worth. I wondered that until my wife and i exceeded a mil each.

Of more interest lately is all the news you hear about the 1% - you know, the top 1% on the net worth scale. There's stuff on the net that qualifies that, and it's kind of interesting. And if not the top 1%, how about the top 2% or 3%?

Anyway, it really doesn't matter all that much once you have it, at least not to me. I absolutely guarantee you that no one that knows me would suspect anything of the kind, not even my offspring.

The high percentage of 28 minute 5k joggers and ‘financial advisors’ on this site is truly amazing.

Are these same people also the ones providing medical advice on this site??

My non-trolling answer is:

If married

(NW less primary real estate /2 )== NW

Therefore, ignoring whatever your primary dwellings equity is, chop the rest in half a-la divorce.settlement (in reality, give her 60%, and half your 401k/ira balance, and the primary residence)

If that's >1m, you're a millionaire. Congrats. I think around 10% of Americans are by age 55 or something like that