Once you join the three comma club, where does all of that money actually live? It's not as though most billionaires have the bulk of their fortunes sitting in a savings account.
To break down where the super rich keep their money, Jeff Desjardins at Visual Capitalist used data from the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances from 2016 to show how wealth distribution varies for those with a net worth of $10,000 or $100,000 versus those who are worth $1 billion.
Check out the infographic below and click to enlarge.
The infographic reveals some key truths about the difference between a five-figure net worth and a much larger one. For example, for every net worth up to $1 million, the most important asset is the primary residence. And the larger the net worth, the larger the percentage that's tied up in non-liquid assets, such as business interests.
Those who are worth less tend to have their wealth concentrated in more tangible assets such as a car.
No matter where you keep your money, the amount you have of it doesn't define if you're rich or not. That really comes down to one simple question: If you lost your job tomorrow, how long could you survive?
That's according to Derek Sall, a personal finance blogger and financial analyst who paid off $116,000 in seven years. He says being rich is not about how much money you bring in each month but how much you're able to save.
It's easy to judge wealth as a function of what you own, but Sall argues that material possessions say nothing about the real state of your finances. "Heck, you could drive a $40,000 BMW and live in a $500,000 home, but if you're $600,000 in debt, then you're actually worth less than a seven-year-old child," he writes in a blog post.
To read more about millionaires and billionaires, check out:
- Here's where the most millionaires live around the world
- If you want to be a millionaire, start thinking like one
- How one teacher became a self-made millionaire by age 36
- A simple mindset shift separates millionaires from the middle class
And read Visual Capitalist's full explanation of the findings.
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