Does $1 Million Make a Retiree Top 10%?

There are about 27.5 million retired households in America. Their average net worth is about $1.4 million, but 8 in 10 of them have less than that. This video lines up every retired household on a staircase of 100 steps, from the least to the most, using the Federal Reserve's own survey, and finds where the middle is, where $1 million lands, and where the top 10% actually begins. In this video: • Why the average net worth says little about the typical retired household • A staircase of 100 steps: each step is 1% of retired households • Step 50: the household right in the middle (the median) • Where $500,000 and $1 million land on the staircase • How many retired households are worth $1 million or more, with and without the house • What the bottom half owns, cent by cent • Homeowners vs. renters • Where the top quarter, the top 10%, the top 5% and the top 1% begin • What the top 10% own, cent by cent • Couples vs. men and women living alone • Net worth by age • Where the top 10% line was in 1989 CHAPTERS 0:00 The average: $1.4 million 0:46 Where the numbers come from 1:24 A staircase of 100 steps 1:46 Step 50: the middle household 2:03 The bottom of the staircase 2:22 Where $500,000 lands 2:41 Where $1 million lands 3:40 Take the house out 4:19 Homeowners vs. renters 4:46 The top quarter and $2 million 5:12 Where the top 10% begins 5:27 The wall: the top 5% and the top 1% 5:54 What the top 10% own 6:28 Couples vs. living alone 7:09 Net worth by age 7:32 1989 vs. today 8:07 The whole staircase SOURCES Federal Reserve Board, Survey of Consumer Finances, 2022 and earlier surveys (1989–2022): https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scfindex.htm Federal Reserve Bulletin, "Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2019 to 2022" (October 2023): https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/scf23.pdf U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U): https://www.bls.gov/cpi/ How it was counted: net worth is everything a household owns (the home, retirement accounts, savings, stocks and funds, businesses, other real estate, vehicles and more) minus every debt, for the whole household, with a married couple counted once. "Retired households" are households where the head is 65 or older and not working, about 27.5 million of them. The 2022 survey is the most recent one the Federal Reserve has released. Amounts were moved into today's money with the Consumer Price Index (August 2026 vs. the 2022 average, prices up about 14%). Each step is one percent of retired households: steps 1 to 99 are the Federal Reserve survey's percentiles, and step 100 is the middle of the top 1%. The 1989 comparison uses the Federal Reserve's inflation-adjusted survey files. Before using the data, the calculation was checked against the Federal Reserve's own published table: median net worth for households headed by someone 65 to 74 in 2022, about $410,000, matched. Coming up on this channel: what retirees actually spend each month, line by line, from the government's own survey. This channel is educational only and is not financial, tax, legal or investment advice. Old Man Miller is a fictional animated narrator, not a financial advisor. Research and script by the channel's creator. #retirement #networth #federalreserve