Do you need $1 million to be financially 'comfortable'? Answers here.
That's the takeaway from the new Modern Wealth Survey by Charles Schwab.
It may be mostly a matter of semantics, but American consumers see a big difference between the financial goals of comfort and wealth: A nearly $1.5 million difference, to be exact.
Whatever else 'wealthy' might mean in 2025, numerous surveys attest, it definitely means having a net worth over $1 million. In the latest annual Schwab survey, released in July, consumers set the wealth bar at $2.3 million.
But how much money does it take to be merely 'comfortable'? In four past surveys, consumers equated financial comfort to a net worth between $624,000 and $1 million. (The $1 million figure came in 2023, a year of rampant inflation.) This year's number: $839,000.
What's the difference between 'comfort' and 'wealth'?
What, then, is the difference between comfort and wealth? The Schwab survey didn't define the terms. Respondents were left to decide on their own.
To Rob Williams, managing director of financial planning at Schwab, the distinction boils down to needs, wants and wishes.
To many American consumers, Williams said, financial comfort means having enough net worth to meet their needs and wants.
'I can pay my mortgage. I have a home. I can pay my medical bills. I don't have to go paycheck to paycheck. I have enough to retire,' Williams said. 'That's what financial comfort means to me.'
To be wealthy, he said, means you have enough money to satisfy your needs and wants, and also your wishes.
'Wishes are those things that are aspirational,' he said: Having enough money to retire when you want, or to vacation where and when you please.
'I think of wealth as, 'I have a lot more choices in how I use my time,'' Williams said.
Here's how Americans define 'wealthy'
Schwab asked survey respondents to define what wealthy means to them. Here, in descending order, are the most-cited factors:
Is financial 'comfort' more dream than reality?
Only 11% of consumers said they believe they are wealthy now: evidence, perhaps, that wealth is largely aspirational. Another 24% said they think they are on track to be wealthy.
Gen Z and millennials were especially optimistic about wealth. More than two-fifths of both groups reported being either wealthy or on track to become so.
Financial comfort, too, seems to be more of a dream than a reality. In the Schwab survey, only 20% of respondents reported feeling comfortable now. Another 28% said they're on track to achieve that status.
Here, again, Gen Z and millennial Americans voiced more optimism, with more than half of each group saying they are financially comfortable, or getting there.
The Schwab survey, conducted in April and May, reached a representative sample of 2,200 adults.
Most American households are not particularly wealthy
A net worth of $839,000, the cutoff for financial comfort in the Schwab survey, actually falls below the average net worth for American families in 2022, which was roughly $1.1 million, according to the federal Survey of Consumer Finances.
But the super-wealthy skew that average. The median household net worth – think of it as the middle figure in a long list of numbers – is only $192,700.
Lili Vasileff, a certified financial planner in Greenwich, Connecticut, defines financial comfort as essentially never having to worry about money.
'Comfortable, to me, means that I can meet my bills every day of the week, that I don't live paycheck to paycheck, that I have savings set aside as an emergency fund, and that I have made good progress toward achieving my financial goals,' she said.
Being wealthy, she said, is about financial freedom and loftier goals.
'Wealthy, to me, means that I have savings that I don't need to dip into, and I can create a legacy for my children, that I have the ability to have a little more ego in terms of the quality of things that I want,' she said.
'You may feel like you're really comfortable at $800,000,' Vasileff said. But a lot depends on how much of the money is liquid, how much is investable, and how much is earmarked for spending, among other factors.
The role of financial wellness
Robert Brokamp, a senior adviser at The Motley Fool, defines financial comfort in much the same way the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau defines financial well-being. It's a four-part definition:
'I think anyone who meets those criteria, they're comfortable,' Brokamp said.
Brokamp also has a theory to explain the $2.3 million figure that Schwab survey-takers defined as 'wealthy' in 2025. It has to do with the faded luster of the American millionaire.
'If you're a millionaire, you're more than comfortable,' Brokamp said. 'But there's still this idea that being a millionaire ain't what it used to be.'
Brokamp thinks that impulse may explain why the annual Schwab surveys consistently define 'wealthy' as a figure closer to $2 million: $2.2 million in 2022 and 2023, and $2.5 million in 2024.
'If you've got $2 million, you're a multimillionaire,' he said. 'And if you're a multimillionaire, you've got to be wealthy.'
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