Northwestern Mutual’s 2025 Planning & Progress Study Found That 64% of American Millionaires Don’t Consider Themselves Wealthy

The threshold sounds like a finish line: if you hit $1 million in investable assets, the math says you have made it. The reality is that the people who have actually crossed that line are likely going to disagree. According to Northwestern Mutual’s 2025 Planning & Progress Study, only 36% of American millionaires with at least $1 million in investable assets consider themselves “wealthy.” The other 64% have the assets but reject the label, and that gap between balance sheet and self-image is the entire story.

The first place to look for an explanation is the economy in which these millionaires live. Inflation has not been kind to anyone holding cash or fixed income. Headline PCE inflation ran at 3.5% year over year in April 2026, with core PCE at 3.2% and energy prices up 14.43% from a year earlier. The Consumer Price Index sits at 330.293, a 12-month high, and even so, a million dollars in 2026 does not buy what a million dollars bought even five years ago, and the people closest to that number tend to feel the slippage most acutely.

Consumer sentiment reflects the same mood. The University of Michigan index reads 48.9 as of April 2026, down from 53.3 in March and sitting in what the survey defines as recessionary territory. The 12-month average of 55.6 places sentiment in the lower quartile of historical readings. Wealthy households feel that mood too, reading the same headlines and watching the same prices.

Where a Million Dollars Actually Lives

Geography compounds the perception problem, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis makes that clear through its regional price parity data. California posts an index of 110.7, Hawaii comes in at 110.0, and the District of Columbia sits at 109.9, all well above the national baseline of 100. At the other end of the spectrum, Arkansas stands at 86.9 and Mississippi at 87.0. A millionaire in San Francisco and a millionaire in Little Rock are not living the same life, and the one in San Francisco feels that difference every time the property tax bill arrives.

Household budgets tell the same story. Spending on housing services reached roughly $3.9 trillion in March 2026, and healthcare services climbed to about $3.7 trillion over the same period, both continuing the long upward trend that has defined the past several years. The services categories that high‑income households rely on most heavily, including healthcare, education, and professional services, have been running hot for an extended stretch, with services inflation holding in a 3.3% to 3.6% range through 2025 and into 2026. These are the parts of the economy that rarely cool quickly, and they shape how even affluent households experience the cost of maintaining their lifestyle.

The Psychology Behind the Number

The study itself digs into why the wealth label feels uncomfortable, as nearly half of American millionaires (49%) say their financial planning needs improvement. That is a striking admission from a group that, by definition, has executed well enough to accumulate seven figures. Only 53% expect to leave an inheritance or charitable gift, and just 12% identify legacy-building as their single most important financial goal. The remaining attention is on income replacement, longevity risk, and the cost of retirement itself.

The origins of wealth also shape mindsets, with 79% of American millionaires describing their net worth as self-made rather than inherited (12%) or from windfalls (5%). Self-made wealth tends to come with a moving goalpost, and the benchmark that mattered at a net worth of $250,000 shifts to $1 million, then to $5 million. The discipline that produced the wealth keeps redefining what counts as enough.

The Advisor Gap

One variable separates the millionaires who feel secure from those who do not: 74% of millionaires work with a financial advisor, compared with 34% of the general population. Those with advisors report stronger feelings about their finances, expect to retire two years earlier, and feel more secure about retirement. The number on the balance sheet matters less than having a framework that translates the number into a plan.

What the Data Says About the Wealth Threshold

The savings rate adds the final piece of context, as personal savings have fallen from 6.2% of disposable income in early 2024 to 4.0% in the first quarter of 2026, while per capita disposable income reached $68,617. Income is up, savings buffers are thinner, and the cost of the lifestyle that comes with a high income has risen faster than the income itself.

The Northwestern Mutual data documents a clear disconnect: a $1 million portfolio is enough to qualify as wealth, but not enough to feel it. The threshold is a number, as the feeling depends on the cost of living, inflation expectations, planning quality, and the gap between current assets and the lifestyle those assets are supposed to fund for thirty more years. The 64% figure is what happens when those variables move faster than the portfolio.