{"id":133013,"date":"2025-08-10T00:15:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T00:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/133013\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T00:15:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T00:15:16","slug":"something-weirds-going-on-in-the-economy-as-6-new-economic-classes-take-shape-says-new-york-times-bestselling-author","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/133013\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Something weird’s going on’ in the economy as 6 new economic classes take shape,\u00a0says New York Times bestselling author"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Maggiulli is juggling more than spreadsheets these days. He\u2019s chief operating officer at Ritholtz Wealth Management, but he\u2019s also a blogger, and now a two-time author thanks to his latest book, \u201cThe Wealth Ladder<\/a>,\u201d which quickly shot<\/a> to New York Times bestseller status<\/a>. Through his many efforts, Maggiulli has found himself at the forefront of a conversation increasingly relevant to Americans: what it means to have wealth, and how that meaning is rapidly evolving. \u201cSomething weird\u2019s going on,\u201d he told Fortune in an interview.<\/p>\n

Maggiulli\u2019s insights are rooted in data and everyday observation, but he believes the upper middle class is going through an \u201cexistential crisis,\u201d as he noted on his blog \u201cOf Dollars and Data<\/a>.\u201d He talked to Fortune about what he thinks is going on: \u201cThe economy wasn\u2019t built to handle this many people with this much money,\u201d he said, hinting at his research on what he calls the new economic classes of the United States.<\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Wealth Ladder,\u201d Maggiulli proposes a new, data-backed framework for thinking about affluence. It\u2019s a much bigger topic than just Level 4<\/a>. He divides American households into six wealth levels, ranging from under $10,000 (Level 1) to $10 million-plus (Level 5 and beyond). The most populous segment is Level 3\u2014those with $100,000 to $1 million in wealth\u2014but he says that Level 4, the so-called \u201cupper middle class,\u201d is notable for its rapid growth and unique challenges.<\/p>\n

\"Nick<\/p>\n

Maggiulli\u2019s analysis shows the angsty, existential Level 4 was just 7% of the country in in 1989, but as of 2022\/23, that had shot all the way up to 18%. Admittedly, inflation means that a millionaire in the late \u201990s would have a net worth of around $2 million, also as of 2022\/23. But still, he says, this economic class is much bigger than it used to be, especially since the pandemic, and he thinks it\u2019s \u201cstarting to have all these impacts throughout the rest of the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The existential crisis of the upper middle class in the 21st century<\/p>\n

This demographic expansion, Maggiulli says, has sparked unexpected economic side effects, from crowded airport lounges to bidding wars for housing and luxury amenities. \u201c\u201cThe economy wasn\u2019t built to handle this many people with this much money,\u201d he observes, linking \u201cscarce resource\u201d frustrations to the surging population of affluent Americans. \u201cThey\u2019re all competing for a small pool of resources,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The weirdest thing, Maggiulli says, is that these people are objectively very successful. \u201cThey\u2019ve done well in life \u2026 but on a relative basis in the United States, the competition for these higher-end goods is very high, so now it feels like we\u2019re all canceling each other out with all this extra wealth.\u201d Wealthy level 4 Americans could always move somewhere else, where their money would go much further, but they are mostly staying in the U.S., where they don\u2019t feel like the millionaires that they\u2019ve become.<\/p>\n

It really is different from the late \u201990s to now, Maggiulli says, adding that in terms of purchasing power, an American with a net worth of $1 million back then would rank in the top 5% of wealth, whereas that status in the 2020s belongs to someone worth $4 million. \u201cThere\u2019s so much wealth being created that the upper end is seeing this competition like never before,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

UBS Global Wealth Management noticed a similar trend in its 2025 edition of the Global Wealth report, seeing a dramatic rise in the \u201ceveryday millionaire<\/a>,\u201d or EMILLI. At the dawn of the millennium, there were just over 13 million EMILLIs worldwide, UBS found, but that number had shot up to nearly 52 million\u2014a more than fourfold increase in less than 25 years. Even after adjusting for inflation, the number of EMILLIs has more than doubled in real terms since 2000. \u201cThere\u2019s a good portion of [these Level 4, everyday millionaires] that feel like they don\u2019t have enough,\u201d Maggiulli told Fortune, \u201cand they feel like they\u2019re just getting by, even though statistically they\u2019re in the top 20% of U.S. households.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maggiulli\u2019s remarks recall those of Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett\u2019s long-time right-hand man at Berkshire Hathaway<\/a>, who died in 2024. The previous year, in his last appearance at the annual meeting for his newspaper holding company, Daily Journal, Munger sounded a similar tune<\/a> about things being ever better but people feeling ever worse. \u201cPeople are less happy about the state of affairs than they were when things were way tougher,\u201d Munger said, then made a striking comparison. \u201cIt\u2019s weird for somebody my age, because I was in the middle of the Great Depression when the hardship was unbelievable.\u201d Munger said he was powerless to change how unhappy people felt \u201cafter everything\u2019s improved by about 600% because there\u2019s still somebody else who has more.\u201d<\/p>\n

The importance of assets<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maggiulli\u2019s analysis extends to the composition of wealth across classes: \u201cThe poor own cars, the middle class own homes, and the rich own businesses.\u201d He stresses the \u201crich\u201d in America tend to hold assets like businesses and stocks, not just real estate or commodities. To truly shift up levels, the kind of assets you own really matters.<\/p>\n

\"NickWhat the different classes in America own.<\/p>\n

Nick Maggiulli<\/p>\n

Maggiulli told Fortune about the long-anticipated \u201cGreat Wealth Transfer<\/a>,\u201d when baby boomers pass on their $124 trillion fortunes to the Gen Xers and millennials now in or entering midlife. As baby boomers age, their assets are expected to flow into Gen X and eventually millennials, a process he frames as \u201cvery normal.\u201d But he cautions that much of this wealth is tied up in illiquid assets like real estate, potentially distorting Americans\u2019 perception of their own affluence.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also candid about what he calls the \u201cbroken housing market<\/a>.\u201d Even affluent adults are forced into renting more often than not: In fact, Maggiulli\u2019s research shows there have never been so many millionaire renters before. Maggiulli says if it seems like economic conditions have driven many Americans to postpone homeownership, he would know, because he\u2019s one of them. \u201cWhat that means for me personally is that I\u2019m just gonna be renting for a lot longer,\u201d Maggiulli tells Fortune, \u201cbecause it doesn\u2019t make sense to buy, especially where rates are, prices, everything.\u201d The housing market as currently constructed just \u201cdoesn\u2019t add up\u201d for his situation.<\/p>\n

For Maggiulli, the key takeaway is adaptability. He analogizes personal finance to fitness: \u201cYou can imagine a fitness instructor giving different advice to someone who\u2019s morbidly obese versus someone who\u2019s a well-trained athlete.\u201d Likewise, financial strategies must shift as individuals progress up the \u201cwealth ladder.\u201d This particular ladder isn\u2019t one that you\u2019re meant to keep climbing forever, but a very large ladder with a lot of plateaus on it, some where you stay forever. He says you need to step back and reassess: \u201cDo I need to keep climbing? Is this right for me?\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Bryson<\/a>, professor of Quantitative Social Science at University College London, told Fortune something similar in an interview about his research<\/a> into 21st century labor markets, social mobility, and young workers. \u201cPeople at that time in their lives, when they\u2019re looking to build careers and move on and acquire property and, you know, all the the ladder-type things \u2026 it feels as if, perhaps, for some of them, somebody\u2019s removed some of the rungs on that ladder.\u201d Bryson added that \u201cwe haven\u2019t necessarily got the same career structures and patterns\u201d in the current economy as in the past.<\/p>\n

Maggiulli says he\u2019s not advocating through his book for people to choose one particular path or another, but to be aware of their wealth and their trajectory. \u201cI think a lot of people get there, and they say, \u2018Wait, do I want to keep going down this path? Or maybe I can take my foot off the gas and choose a different path where money is not the only thing I\u2019m focusing on.’\u201d<\/p>\n

For this story,\u00a0Fortune\u00a0used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Maggiulli is juggling more than spreadsheets these days. He\u2019s chief operating officer at Ritholtz Wealth Management, but…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":133014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[658,64,79,44167,3991,39623,14230,67,132,68,258],"class_list":{"0":"post-133013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-baby-boomers","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-gen-x","12":"tag-gen-z","13":"tag-millennials","14":"tag-u-s-economy","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-wealth"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115001591802512562","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}