What is a high-net-worth individual?
HNWIs have liquid assets of at least $1 million.
https://finance.yahoo.com/personal-finance/what-is-a-high-net-worth-individual-hnwi-203415859.html
Compared to everyone else, how are you doing financially? According to the Federal Reserve, the real median net worth of American families was $192,900 as of 2022, up 37% from 2019.
If your net worth is around that amount, you may feel comfortable financially — but you're a long way off from the "high-net-worth individual" (HNWI) distinction. Although definitions vary, a HNWI is typically someone with at least $1 million of net worth in liquid assets. In the U.S., 5.3 million people — less than 2% of the total population — qualify as HNWIs.
Here's what it means to be a HNWI, and how finances work differently for this elite group.
What is a high-net-worth individual (HNWI)?
A high-net-worth individual is someone with $1 million or more of net worth in liquid assets, including bank accounts, stocks, bonds, and cash. Someone can technically be a millionaire and not meet the definition of an HNWI because their money is tied up in illiquid investments, such as real estate.
A high-net-worth individual can come from different fields and locations. However, there are some traits that HNWIs tend to have in common. The cities with the highest number of millionaires are New York, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston, according to the Henley & Partners 2023 USA Wealth Report.
Among the uber-rich, there are even more commonalities. Centi-millionaires — those who have net worths of $100 million or more — tend to attend Ivy League universities. Forty-five percent of the nation's centi-millionaires attended Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, or Yale University.