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Friday, February 1st, 2019

Super Rich Americans Are Getting Younger and Multiplying

Author:     Ben Steverman
Source:     Bloomberg
Publication Date:     January 23, 2019, 6:45 AM PST
 Link: Super Rich Americans Are Getting Younger and Multiplying
Stephan:   Wealth inequality is the foundational cause of countless revolutions. That is an historical fact. That said, consider: On the one hand there is what this and the previous article report, and on the other, 40% of Americans -- that is 127,200,000 people -- can't write a $400 check in an emergency. And this suggests what to you?

Credit: vgajic/E+/Getty

The rich are getting richer, and younger.

A survey of U.S. investors with $25 million or more finds their average age dropped by 11 years since 2014, to 47. These fabulously rich Americans, whose ranks have more than doubled since the depths of the Great Recession, are younger than less wealthy millionaires. The average age of those with at least a mere $1 million is 62, a number that hasn’t budged in years.

Where is this new money coming from? A new generation of millionaires and billionaires probably owe as much to inheritances as to self-made fortunes. “There may be more Mark Zuckerbergs at the top of the wealth distribution than in the 1960s, but also more Paris Hiltons,” Saez and Zucman wrote.

About 172,000 U.S. households have net worths of at least $25 million, Spectrem estimated last year. That’s up from 84,000 in 2008.