$1 million is just not what it used to be
[link|http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17706852/|$1 million is just not what it used to be]
...These days, a millionaire is more likely to be the guy or gal next door who saved carefully \ufffd and perhaps benefited from the sharp run-up in housing prices \ufffd but still worries about covering the exploding costs of children\ufffds educations, caring for aging parents and funding their own retirements.
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To people living paycheck to paycheck or who haven\ufffdt saved much \ufffd which is the bulk of the U.S. population \ufffd $1 million seems very far out of reach. But a growing number of Americans are accumulating that amount and more. According to research from Merrill Lynch & Co. and the consulting firm Capgemini, some 2.9 million people in the United States and Canada have net worths of $1 million. The New York-based companies count all of an individual\ufffds financial assets except a primary residence.
Atlanta financial adviser Micah Porter, who has worked with Weese, estimated that about 70 percent of the wealthy clients his Minerva Planning Group sees have earned their money by building successful businesses or saving from their salaries.
