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Wed, 24 Dec 2025 09:39:26 -0800
whiteguyinchina from private IP, post #12861342
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The average worker would need to save for 52 years to claw their way out of the middle class and be classified as wealthy, new research reveals
https://fortune.com/2025/12/23/average-worker-save-52-years-way-middle-class-wealthy-new-research-richest-savings-salary/
Sobering new research from the think tank Resolution Foundation shows that for aspirational Brits looking to move up the wealth ladder, not even a lifetime of
savings would be enough.
In fact, the average worker would need to save their earnings for 52 years, to raise £1.3 million ($1.7 million), the amount needed to move from the middle and
become as wealthy as the richest 10%.
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The average worker would need to save for 52 years to claw their way out of the middle class and be classified as wealthy, new research reveals
December 23, 2025, 11:15 AM ET
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Man with laptop working on yacht deck.
Bleak new research warns that not even a lifetime of savings would be enough to lift workers out of the middle class, into the top 10%.
April Story—Getty Images
The exact number of years of saving it would take for the average worker to claw out of the middle-class bracket has been revealed—and it’s nearly half a
century.
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Sobering new research from the think tank Resolution Foundation shows that for aspirational Brits looking to move up the wealth ladder, not even a lifetime of
savings would be enough.
In fact, the average worker would need to save their earnings for 52 years, to raise £1.3 million ($1.7 million), the amount needed to move from the middle and
become as wealthy as the richest 10%.
And it gets worse: That’s with zero bills being paid.
“Wealth gaps in Britain are now so large that a typical full-time employee saving all their earnings across their entire working life would still not be able
to reach the top of the wealth ladder,” Molly Broome, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation and the lead author of the report, wrote.
And for those who happen to be born in the working class, the odds are increasingly stacked against them.
“Wealth mobility in Britain is low. People that start life wealthy tend to stay wealthy, and vice versa,” Broome added.
As the saying goes, money makes money. The report revealed that the key driver of widening inequality is the “passive” gains. Essentially, those who bought
property and invested their money have seen their wealth balloon since 2010.
Workers in the U.S. would need to save for 70 years to unlock the American Dream
As inflation squeezes workers in a cost-of-living vise, paired with a job crisis that’s not been this bad since the financial crisis, and AI threatening to
make it even worse, the salary it takes to be considered rich keeps climbing further out of reach. And the issue is transatlantic.
Even in the U.S., workers say they’d need at least $2.3 million to feel rich (up $100,000 from two years ago). Meanwhile, separate research highlights
they’d need a staggering $4.4 million to achieve the American Dream—the house in the suburbs, two children, an annual vacation, and a new car in the
driveway.
Wed, 24 Dec 2025 09:40:24 -0800
whiteguyinchina from private IP
Reply #19082222
Workers in the U.S. would need to save for 70 years to unlock the American Dream
And it gets worse: That’s with zero bills being paid
Wed, 24 Dec 2025 09:44:38 -0800
whiteguyinchina from private IP
Reply #18695684
This study depending on zero bills being paid is ridiculous
What kind of American worker pays no bills
That's not even a realistic proposition. Its fantasy.
My guess is, the study showed an American or british worker has no chance to move up a socioeconomic class.
The study should have ended there but it become too provocative
So they had to make the unrealistic assumption that out of their earnings no bills were paid and no taxes were paid.
In order to have the headline. As most people dont read beyond those.
The headline should have been, it is impossible to move up in socioeconomic class in western world as a worker.
Wed, 24 Dec 2025 09:45:11 -0800
marlon from private IP
Reply #12180295
the American Dream—the house in the suburbs, two children, an annual vacation, and a new car in the driveway.
what if i don't want any of that? a poverty of desire means i'm wealthy now.
Wed, 24 Dec 2025 11:48:00 -0800
whiteguyinchina from private IP
Reply #10133701
Yes you are correct
Its just that social mobility was the definition of American life and if it is gone then the entire country myth needs to be redefined
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