$15 Million is My Limit

As of October 18, 2022, there are 2,668 billionaires in the world according to Forbes' list "The Richest in 2022".The number one spot has a net worth of $219 billion. There are approximately 56 million (56,000,000) millionaires.

$219 million dollars is a lot of money. Not only is that a lot of money, but it is incomprehensible to me. I suspect that's true for most people. Most people, by the way, are not millionaires or billionaires.

$15 million dollars is my comprehensible limit. Numerically, I understand $219 billion. I know what that number looks like: 219,000,000,000. I know it is greater than 218,999,999,999 and less than 219,000,000,001. I can easily sort the number 219 billion in a list of other numbers. I can even do that ascending or descending! But I have no conceptual knowledge of what 219 billion U.S. dollars is. I can't even comprehend 20 million U.S. dollars. Lots of people have tried to help with that. Terry Turner does a nice job in his article How Much Is a Billion Dollars? But for me, $15,000,000 is my limit. It is based on my comprehension of acquisition, presuming that a person earned that money through work.

Let's say that a person - we'll call her Alice - gets a job at the age of 15. According to the Department of Labor, the legal age of employment in the United States is 14. If you are in or grew up in a working class family then chances are you had a job in your teenage years. I was 12 when I landed my first job as a paper boy. That's why I claim that this is comprehensible to most people.

Next, let's say that Alice retires at 75. That's a 60 year run of employment. That's a long time. It's not ideal. Many of use would like to retire early and enjoy our aging years with travel, grandchildren, and hobbies before we battle age-related illnesses. It is also not uncommon for retirees to return to the workforce. AARP offers several reasons for this. I don't want to work until I'm 75 but I get it. I'm aware of some people who do this. I can comprehend working as a septuagenarian.

Finally, let's say that Alice earned $250,000 per year for every year that she worked. Right away you'll see this as fantasy as few, if any, working class kids make a quarter of a million dollars on their first job. But the number is understandable, albeit unrealistic. According to the US Census Bureau, the median household income for 2020 in the United States was $67,521. $250,000 is 3.7x that household income. And many people would have a realistic understanding of what they can spend if they had 3.7 times more of it. In other words, $250,000 is a lot of money for someone just entering the workforce, but it is understandable by those who are no longer novices to the workplace.

If Alice earns $250,000 every year for 60 years, she would have a lifetime earning of $15 million dollars. The salary amount and delayed retirement are not realistic but they are comprehensible. And that's why I can only comprehend $15,000,000 USD.

As an aside, I could not find a statistic for the number of American millionaires who are worth more than $15 million. However, Robert Frank of CNBC estimates that in 2022 there were 252,000 Americans with a net worth of more than $25 million. Translated into my calculus above, that means a person would have earned at least $416,667 every year, starting with his/her first job and/or worked longer than 60 years. And I readily admit that I am unable to comprehend that. (I also admit that delivering papers in 1978 for $416,667 sounds pretty amazing!).