Millionaires are not Immune.

It is interesting to observe that even some of the wealthy are beginning to falter when it comes to avoiding the Jones’ consumption style. It appears that many of them are now trying to keep up with the super rich.  Consumption and debt increases are becoming more common amongst the affluent.
In fact, some sociologists and economists say the rise in wealthy people’s debt stems in large part from the growing pressure among the elite to keep up with richer peers. The biggest disparities in wealth today are among the rich, with mere millionaires getting shoved aside by decamillionaires, centimillionaires and billionaires.
The haves are borrowing more to keep up with the have-mores. Those in the 95th percentile to 99th percentile of wealth have almost twice as much debt as the top 1%, as measured against assets. Economists and wealth managers say it’s the single-digit millionaires who are becoming the most stretched, as they borrow to match the lifestyle of even-wealthier people.
The result, says Dalton Conley, a sociologist at New York University who studies status, is even more debt. “What we’re seeing is the top 1% struggling to keep up with the top 1/10th of 1%,” he adds. “And those people trying to keep up with the top 1/100th of 1%. There is a drive by the merely rich to keep up with the obscenely rich.”
With some measures showing prices for high-end goods outpacing the broader inflation rate, the wealthy are increasingly looking beyond mortgages to use debt for buying beachfront homes, yachts, cars and other collectibles. Private bankers say loans for jets are among the most popular.
This is a dangerous precedent among the mere rich or single digit millionaires. The fact is, no one is immune from getting stuck in the consumerism trap. Even millionaires. Trying to keep up with the Jones’ is the surest way to financial bondage.
Do not worry about who has what. Focus on what financial independence means to you and your family. Not what everyone else would have you believe it to be.