Who Gets to Be “High Net Worth”? Redefining Wealth for Our Communities

Who decided “high net worth” starts at a certain dollar amount in an investment account, and why do so few of those definitions include us in the picture?

In this episode, Meg takes apart the idea of being “high net worth” and asks a bigger, better question instead: what does wealth actually mean for our communities? She looks at how the financial industry use labels like “mass affluent” and “HNW” to decide who gets access and support, and how those labels were built on stolen land, unpaid labor, and generations of exclusion.

Then we zoom in on what it looks like to define wealth on your own terms and build a version of “high net worth” that includes safety, support, and community. You will walk away with practical steps to measure what matters, set your own “enough” number, and build wealth that actually serves you and your people.

⏱️ In This Episode:

00:00 Who Gets to Be “High Net Worth”

00:42 How The Industry Defines Wealth

02:11 The Racial And Gender Wealth Gaps Behind Those Labels

04:05 What Those Labels Decide For You

08:00 Redefining Wealth For Our Communities

09:27 Beyond Dollars: Rest, Safety, Support And Time

13:12 Setting Your Own “Enough” Number

15:06 Building Community Wealth, Not Just Individual Wealth

17:02 Aligning Prices, Boundaries And Goals With Your New Definition

19:10 Reflection Prompts And Your Next Small Step

🔗 Mentioned in This Episode:

👉 Net worth tracking tools and simple spreadsheets you will actually use
👉 Community banks and credit unions in your area
👉 Mutual aid funds and community care networks
👉 Equitable Money Project resources on values based money planning

💬 Connect with Us:

🌐 Website → https://equitablemoneyproject.com

📸 Instagram → https://instagram.com/equitablemoneyproject

🎧 Podcast → https://equitablemoneyproject.com/podcast

🚀 Your Next Step:

Ready to make your money match your values and build a version of wealth that actually includes you and your community? Download our free Wealth is Resistance Action Kit → https://equitablemoneyproject.com/kit

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:36

When I say the phrase high net worth, what comes to mind? I want you to be honest here. If you're like me, you're probably picturing someone with a private banker, a summer house, a driver who waits outside the restaurant while they eat, the kind of meal that most of us can only dream about, the ones that cost more than our weekly grocery budget. The phrase sounds so official, doesn't it? Like a category of humanity. You're either high net worth or you're not. You either belong in that room or you don't. Well, hey there, and welcome back to another episode of Disrupt Your Money. Today, I want to have a serious conversation about what wealth looks like and who gets to be high net worth. Here's the thing: high net worth isn't just a description. It's actually a gate. It's a password for access, it's a password for opportunity, for legitimacy. And when you're in the financial world, the definition is usually someone with at least a million dollars or more in liquid assets. Ultra high net worth, a lot of people think starts somewhere in kind of the$25,$30 million range. That's who gets the private wealth managers, the special funds, the concierge banking services. That's who gets the invitations to the tables where policy and investment and influence intersect. But you know what I keep thinking? Who decided that that's the measure of worth? Who decided that the people with the biggest bank balances automatically have the highest value? Because when I look at my community, when I look at the people holding it together with care and creativity, I see a whole different kind of wealth, one that never shows up on a spreadsheet. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about how we redefine wealth on our own terms. Because here is the truth: the systems that measure net worth were never designed for us. They were designed to measure accumulation, not contribution, or extraction, not equity. They reward ownership, not generosity. And they keep the same people on the inside decade after decade while telling the rest of us we just need to work harder, budget better, and maybe one day we'll get there too. And I don't think there's ever been a more clear example of that than our current political environment, where it is literally pay-to-play. And the people who are sitting at the table calling the shots are the ones with billions of dollars in their pockets. Now I want to tell you a story. A few years ago, I met a woman named Lydia. Lydia ran a child care cooperative in her neighborhood. She started this because she couldn't afford daycare for her own kids and realized that her friends were in the same boat. So together they created a system. Each parent would work shifts. They pool resources, they share food and supplies. None of these people make six figures of income. Nobody owns stocks or property, maybe other than the house that they live in, which is probably highly mortgaged. But together they've built stability, trust, and freedom for dozens of families in their community. Now, you're not going to find Lydia on any high net worth list, but if wealth is about creating security and opportunity for your family and your community, she is rich as hell. This is what I mean when I say we need new metrics. Because the financial industry has convinced us that wealth only counts when it compounds in a brokerage account. That if it isn't liquid or leveraged, it isn't real. But what about social capital? What about cultural wealth, collective wealth, emotional wealth? What about the stability you create when you hire someone from your community and pay them fairly? What about the intergenerational wealth of values, resilience, knowledge that you pass down without ever touching a dollar? And I'm thinking in particular right now of what's happening in Minnesota as I'm recording this episode, where ICE has invaded a city of kind-hearted, good, regular, everyday people who just want to live their lives in peace. And what we're seeing day to day as we watch the terror that the government is unfolding on these people is we're seeing these people, these communities rise up. We are seeing them support each other. We are seeing them call out what's wrong, call out the injustice. We are seeing them literally put their bodies on the line for their neighbors. When I think about wealth, I honestly cannot find you a better example of what feels so wealthful to me, to me to have that kind of community, rich in those values. That's the game, my friends. That's the game. And I think about my own family. We weren't wealthy by the world standards, but we had a kind of wealth that didn't fit into a portfolio. We had resourcefulness. We had food even when money was tight, because someone always found a way to stretch what we had. We had education, not the kind that necessarily came with ivy-covered walls, but the kind that taught you how to survive, how to show up, how to share, how to take care of each other. That's wealth to me. And here's the dangerous part about the high net worth myth. It tricks us into competing for validation from the very system that excluded us. It keeps us chasing accumulation instead of liberation. Think about all of the influencers on social media showing their cars and their trips and their jewelry and their clothes. They're playing into that very system that in many cases wasn't designed intentionally for them. This convinces us that if we could just make enough, save enough, invest enough, we will finally be safe and happy. But the truth is that safety shouldn't be something you buy. It should be something that we build together. And we've been building it quietly, consistently, generation after generation. Look at black and brown communities that created mutual aid societies when banks refused them loans. Look at immigrant families that pooled money in lending circles to buy homes. Think about indigenous communities fighting to reclaim stolen land and restore sovereignty. That is wealth building. That is legacy work. It's not always glamorous. In fact, most of the time it's almost certainly not glamorous. And it doesn't always feel scalable, but it is powerful. Now, I'm not saying that money doesn't matter. It does. Financial resources give you choices, and choices are a form of freedom. This is the world that we live in. This is the economic society, the economy that we work with. We can't ignore that reality. But money alone isn't the goal. And in fact, money really is just a tool, one tool. Money without meaning is just math. Wealth, real wealth, is actually what you do with that money. And that's where I think we have a chance to change the narrative because we're not just redefining wealth in theory, we're living it differently in practice. When you run a values-driven business that pays living wages, you're redistributing wealth. When you use your profit to create opportunity, you're redefining success. And when you choose to rest instead of grind yourself into the ground, you're reclaiming your time as a form of wealth. I know how easy it is to feel like you're behind. We are surrounded by these messages telling us what financial success should look like. Six figures, seven figures, passive income, real estate portfolios, retire early, retire your parents, retire your spouse. And sure, those things can be great, but let's not confuse the scoreboard with the game. What's the point of earning more if it costs you your peace, your integrity, or your connection to your community? We need to stop measuring our progress by someone else's yardstick because the truth is, for marginalized entrepreneurs, even getting into the game takes a whole lot of courage. You're building wealth in a system that was designed intentionally to keep you out of it. And you're paying yourself when the world still expects you to work for free. You're creating jobs, opportunities, and representation where none existed before. That's high net worth behavior, in my opinion, even if your bank account doesn't say so yet. Often think about people who get called philanthropists because they give away a fraction of what they'll never spend. And then I think about the single parent who slips a few dollars to a neighbor who's struggling. Who's really doing more for their community? Who's really creating impact? Wealth isn't about how much you give, it's about how much it costs you to give it. Let's talk about numbers for a second. According to most financial institutions, being high net worth means you have at least a million dollars in liquid assets, like I mentioned. But here's what those definitions never say. You could have a million dollars in assets and be miserable. You could have millions and still exploit people. And we certainly see evidence of that every single day. You could have billions of dollars and still destroy the planet. So maybe high net worth shouldn't be about what you have. Maybe it should be about what you're worth to others. When I look around, I see teachers, caregivers, organizers, small business owners, creators, activists, people who are literally holding communities together with care and commitment, people who are raising kids, running businesses, feeding neighbors, mentoring others. That is value. That's worth. And it deserves to be named as well. There's another layer here, too. The idea of net worth itself is dangerous because it ties your value as a person to your financial statement. Think about that language, net worth. It's not just a number, it's a label. It makes you believe your humanity has a price tag that if you're in debt or struggling, you're somehow worth less. That's a lie. Your worth isn't on a balance sheet. You were born with it. When I talk about redefining wealth, I'm not just talking about expanding access to traditional measures of success. I'm talking about rewriting what success even means. It's not just about closing the racial wealth gap, although that is really important. It's about transforming the way that we think about wealth entirely. Because closing the gap in a broken system still leaves you in a broken system. We need to build a new one. So what does that look like? Well, it looks like communities where people don't have to choose between paying rent and taking care of their health. It looks like entrepreneurs who can make money without compromising their values. It looks like business models that prioritize equity, transparency, and care. It looks like funding that flows to the people doing the real work, not just the people with the right connections. And it looks like recognizing that our collective well-being is wealth, that safety, access, and joy are not luxuries. They are the dividends of justice. I think about a friend who runs a small nonprofit that helps local teens learn business skills. Now, she doesn't make six figures, but because of her, dozens of young people have learned how to build credit, start businesses, and manage money with confidence. She's not high net worth by the system's definition, but she's building wealth that multiplies with every single person she empowers. That's the kind of wealth I care about. The kind that's contagious, the kind that grows when you share it. Because the truth is wealth hoarded stagnates. Wealth shared expands. The people at the top of the old system think accumulation equals security, but community is the only real safety net. And by God, Minnesota is the perfect example of this. When your wealth lives in your relationships, your reputation, your contribution, no market crash can take that away. Here's what I want you to hear. You don't have to wait until you hit a certain number to start thinking of yourself as wealthy. You're already building it in your consistency, your creativity, your care, your connections. You're already redefining what it means to have value. Every single bill you pay, every boundary you set, every time you choose integrity over exploitation, you're adding to your net worth the real kind, the kind that really matters. I know this is big work. And it's not just about money, it's about healing. It's about undoing generations of scarcity and shame. It's about believing that abundance doesn't require extraction. And it's about trusting that your liberation is tied to everyone else's. So what happens if we all start seeing ourselves as high net worth right now? Not because we've reached a certain dollar threshold, but because we've decided that our contributions matter. What if we start using the language of wealth to describe the things we've been taught to undervalue, such as caregiving, creativity, joy, passion, connection? That's how change starts. With language, with perspective, with belief. We get to redefine wealth as something communal, regenerative, and infinite. We get to build systems where your value isn't determined by your income, but by your impact. And we get to model new ways of thriving that don't rely on exploitation. And when we do that, we make room for a new kind of high net worth, one that's rooted in justice, joy, and enoughness. One where success is measured not by how much you can take, but by how much you can give without depleting yourself. One where the wealthiest people in the room are the ones who make others feel seen, supported, and safe. So here's my invitation. Stop waiting for permission to feel wealthy. You already are. Start naming the abundance that already exists in your life, whether it be your community, your creativity, your passion, your resilience. See it, honor it, share it. And as you build financial wealth, because yes, we're still building that too. That's an important tool. Let it serve your values, not define them. Because when we redefine wealth for our communities, we don't just change our bank balances. We change what's possible for everyone. We make wealth multidimensional, we make it equitable, and we make it ours. That's what it means to be truly high net worth. And that's the future that we're building together. Well, that's it, my friends, for another episode of Disrupt Your Money. I hope you enjoyed this, and I can't wait to have another chat with you next week.