Someone who got a good middle class start, went into the right career, and had everything work out pretty well (no major financial misfortune or an injury or sick family member) while saving responsibly, can become a millionaire in a few decades today. They can probably afford a nice house, which their kids can carve up to have their own nice middle class start.
This group of people is still insanely privileged but it is nothing on the obnoxious levels of real inherited wealth in the upper crust.
What's different today is that inflation and high taxes have wrecked the middle class. The truly rich are the $100M and billionaire types whose wealth has run away from the rest of the people. Almost none of the truly wealthy are that way because they were smart (merit) only a few are. The rest . got rich either because they were lucky or because of some angle they could exploit such as favorable connections or regulatory capture. Above them, Old Money rules the world by at least one order of magnitude.
This doesn't explain everyone in your category, though, so a portion suck at saving.
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2011/12/16/well-of-...
https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/comments/1v4t18/it_is_ex...
The 57% figure is much more illustrative, in large part because it conveys an absolute capability which people can lose or acquire.
It would be pretty weird to have <$500 in checking at the same time as 5-6 figures in retirement + home equity, but possible. It helps that 401k is a payroll deduction and there's really no bargaining with yourself on whether to pay the mortgage this month (whereas it's easy to splurge instead of saving extra cash).
You can also loan against 401k (though there are limits, but if you have it for a while loaning $500 would not be a problem, though again fees could make it a bad deal). Advantage is that while you lose the growth for the time of the loan, you are paying interest to yourself, not somebody else.
Yes. Low-paying jobs at Wal-mart and Lowes and some gas stations offer a 401k. The contributions are tiny because the checks are tiny but the company usually contributes as well. These folks aren't as likely to have access to credit.
I'll put this as well: If you are looking to take $500 from your 401k outside of those groups, I'm gonna guess things have gone horribly wrong. Getting a new credit card might be a bit tough because your credit is probably already showing the hurt.
> If you are looking to take $500 from your 401k outside of those groups, I'm gonna guess things have gone horribly wrong
Yes, probably, but the question was is it possible, when the things go horribly wrong. I still think if you have 401k that should be possible.
A median-income household is unlikely to own a median-price house for a reason very similar to the reason they are unlikely to own a median priced jet, because home ownership isn't uniformly distributed across income levels, as low income households are more likely than high income households to be renters, and high income households more likely to be homeowners (and to own multiple homes.)
If a median-income household owns a home, it is likely to be a singificantly-below-median-value home.
This shouldn't gel well with someone who values meritocracy/social mobility.
If millionaire parents are only twice as likely to have millionaire children I would be surprised.
Upbringing is important and I think children of millionaires are more likely to develop healthy spending habits.