By MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — As a child, Heidi Barley watched her family pay for groceries with food stamps. As a college student, she dropped out because she couldn’t afford tuition. In her twenties, already scraping by, she was forced to take a pay cut that shrunk her salary to just $34,000 a year.

But this summer, the 41-year-old hit a milestone that long felt out of reach: She became a millionaire.

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A surging number of everyday Americans now boast a seven-figure net worth once the domain of celebrities and CEOs. But as the ranks of millionaires grow fatter, the significance of the status is shifting alongside perceptions of what it takes to be truly rich.

“Millionaire used to sound like Rich Uncle Pennybags in a top hat,” says Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital Advisors, a wealth management firm in El Segundo, California. “It’s no longer a backstage pass to palatial estates and caviar bumps. It’s the new mass-affluent middleweight class, financially secure but two zeros short of private-jet territory.”

Inflation, ballooning home values and a decades-long push into stock markets by average investors have lifted millions into millionairehood. A June report from Swiss bank UBS found about one-tenth of American adults are members of the seven-digit club, with 1,000 freshly minted millionaires added daily last year.

Thirty years ago, the IRS counted 1.6 million Americans with a net worth of $1 million or more. UBS — using data from the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and central banks of countries around the globe — put the number at 23.8 million in the U.S. last year, a nearly 15-fold increase.

The expanding ranks of millionaires come as the gulf between rich and poor widens. The richest 10% of Americans hold two-thirds of household wealth, according to the Federal Reserve, averaging $8.1 million each. The bottom 50% hold 3% of wealth, with an average of just $60,000 to their names.

Federal Reserve data also shows there are differences by race. Asian people outpace white people in the U.S. in median wealth, while Black and Hispanic people trail in their net worth.

Barley was working as a journalist when her newspaper ended its pension program and she got a lump-sum payout of about $5,000. A colleague convinced her to invest it in a retirement account, and ever since, she’s stashed away whatever she could. The investments dipped at first during the Great Recession but eventually started growing. In time, she came to find catharsis in amassing savings, going home and checking her account balances when she had a tough day at work.

Last month, after one such day, she realized the moment had come.

“Did you know that we’re millionaires?” she asked her husband.

“Good job, honey,” Barley says he replied, unfazed.

It brought no immediate change. Like many millionaires, much of her wealth is in long-term investments and her home, not easy-to-access cash. She still lives in her modest Orlando, Florida, house, socks away half her paycheck, fills the napkin holder with takeout napkins and lines trash cans with grocery bags.

Still, Barley says it feels powerful to cross a threshold she never imagined reaching as a child.

“But it’s not as glamorous as the ideas in your head,” she says.

All wealth is relative. To thousandaires, $1 million is the stuff of dreams. To billionaires, it’s a rounding error. Either way, it takes twice as much cash today to match the buying power of 30 years ago.

A net worth of $1 million in 1995 is equivalent to about $2.1 million today, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A seven-figure net worth is, to some, as outdated a yardstick as a six-figure salary. Nonetheless, “millionaire” is peppered in everything from politics to popular music as shorthand for rich.

“It’s a nice round number but it’s a point in a longer journey,” says Dan Uden, a 41-year-old from Providence, Rhode Island, who works in information technology and who hit the million-dollar mark last month. “It definitely gives you some room to breathe.”

No other country comes close to the U.S. in the sheer number of millionaires, though relative to population, UBS found Switzerland and Luxembourg had higher rates.

Kenneth Carow, a finance professor at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, says commonalities emerge among today’s millionaires. The vast majority own stocks and a home. Most live below their means. They value education and teach financial responsibility to their children.

“The dream of becoming a millionaire,” Carow says, “has become more obtainable.”

Jim Wang, 45, a software engineer-turned finance blogger from Fulton, Maryland, says even if hitting $1 million was essentially “a non-event” for him and his wife, it still held weight for him as the son of immigrants who saved money by turning the heat off on winter nights.

Jim Wang, a software engineer and finance blogger, records a video in his home office, Thursday, July 24, 2025, in Fulton. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

The private jets he envisioned as a kid may not have materialized at the million-dollar threshold, but he still sees it as a marker that brings a certain level of security.

“It’s possible, even with a regular job,” he says. “You just have to be diligent and consistent.”

The resilience of financial markets and the ease of investing in broad-based, low-fee index funds has fueled the balances of many millionaires who don’t earn massive salaries or inherit family fortunes.

Among them is a burgeoning community of younger millionaires born out of the movement known as FIRE, for Financial Independence Retire Early.

Jason Breck, 48, of Fishers, Indiana, embraced FIRE and reached the million-dollar mark nine years ago. He promptly quit his job in automotive marketing, where he generally earned around $60,000 a year but managed to stow away around 70% of his pay.

Jason Breck and Daravy Khiev work in their home, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Fishers, Ind. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Now, Breck and his wife spend several months a year traveling. Despite being retired, they continue to grow their balance by sticking to a tight budget and keeping expenses to $1,500 a month when they’re in the U.S and a few hundred dollars more when they travel.

Hitting their goal hasn’t translated to luxury. There is no lawn crew to cut the grass, no Netflix or Amazon Prime, no Uber Eats. They fly economy. They drive a 2005 Toyota.

“It’s not a golden ticket like it was in the past,” Breck says. “For us, a million dollars buys us freedom and peace of mind. We’re not yacht rich, but for us, we’re time rich.”

By PHILIP MARCELO and ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that a gunman who killed four people at a Manhattan office building was trying to target the headquarters of the National Football League but took the wrong elevator.

Investigators believe Shane Tamura was trying to get to the NFL offices after shooting several people in the building’s lobby but accidentally entered the wrong set of elevator banks, Adams said in interviews on Tuesday.

A New York police officer talks with a woman as she exits a Manhattan office building where four people were killed including a police officer, Monday, July 28, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Four people, including an off-duty New York City police officer, were killed. Police said Tamura had a history of mental illness, and a rambling note found on his body suggested he had a grievance against the NFL over an unsubstantiated claim that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy. He had played football in high school in California nearly two decades ago.

The note claimed he had been suffering from CTE — the degenerative brain disease that has been linked to concussions and other repeated head trauma common in contact sports like football — and said his brain should be studied after he died, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

It also specifically referenced the National Football League, the person said.

A motive has not been determined but investigators were looking into, based on the note, whether he might’ve specifically targeted the building because it is home to the NFL’s headquarters.

The shooting took place at a skyscraper that is home to the headquarters of both the NFL and Blackstone, one of the world’s largest investment firms, as well as other tenants.

A New York police officer stands watch on 52nd Street outside a Manhattan office building where at least two people were shot, including a police officer, Monday, July 28, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

A message sent to Blackstone employees, and obtained by The Associated Press, said a staff member at the private equity firm was killed in Monday’s shooting, but their identity was not immediately released.

Surveillance video showed the man exiting a double-parked BMW just before 6:30 p.m. carrying an M4 rifle, then marching across a public plaza into the building. Then, he started firing, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said, killing a police officer working a corporate security detail and then hitting a woman who tried to take cover as he sprayed the lobby with gunfire.

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The man then made his way to the elevator bank and shot a guard at a security desk and shot another man in the lobby, the commissioner said.

The man took the elevator to the 33rd floor offices of the company that owned the building, Rudin Management, and shot and killed one person on that floor. The man then shot himself, the commissioner said. The building, 345 Park Avenue, also holds offices of the financial services firm KPMG.

The officer killed was Didarul Islam, 36, an immigrant from Bangladesh who had served as a police officer in New York City for 3 1/2 years, Tisch said at a news conference.

“He was doing the job that we asked him to do. He put himself in harm’s way. He made the ultimate sacrifice,” Tisch said. “He died as he lived. A hero.”

By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s become tradition. Congressional leaders from both major political parties blame each other for a potential government shutdown as the budget year draws to a close.

But this year, the posturing is starting extraordinarily early.

The finger-pointing with more than two months to go in the fiscal year indicates the threat of a stoppage is more serious than usual as a Republican-controlled Congress seeks to make good on its policy priorities, often with no support from the other political party.

Democratic leadership from both chambers and the two panels responsible for drafting spending bills met behind closed doors recently to discuss the strategy ahead. The leaders emerged demanding that Republicans work with them but were careful to avoid spelling out red lines if Republicans don’t.

“We are for a bipartisan, bicameral bill. That’s what always has been done,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. “The onus is on the Republicans to help us make that happen.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., looks over notes as Senate Republicans work to cancel $9.4 billion in previously approved spending targeted by DOGE, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

On the Republican side, lawmakers describe the Democrats as itching for a shutdown. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Schumer had threatened a shutdown should Republicans pass a bill to roll back $9 billion in public broadcasting and foreign aid funds. Republicans subsequently passed those cuts.

“It was disturbing to see the Democratic leader implicitly threatening to shut down the government in his July ‘Dear Colleague’ letter, but I’m hopeful that he does not represent the views of Senate Democrats as a whole,” Thune said.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., joined at left by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the GOP whip, speaks to reporters following closed-door strategy meetings, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Where things stand on government funding

The federal government is operating on a full-year continuing resolution that provided about $1.7 trillion in spending for defense and non-defense programs. The funding expires Sept. 30.

President Donald Trump requested a comparable amount for the coming fiscal year, but the Republican proposed dramatically overhauling how that money is distributed to include more for defense and border security and significantly less for health, education, housing and foreign assistance.

So far, the House has approved two of the 12 annual spending bills. The Senate has yet to approve any, but those bills that have advanced out of the Senate Appropriations Committee are enjoying bipartisan support while the House bills are generally advancing out of committee on party line votes.

This week, the Senate is expected to consider the appropriations bill to fund military construction projects and the Department of Veterans Affairs, generally one of the easier spending bills to pass. One or two others could get added to the package.

Congress got off to a late start on the funding process. Republicans prioritized Trump’s tax and spending cut bill. Most lawmakers agree Congress will need to pass a stop-gap measure before Sept. 30 to avoid a shutdown and allow lawmakers more time to work on the full-year spending measures.

The view from Democrats

Democrats overwhelmingly opposed this year’s funding bill that expires in two months. But in the end, Schumer and nine Democratic colleagues decided a government shutdown would be even worse. They voted to allow the bill to proceed and overcome a filibuster, giving Republicans the ability to pass it on their own on a final vote.

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Schumer took considerable heat from progressives for his strategy. House Democratic leadership issued a statement at the time saying “House Democrats will not be complicit.” And members of his own caucus publicly expressed disagreement.

“If we pass this continuing resolution for the next half year, we will own what the president does,” said Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. “I am not willing to take ownership of that.”

Some liberal groups threatened to hold protests at various events Schumer was planning to promote a new book, and some of those events ended up being postponed due to security concerns.

The Democratic frustrations have only grown stronger in the ensuing months.

First, the Democrats watched the Trump administration slow-walk or block hundreds of billions of dollars from going out in part through the work of its Department of Government Efficiency. Then they watched as Republicans passed Trump’s big tax and spending cut bill without any Democratic votes.

Finally, they watched as Republicans this month canceled $9 billion in foreign aid and public broadcasting funds when much of it had been previously agreed to on a bipartisan basis.

Meanwhile, Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, declared that the appropriations process “has to be less bipartisan.”

Democrats complain that much of the work taking place in the House has been a waste of time, since those partisan bills have no chance of getting 60 votes in the 100-member Senate.

“At this point in time, why have appropriations if they can just unilaterally through rescissions whack it all away?” said Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill. “I think what you’re seeing is more frustration than I’ve ever witnessed.”

Republicans position for impasse

Republicans control all the levers of power in Washington. That could make it harder to blame Democrats for a shutdown. But in the end, any bill will need some Democratic support to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

“Our concern is that from their standpoint, they want to have a shutdown,” Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said of Democrats. “… The Democrats see it as a way to derail the agenda that we’re putting through.”

Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 2-ranked Republican in the Senate, said Republicans were determined to hold votes on the 12 spending bills. He said that Schumer “had unilaterally shut down the appropriations process” in previous years by not holding such votes, moving instead to negotiate directly with GOP leadership in the House and then-President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration on an all-encompassing spending package.

“If Democrats walk away from this process again, simply to protect wasteful Washington spending,” Barrasso said, “they will be the ones sabotaging the Senate and shutting down the government.”

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is expected to leave its short-term interest rate unchanged on Wednesday for the fifth straight meeting, a move that will likely underscore the deep divide between how Chair Jerome Powell and his chief critic, President Donald Trump, see the economy.

The Fed itself, to be sure, is increasingly divided over its next steps, and many economists expect that two members of the Fed’s governing board — both appointed by Trump — could dissent on Wednesday in favor of cutting rates. If so, that would be the first time two governors vote against the chair since 1993.

President Donald Trump, left, reaches for a document of cost figures as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell watches during a visit to the Federal Reserve, Thursday, July 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Even so, the gap between the views of the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee, chaired by Powell, and the White House is unusually large. In several areas, Trump’s views sharply contrast with that of the Fed’s leadership, setting up likely clashes for years to come, even after Powell’s term as chair ends in May 2026.

For example, Trump says that because the U.S. economy is doing well, the Fed should cut rates, as if the U.S. is a blue-chip company that should pay less to borrow than a risky start-up.

But Fed officials — and nearly all economists — see it the other way: A solid economy means rates should be relatively high, to prevent overheating and a burst of inflation.

“I’d argue that our interest rates are higher because our economy’s doing fairly well, not in spite of it,” said Gennadiy Goldberg, head of U.S. rates strategy at TD Securities.

Trump argues that the Fed in general and Powell in particular are costing U.S. taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars in interest payments by not reducing borrowing costs. Yet Fed officials don’t think it’s their job to reduce rates the government pays on Treasury notes and bonds.

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Most economists worry that if they did, they would risk failing at one of the key jobs Congress gave them: fighting inflation.

“It’s using monetary policy to ease pressure on fiscal policymakers, and that way points to higher inflation and bigger problems down the road,” said William English, an economist at the Yale School of Management and former senior Fed staffer.

If financial markets see that the Fed is focused on keeping borrowing costs low to help the government — rather than focusing on its congressionally-mandated goals of stable prices and maximum employment — Wall Street investors, worried about future inflation, will likely demand higher interest rates to hold Treasury bonds, economists say, pushing up borrowing costs across the economy.

For his part, Trump says there is “no inflation” and so the Fed should reduce its short-term rate, currently at about 4.3%, which was ramped up in 2022 and 2023 to fight rising prices. The Fed’s rate often — but not always — influences longer-term borrowing costs for mortgages, car loans, and credit cards.

Inflation has fallen sharply and as a result Fed officials have signaled they will cut rates by as much as a half-percentage point this year. Yet it has picked up a bit in the last two months and many of those policymakers, including Powell, still want to make sure that tariffs aren’t going to lift inflation much higher before they make a move.

Inflation accelerated to 2.7% in June from 2.4% in May, the government said earlier this month, above the Fed’s 2% target. Core prices, which exclude the volatile food and energy categories, rose to 2.9% from 2.8%.

Last week, Trump and several White House officials ramped up their attacks on Powell over rates. They also criticized the ballooning costs of the Fed’s renovation of two of its buildings, raising questions over whether the president was looking to fire Powell for cause rather than policy differences.

Trump and Powell engaged in an extraordinary on-camera confrontation over the cost of the project during Trump’s visit to the building site last Thursday. On Monday, Trump was more restrained in his comments on the Fed during a joint appearance in London with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

“I’m not going to say anything bad,” Trump said. “We’re doing so well, even without the rate cut.”

But he added, “a smart person would cut.”

Some economists expect that the Fed will reduce its key rate by a quarter-point in September, rather than July, and say that the two-month delay will make little difference to the economy.

Yet beyond just the timing of the first cut, there is still a huge gulf between what Trump wants and what the Fed will even consider doing: Fed officials in June penciled in just two reductions this year and one in 2026. They forecast that their key rate will still be 3.6% at the end of next year. Trump is pushing them to cut it to just 1%.

“That’s not going to happen with anything like the current people on the committee,” English said.

Wall Street investors also expect relatively few cuts: Two this year and two in 2026, according to futures pricing tracked by CME’s Fedwatch.

According to the Fed’s projections, just two officials in June supported three cuts this year, likely Trump’s appointments from his first term: governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman.

Waller gave a speech earlier this month supporting a rate reduction in July, but for a very different reason than Trump: He is worried the economy is faltering.

“The economy is still growing, but its momentum has slowed significantly, and the risks” of rising unemployment “have increased,” Waller said.

Waller has also emphasized that tariffs will create just a one-time bump in prices but won’t lead to ongoing inflation.

Yet most Fed officials see the job market as relatively healthy — with unemployment at a low 4.1% — and that as a result, they can take time to make sure that’s how everything plays out.

“Continued overall solid economic conditions enable the Fed to take the time to carefully assess the wide range of incoming data,” said Susan Collins, president of the Boston Federal Reserve. “Thus, in my view, an ‘actively patient’ approach to monetary policy remains appropriate at this time.”