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The rich are getting richer and income inequality is widening.
The top 1% of U.S. households controlled almost a third (31.9%) of the nation’s wealth in Q4 2025, according to Federal Reserve data (1). Of those, the top 0.01% — the richest of the rich — controlled a whopping 14.5%.
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This worries former trader-turned-economist Gary Stevenson, who was a guest on a recent episode of The Prof G Pod, hosted by Scott Galloway.
“What I see is rapidly growing inequality of wealth,” Stevenson told Galloway on the podcast (2). He added that this is “directly causing rapidly increasing poverty [and] rapidly falling living standards.”
The result? “Your kids will be poorer than you,” he says.
In his view, one of the big problems is that while the billionaire class is rising, the middle class is shrinking. “People need to understand that we do not live in an infinite sum world and you cannot have a group of people who own everything unless you and your group of people own nothing,” he said.
While wealth taxes, estate taxes and stricter tax enforcement could potentially reverse this trend, what can the average American do when the cards seem stacked against them?
Growing income inequality
If it feels like life is less affordable these days, it’s not just your imagination.
In terms of labor share, which is the percentage of total output that American workers take home, it fell to 54.1% — making it the lowest level recorded since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics started keeping this data in 1947 (3). Meanwhile, U.S. households in the top 1% gained at least 101 times more wealth than the median household between 1989 and 2022, according to a 2025 Oxfam report (4).
And that gap is expected to widen. Tax reforms in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, for example, are estimated to reduce the tax bill of the highest-earning 0.1% by roughly $311,000 in 2027, while the lowest-income households are expected to face tax increases (5).
The report describes this as the “single largest transfer of wealth upwards in decades.”
Tax cuts aren’t the only reason for this growing disparity. Income inequality has “skyrocketed” over the past three-and-a-half decades due to “intentional policy choices that suppressed wages for typical families to accelerate income growth at the top,” according to the Economic Policy Institute (6). By its calculations, middle-class household incomes “would be roughly $30,000 higher today if their incomes had simply kept pace with average income growth since 1979.”
At the same time, housing costs have risen faster than incomes (7), making the dream of homeownership harder to achieve for younger generations. And wages haven’t kept up with inflation (8), while education costs have basically doubled in the past 30 years (9) — leaving students with high levels of debt when they enter the workforce, while simultaneously worrying about being replaced by AI (10).
Read More: Non-millionaires can now hoard property like the 1% — how to start with as little as $100
Is your financial plan ready?
As younger generations face an uncertain future, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise that 61% of those aged 18 to 35 years experience financial anxiety, according to a 2025 consumer survey by Intuit (11).
While policy changes and tax reforms could help, there’s no certainty about when or if that will happen, meaning that younger generations may want to take matters into their own hands. In fact, it could be good for their mental health: The same survey by Intuit found that well over half (58%) of respondents said they improved their quality of life by actively managing their finances.
To start, a general rule of thumb is to set aside 15% to 20% of your gross income each month for savings and investments. This rule is one part of the 50/30/20 strategy, which allots 50% to needs, 30% to wants and the rest to savings, investments and debt repayment. However, there are several variations of this rule, so it’s important to find a strategy that works for you.
And if you don’t even know where to begin, a financial advisor can help you develop a plan to get to your goals while weathering economic ups and downs. Hiring one sooner rather than later could pay off in the long run as well: Research from Envestnet shows that those who worked with financial advisors saw returns 3% higher than those who didn’t (12).
Consulting an expert
Finding a reliable advisor near you is now easier than ever with Advisor.com, which connects you with an expert near you for free.
Advisor.com does the heavy lifting for you, vetting advisors based on track record, client ratios and regulatory background. Plus, their network comprises fiduciaries, who are legally required to act in your best interests.
Just enter a few details about your finances and goals, and Advisor.com’s AI-powered matching tool will connect you with a qualified expert best-suited for your needs based on your unique financial goals and preferences.
Finding the right advisor isn’t always easy — there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. That’s why Advisor.com lets you set up a free initial consultation, with no obligation to hire, to see if they’re the right fit for you.
Getting out of debt
With an advisor at your side, a next step might be to pay off some of your debts. But this isn’t always straightforward, as there are a number of strategies that can help you, including the avalanche method (pay off the debt with the highest interest first) and the snowball method (pay off the smallest debt first).
Choosing the right one could depend on not only your goals but also your temperament. However, if you have multiple high-interest debts and are struggling to pay them off no matter which strategy you employ, consolidating all your debts into a single personal loan through Credible could be an effective way to get rid of your debt faster. That way, instead of juggling multiple monthly payments, you’ll have one predictable payment to manage each month.
Through Credible’s online marketplace, finding the right loan becomes much simpler. Credible lets you comparison-shop for the lowest interest rates with just a few clicks. In less than three minutes, you’ll see all the lenders willing to help pay off your credit cards or other debts with a single personal loan.
If you owe a substantial amount, you may also want to see if you qualify for a debt relief program to help clear a significant portion of your debt.
With Freedom Debt Relief, you can speak with a certified debt relief consultant for free, who can show you how much you can save by partnering with them.
If you’re eligible, they can negotiate settlements with your creditors until all of your enrolled debt is resolved.
Keeping a cash buffer
Once you’ve started on paying down your debts, financial experts generally recommend keeping an emergency fund with enough cash to cover at least three to six months of living expenses.
Especially in an economy where layoffs, inflation and surprise expenses can pop up without warning, a rainy day fund can provide both financial protection and a little extra peace of mind. For instance, that cushion can make all the difference if you suddenly lose your job, face a medical bill or get hit with an expensive home or car repair.
Instead of turning to high-interest credit cards or personal loans, you’ll have a financial safety net already in place.
A high-yield account like a Wealthfront Cash Account can be a great place to grow your uninvested cash, offering both competitive interest rates and easy access to your money when you need it.
A Wealthfront Cash Account currently offers a base APY of 3.30% through program banks, and new clients can get an extra 0.75% boost during their first three months on up to $150,000 for a total variable APY of 4.05%.
That’s ten times the national deposit savings rate, according to the FDIC’s March report.
Additionally, Wealthfront is offering new clients who enable direct deposit ($1,000/mo minimum) to their Cash Account and open and fund a new investment account an additional 0.25% APY increase with no expiration date or balance limit, meaning your APY could be as high as 4.30%.
With no minimum balances or account fees, as well as 24/7 withdrawals and free domestic wire transfers, your funds remain accessible at all times. Plus, you get access to up to $8M FDIC Insurance eligibility through program banks.
Planting the investment seeds
While an emergency fund, even one that makes use of a high-interest account, is a great start toward financial security, it doesn’t build wealth like investing. But with inflation rising once again, many are finding it challenging to save even small amounts for investments.
That statement is especially true these days, as inflation outpaced wage growth for the first time in three years this April (13), with inflation rising by 3.8% year over year but wages rising by just 3.6% (14).
However, you don’t need to save huge sums at once to start your investment journey. Small, consistent contributions can steadily grow over time through compounding. For instance, investing $20 each week for 30 years can help you save over $179,000, assuming it compounds at 10% annually (15).
If those kinds of returns are too tempting to pass up, platforms like Acorns allow you to turn your spare change from everyday purchases into an investment opportunity.
It works like this: All you have to do is link your cards, and Acorns will round up each purchase to the nearest dollar, investing the difference — your spare change — into a diversified portfolio managed by experts at leading investment firms like Vanguard and BlackRock.
For instance, if you buy a donut for $3.25, Acorns will round up the purchase to $4 and invest the change in a smart investment portfolio. So a $3.25 purchase automatically becomes a 75-cent investment in your future.
Signing up only takes a few minutes, and if you do it today, you get a $20 bonus investment.
Taking advantage of retirement-focused accounts
Investing isn’t just about picking stocks, though, it’s about putting money into retirement accounts like your 401(k), 403(b) or IRAs. And if you’re eligible for an employer match, you might want to try contributing at least enough to get the full match. Plus, if those contributions are automatically deducted from your paycheck, you’ll probably be less tempted to spend them.
But smart investing also means avoiding the temptation to put all your eggs into one basket, especially in a market that’s been anything but predictable lately. A diversified portfolio that includes lower-risk assets can help protect your finances when markets swing wildly.
Gold has historically been one of the go-to assets during turbulent times. Because it doesn’t typically rise and fall in tandem with stocks or bonds, gold can act as a useful hedge against inflation, market volatility and global instability.
One way to invest in gold that also provides significant tax advantages is to open a gold IRA with the help of Priority Gold.
Gold IRAs allow investors to hold physical gold or gold-related assets within a retirement account, which combines the tax advantages of an IRA with the protective benefits of investing in gold, making it an attractive option for those looking to potentially hedge their retirement funds against economic uncertainty.
To learn more, you can get a free information guide that includes details on how to get up to $10,000 in free silver on qualifying purchases.
— With files from Vawn Himmelsbach
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Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System(1); @TheProfGPod(2); U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (3); Oxfam America(4),(5); Economic Policy Institute(6),(8); National Mortgage Professional(7); NPR(9); Gallup(10); Intuit(11); Envestnet (12); CNN (13); MarketWatch (14); Acorns (15)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
