Sartorial Wealth’s Shiraz Ahmed, at Scotia Plaza in Toronto, says that high-net-worth Canadians may feel financially strapped because their wealth is tied up in assets that aren’t easily accessible, like homes and investment portfolios.Jenna Marie Wakani/The Globe and Mail
Everyday millionaires, with net worths of between US$1-million and US$5-million, are on the rise around the world.
According to a new report by UBS Global Wealth Management, stock market gains boosted global personal wealth by 10.8 per cent and brought the number of millionaires globally to 58 million individuals in 2025. In Canada, five per cent of the population now has a net worth of more than US$1-million, more than double the amount in 2015.
But many are feeling financially squeezed. A March survey by Leger on behalf of FP Canada found 43 per cent of Canadians were stressed about money – making it the leading source of stress for respondents.
Shiraz Ahmed, founder and chief executive officer of Sartorial Wealth in Mississauga, Ont., says he believes a key factor in this contradiction is that Canadians’ wealth tends to be concentrated in assets that aren’t easily accessible: their homes or their investment portfolios.
“On paper you’re seeing people who have higher net worths, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into their paycheque and how they feel from a cash-flow standpoint in living their day-to-day lives,” Mr. Ahmed says. “You have your wealth in assets that have been going up in value, but you don’t access that value until much later or when you liquidate.”
Another factor is the post-COVID acceleration in the cost of living. Even though inflation has cooled and the housing market is far from the frenetic peak of 2022, “the damage is done,” he says.
Sun Life Canada’s 2026 financial stress survey reported three in five Canadians are concerned about the rising cost of everyday expenses like groceries, half about oil, gas and energy prices, 44 per cent about having enough savings to retire, and 39 per cent about housing affordability. And a recent report from BMO found that on average, Canadians believe they need $1.7-million to retire comfortably.
Elke Rubach, president of Rubach Wealth in Toronto, says lifestyle inflation and a social pressure to keep up with the Joneses also play a role. People may feel they need to enrol their kids in a pricey private school, buy a larger home and travel more. She adds that providing financial help to adult children or aging parents can add to that strain.
“As your income grows, the expectations tend to grow alongside it,” she says.
An ‘existential crisis’ for the wealthy
In his 2025 book The Wealth Ladder, Nick Maggiulli, a financial advisor and chief operating officer at Ritholtz Wealth Management in New York City, divided American households into six wealth levels ranging from those with less than $10,000 in household net worth to those with more than $100-million.
The fourth level, those in the upper middle class with household net worths of $1-million to $10-million, has jumped from just 7 per cent of the U.S. in 1989 to 18 per cent in 2023. And according to Mr. Maggiulli, they’re going through an “existential crisis.”
In a July 2025 blog post, he wrote that airport lounges are packed, home prices remain elevated and vacations have evolved into “cutthroat competitions” because the economy wasn’t built to accommodate so many wealthy people.
“People that have worked incredibly hard to get ahead are discovering that the lifestyle may not be what they had hoped,” Mr. Maggiulli wrote, adding that he finds himself in this boat. While he lives comfortably, his lifestyle isn’t lavish. He doesn’t need to worry about grocery costs and eats out at nice restaurants on occasion, but he still flies coach and rents his apartment.
“Yes, money can bring peace of mind, security and many other great things, but it doesn’t buy as much as you think,” he wrote.
In an April blog post, Mr. Maggiulli wrote that the best way to escape the upper-middle-class “trap” of overpaying for signifiers of wealth such as private schools, homes, premium travel experiences and more is to “stop participating in it altogether.” More competition drives up the prices for these premium products and services, but research has found that most have little to no long-term benefit on someone’s quality of life.
How to reduce financial fears
Ms. Rubach says the first step to feeling more financially secure is getting clear on where the money is going every month. Once people take a closer look at their spending, they often realize they’re spending on “stupid stuff or creeping expenses, those memberships you never use,” she says. While it might sound implausible, $1,000 to $5,000 could easily be “going out the window” every month.
It’s also common among the upper middle class to have “accounts everywhere,” Ms. Rubach says, and multiple professionals such as financial and investment advisors, accountants and lawyers working for them. That complexity can make it hard to understand your wealth and creates anxiety. She recommended trying to establish more coordination between those professionals and better integrate all assets into one clear financial picture.
Mr. Ahmed says that people should check in with their short-, medium- and long-term financial goals and determine whether they’re on track to meet them. If it still feels like there is a shortfall, he recommends considering whether there’s an opportunity to earn more. That might mean investing in education to reach the next rung of the career ladder, negotiating for a raise or starting a side hustle to bring in more revenue.
He points out that a segment of the upper-middle-class cohort is ultra-high-income earners who have amassed wealth but have still found it difficult to buy in some of the country’s hottest housing markets. As a result, Mr. Ahmed says he’s seen people pouring far more money into the stock market out of a belief that they can’t get into housing market.
“We want to make sure they’re not doing it at the expense of the potential to be a homeowner,” he says. “If homeownership was a goal that feels temporarily out of reach, it might be just that. By doing these other things, just keep in mind that if there’s still a goal, you want to plan for it, and [make sure] your cash flows, your budgeting and your financial planning is accounting for that being a priority.”
Ms. Rubach says she believes the disconnect people are feeling between their wealth on paper and their feelings of financial insecurity often come down to not knowing what amount of money is enough to meet their needs and goals.
“True wealth is not an investment account, it’s knowing you can support the life you want to live. Your kids are fine, you’re no burden on anyone, and everything’s taken care of,” she says. “[You] want the reassurance that you’re going to be fine.”