The David Lin Report · Saturday, August 1, 2026
The University of Michigan survey collects household income data but not a precise net wealth measure, relying instead on proxies like stock ownership and home value. While not a direct measure of net worth, stock holdings provide a decent indication for classifying consumers by wealth level.
“Yes. So we ask people what their household income is.”
“Um, but we do get, I think, a pretty decent proxy. Um, we have, we ask people if they own a risky asset like stocks, and then we ask them the size of their portfolio.”
“So, that's I think a little easier to answer than, you know, than giving us your entire net worth.”