“Wealth” isn’t a matter of earned income. You can get “rich” off working, if you’re smart and frugal, but true wealth takes at least one generation. Hell, even Bill Gates started merely “rich”.
Anyway, my top pay was $82K American. Even after $1,400/mo. child support, I could basically do whatever I wanted, good enough, live a simple life. I should add, I have a Habitat for Humanity mortgage, small house, big yard, no interest or taxes, $575/mo. My truck was paid in cash, 2004 F150, beat to hell, runs great, Millennium Falcon of trucks.
Unemployed now, but working Lowe’s got me <$30K. After child support took half, and my body was breaking into pieces with no insurance, had to quit. (They call Outside Lawn and Garden in the spring “100 days of hell”.) I was bringing home ~$500 bi-weekly. I can pick free crap off the road and sell if for more than that.
My wife and I combined will make about $220k USD this year. We will spend about $120k and save about $80k and pay about $20k in taxes. We have 2 kids in elementary school.
We don’t have to worry about money, and that does make me feel wealthy. I am self employed and I work about 25 hours a week, and that makes for a pretty chill life.
That said, no I’m not wealthy by any standard aside from quality-of-life. We have two cars but they are 10 and 13 years old. We have a nice house in a nice area and we are lucky for that, but it is 60 years old, has a fuse box instead of circuit breakers, and is deteriorating faster than I can motivate myself to fix it.
Enough to be able to save 25% of my income and not be in want. I’m wealthy enough.
60k/yr
I’m the income in my household
I feel poor as shit, we live frugally but still barely get by
Savings are not possible
I make about 135K but I’m 40. I feel wealthy. But my family/friends/girlfriends all think I’m living barely above poverty level and tell me that I am a ‘not doing well at life’ or claim ‘you lack any drive for success at life.’
It’s weird af.
I feel like income needs to be divorced from spending and wealth. If you’re not in want and can save with your salary, you’re wealthier than someone with four times your income and yet is still drowning in debt.
You might just have “the wrong friends”. Not really wrong, but theres a certain kind of personality where theres no such thing as enough.
You have to be gunning for the next promotion. You have to be monitoring your index funds. You have to be considering switching financial advisors. You have to be finding a way to monetise your hobby. You have to follow the trends to make sure you have the car that says you’re the man for the job. You cant just buy one house to live in, you have to start a portfolio of properties.
It sounds properly exhausting.
I would feel extremely wealthy with 135k. That’s 250% of my salary, and I already feel like I’m able to save a bunch each month. You must live in a big city to make that much, if you’re just an employee.
where i live people think anything less than 500k/yr is not doing well.
That’s absolutely insane. That’s almost my yearly income every month. Disgusting amounts of money lol.
But that kind of cash is surely not expected of an employee, right? That’s CEO of a small to medium sized company kinds of cash.
nah most people in my city think making 250K a year is ‘barely getting by’ like that other poster. our local subreddit would have posts claiming that a single person needed a minimum of 200K+ to be ‘comfortable’. I was ‘comfortable’ living here on 50K (savings, retirement, healthcare, going out regularly, etc)… and that was only 6 years ago. and tons of people who were making 500K a year screaming how unfair and impoverished they were because they couldn’t afford 40ft boats or seven figure homes on the water. and getting heavily upvoted.
by buy ‘barely getting by’ they usually mean a giant suburban house, two luxury cars, expensive vacations, and a second home. people seem to think anyone who isn’t a millionaire by 35 is a failure at life. a lot of the people I meet often make same/less than me buy spend WAY more than I do. Like 15K on traveling per year easily.
I grew up poor though. I didn’t grow up in a big rich suburban house w/ a vacation home… like many people who live here and feel poor.
Sounds like an absolutely insufferable place to live. WTF lol
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Must be a very high cost of living area. I make less and am definitely comfortable.
I don’t think you would feel wealthy at that level. You would quickly find many things to spend the extra money on and so you would still be just as short at the end of the month. You wouldn’t notice a bigger house, nicer car (the most likely things to spend the money on), or whatever else you buy. You might save a little more, but you would find plenty to spending money on - just like everyone else.
The worse case would be if you income suddenly jumps that much - the vast majority who that happens to spend more than the change thinking they don’t have to worry.
At some point everyone does hit a limit where they no longer can think of anything more to spend money on. That point is different for everyone, but I suggest it is probably more than 10 million/year. (even your big name CEOs mostly don’t make that much!)
Maybe the average person. I am extremely good at saving money and have several programmed spreadsheets dedicated to my family’s budget, even after my salary jumped significantly.
I practically doubled my life savings this week after inheriting some of my grandmother’s money. Straight to savings! ☝️🏦
But yeah, I can see it happening to the average person.
Good for you. Just don’t forget that money saved when you die was wasted time at work when you could have retired early. Of course you don’t know how long you will live so some leftover is guarenteed - but don’t overdo it (unless work is you life I guess)
Sure. But I also have kids, so any money I save also goes to them upon my death, and/or my grandkids if I will have any. But thanks for the tip.
By the statistics, I’m pretty sure that puts you in the top 10%, at least. Edit: Nah, just top 20%, at least as a household.
The thing is that until they literally own a private jet most people will assume they’re average or middle class (even in this thread). It’s like a psychological defense. You’re probably getting information out of a bubble.
By the statistics, I’m pretty sure that puts you in the top 10%, at least. Edit: Nah, just top 20%. My bad.
If you want to control for age, $135K/year at 40 is the 83rd percentile for individual income in the US.
Nice! Actually, I wonder if my source was using post-tax income, as well. Although OP didn’t specify.
Seems wealthy to me, but I guess it all depends on circumstances. Probably wouldn’t be wealthy if you have to support a large family and live in Silicon Valley.
America? What city do you live in, that’s a great salary.
Just ignore them and enjoy life
So just never socialize with anyone?
That’s not what I said
In Dublin, household brings in about 150k euros altogether. I do not feel wealthy, closer to poor. The way inflation has raised up the price of everything is maddening. Lots of money comes in but then goes right back out!
Economic wealth is when your money works for you. If you have to work for your money, you’re not wealthy.
This is what I tell my wife when she calls us “wealthy”. We make great money, but we still need to work. I’m not complaining, I have a great situation. “Wealth” implies generational wealth. “Rich”? Maybe, since we can afford things. No second house, a nice trip or two a year. I have some money working for me but not enough to live off it exclusively. That’s the goal though.
Is this an actual definition or yours? What’s the difference between wealthy and rich?
That’s the difference as I’ve seen it for a few decades. I was 25 or so and my 40-yo roommate set me straight when I called some rich people “wealthy”.
There’s no hard line, no actual number, but I’ve gone with what OP stated.
Maybe another way of looking at it. “Wealthy” means you can’t lose it except in case of colossal, and continuing, fuck ups. And past a certain point, apparently losing isn’t even possible. (Looking at you Elon.)
“Rich” means you don’t have to worry about money, not a tiny bit, but you have to be wise enough to hang onto it. At that stage, it’s not a matter of spending, it’s a matter of warding off the thieves and scammers after your bank 💵.
Worked for a rich family. They weren’t cheap in running the business, not holding themselves back kinda cheap, but they were extremely cautious. Anyway, the kids will be the third gen and they always blow it. :)
This is my extrapolation of economic realities.
I am not an economist however.
Its weird to me that while I make twice as much as I did before college I feel not that much wealthier, since I now have to pay more for insurance, student loans, rent hikes to live in a hcol area, more is drawn out in my 401k, and I’ve spent five figures in medical expenses in that timeframe.
It is easy to spend in a way to feel poor at every level I guess, at least below the millionaire tier. I am not poor but I check my bank account constantly anyway and I have lots of big purchase anxiety.
Nice try digital profiling company.
I make enough that I don’t have to worry about things, but I had shit pay for long enough that I still don’t LIKE spending a lot of money.
$2,300 dentist bill? Fine. I can pay it, but I’m not HAPPY about it. Even after the HSA card, it was still $600 in “real” money.
Same. I come from a 3rd world country so spending is always something you have to think very hard about. I’m currently living relatively comfortably yet still live frugally. Big bills still sting even if I can afford it. I spent around the same in 2 years to fix all my teeth with insurance paying the rest (80%), and even that felt too expensive.
$250k annually, and we feel like we can afford not to worry as much as we used to, but not wealthy. We’re American.
My net income is about 30k€ a year. I took quite a pay cut going self-employed few years back so I’m barely making ends meet right now but I’m also working less and I’m much more satisfied with what I do. It’s likely that my job prospects will only improve from here so I’ll probably be doing better in few years.
I don’t really consider myself wealthy nor poor. My income isn’t that high but I have decent amount of savings and investments so I don’t really need to stress about finances. I do, but I don’t need to.
Under $40k a year. But, it’s just me and it’s enough to cover food and rent and sometimes allows me to eat out once in a while but not enough to do anything else. So, I definately don’t feel rich.
4 person household now.
Gross around 200k if kids jobs included, net pay into bank though is about 7k a month and bills 5k a month (mortgage & related, electric, internet, water and trash, the fixed expenses basically) so I’d say we do fine, and have good jobs, but not loaded.
78k€ plus yearly bonus. Feels like exactly what we need but not a penny more. We have three kids and live in a hcol area. My insurance is 13k yearly. One week of vacation and maybe enough to have a decent chance of retiring with enough money to live a frugal life. Not enough tobuty a house or afford any luxuries beyond taking the kids to the pool and maybe eating ice cream twice a month.
