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For many Americans, $150,000 is the magic number.
A new Gallup poll finds that the median annual income Americans would want to earn to consider themselves rich is $150,000.
That’s about three times the actual median household income of the United States, which is currently around $50,000 a year. (Life Inc. has been chronicling what it’s like to live on the midpoint of the nation's household income spectrum in a series called We are the median.)
The amount you actually make plays a big role in how much you’d want to make to consider yourself rich.
The Gallup pollsters found that households making less than $50,000 a year would want to earn $100,000 to consider themselves rich.
For households bringing in more than $50,000 a year, the median income needed to feel rich was $200,000 a year.
When it comes to net worth, Americans want to be millionaires.
Gallup found that the median amount of savings, real estate holdings and other investments Americans would want to have in the bank in order to feel rich was $1 million.
The Gallup survey of about 1,000 people was conducted a couple weeks ago.
Related:
When it comes to income, what percent are you?
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Another skewed poll. Depends on how you manage your money, make life decisions. If you bought used cars instead of new....paid them off....if you live in a house sufficient to your needs and paid off your mortgage by sacrificing and doing without for years...if you didn't send your kid to the best college money could buy (out of state), if you didn't have the latest Droid with steep monthly payments...(one for each of your family members including little Johnny that is 11), ...in other words...if your ACT YOUR WAGE... you'd be surprised how much less it takes to "feel" rich.
Plus...if you have your health, a loving family, close friends, and are at peace with yourself...you ARE RICH!
I do have the latest Droid...my first smart phone. But all my stuff is paid off so what the heck?
Well said Beev
Increasingly people can't afford basic necessities such as dental care, not to mention health-care. It's a sad state were in. I would consider any one rich who can afford to take care of the basics without living in stress from day to day. I'm sure many people around the globe feel exactly the same way.
I don't see how much money a person makes, would make them feel rich. If someone started making $250,000 a year, within a few years they would require $250,000 to live, and maintain the lifestyle that they had created for themselves. The more you make, the more you spend.
So tired of MSNBC stirring the pot.
Most people want more than what they have. In our age of gadgets and toys that will be true forever for most people.
"rich" is relative as is "poor". How about a poll for people who consider themselves "poor" or "struggling" asking them which items they spend their money on? Check boxes of course not radio buttons.
I remember reading somewhere that if you didn't have any bills/Liabilities and had $500 dollars in the bank, you were in the top 10% of richest people in the world,,not sure if that's true, Kind of makes sense though. A millionaire isn't really a millionaire if he has 2 million in liabilities.
Most of us are just middlemen when it comes to cash flow.
I see we have our usual group trying to channel Marie Antoinette.......might want to think about that,"Let them eat cake" didn't work out too well for her
I take a daily shower with hot & cold running water. That's better than 2/3 of the worlds population. People are incredibly selfish by nature. The more you make, the more you want. Your wants quickly become your new needs as your needs are filled. A welfare recipient is incredibly rich as compared to a middle class person in India. All of the "redistribute the wealth" socialist need to stop their hypocrisy and send half of their welfare check to India. That would support about 20 people over there. Then, I might start to take them seriously; to see them as anything more than selfish, shallow, narrow minded whining panhandlers. They just want to redistribute the wealth down to their level.
I try to remember daily just how rich god has made me and share that wealth with those I care about. Yet I am poor by the narrow minded American standard. Unfortunately, that leaves me with disgust over the greedy selfish jerks I am surrounded by.
Unfortunately I don't have my health. After losing health insurance due to unemployment and company going out of business, preexisitng conditions don't allow me to get insurance back at any price. So..... out of $250,000, $150,000/yr would pay for my annual treatments, $100K to Uncle Sam and $0K to live on. $250,000/yr would not make me feel rich. Present option open to me is to die. Thank you US health care system.
Jim, that is terrible. I thought the new health care law was intended to prevent insurance companies from excluding people with pre-existing conditions.
"doing without" and "rich" are at odds with each other.
I live in a $25 million dollar home and still don't feel all that rich.
Is feeling your rich different than thinking your rich baronvonmoneybags?
How about making my Christmas merry and paying my wife's doctor bills? Maybe you'll feel rich then?
I think the Baron is being facetious.......
People have the WRONG definition of wealth. People who are truly wealthy have FINANCIAL SECURITY and therefore personal freedom. Making more money can help but it alone does not get you there.
Once you have achieved a certain level of comfort in your life, being able to support that life without stress is true wealth.
Unlike other Americans, I don't see this simply as a personal pursuit. A society with an economy as volatile, short-sighted and speculative as that of the U.S. has been for the past decade is counter-productive to the creation of financial security and therefore true wealth.
The angst that Americans feel today has a cause. Whether they will recognize the underlying cause (and then actually do something about it) is another question.
At 250k per year you will be paying the feds and the state of ca about 45 %. This leaves about 140 k left over. Lets call that 11666 per month. Now because you earn 250 k per year you will live in a $450000 house. Your payment will be about $2600. Out of the $9000 left you will pay $1200 a month in health insurance, $200 a month in auto insurance, $500 a month in property tax. Ok now we are down to disposable income of $7000 per month. $84000 per year. Lets save 5% of our income for retirement $12000. Down to $72000. More than likely by the time you make $250k per year your kids will be ready for college. Lets put our 3 kids through college at 40k per year and your left with $32000 to spend which after sales tax is now only $30k which is $2500 a month to pay for cars,gas,food,clothing,luxury items,etc... Suddenly I dont feel so rich. The moral of the story is the so called "rich" are not so rich after all. I am not complaining just not as rich as you think.
your arbitrary prices are way out of whack, i already own free and clear my house and land. 200 a month in Auto insurance? not unless you dont have a clean driving record, my kids are grown and gone,, that 250k would be fantastic to me considering i make slightly less than 10% of that figure right now., lets seeyou get by on THAT, before you start offering budgeting advise.
Well Radical, those numbers aren't out of whack, speaking from experience, and I HAVE lived on less than $25K/yr. So will you accept my budgeting advice?
Radical,
When I lived in CA, a million would buy you a 1250 square foot house on a small lot in a 50 year old neighborhood on the peninsula. My experience says that Joe might be a little low on his figures.
armurray - I live in CA, in L.A. county and my 1600 sf house is worth about $375k. Just depends on where you live and what you do with your money. I think my family needs about $100k to have a decent lifestyle, with a few extras, but nothing fancy. I think we'd feel rich on $200k, but as many have mentioned, the more you make, the more you "need".
I'm so very tired of scrimping, living pay check to pay check, selling everything that isn't nailed down, trying to help all the members of my family and worrying if I will lose my home again.
We make pretty close to that magic number, no kids and no mortgages, so no tax deductions (53%ers). We sat down and did the math; after paying federal, state, local and sales taxes, we make .49 cents on every dollar. Not so rich after all.
It also has so much to do with where you live. My husband and I are close to the $200k mark, and while we don't struggle financially, we are very far from rich. In a big city, that kind of money doesn't go very far.
Rich sometimes is just having enough to cover your living expenses and enough left over to have a little spending money. It all depends where you are coming from.
If you start at the bottom of the earning heap anything more that you make can make you feel rich as long as you haven't permanently committed that extra cash to some sort of obligation, loan, monthly payment, ect.
Back in our poor days I remember feeling rich when I had enough money left over after all the bills were paid and the groceries bought (and that is the order we did things) that could go to the local Odd Lots store and purchase some little thing for my house like new dish towels.
Makes me appreciate where I am and what I have today.
I'm with you on that.
WIth you on that 100% Having $15 after paying bills and we were RICH!!! And I'm not "fortunate". My wife and I work a lot of hours for our $165K and still are paying for college(Mommy and Daddy didn't pay for ours), kids(almost entering college, oh boy, Momma and Poppa aren't paying for that), We actually save more like 12% for retirement. Of course the federal government won't let us save more than that because it's "unfair to less highly compensated individuals" their words not mine. What a load!
J...have no problem with Droid users. It's great/cool if you can AFFORD it. But, I know this one clown, family man...4 kids. Bitches about his monthly tech bill...everyone has top of the lines cells, full satelite package (a zillion channels)...fastest internet, 5 freaking TVS with HD and Xbox live access. The idiot wonders where his money goes after monthly bills....well guess what? He pays a whopping $811 a month on electronics/connections, service fes for all his gadgets. WTF?
They're asking the wrong question, again. Wealth does not bring happiness. Contentment comes from inside, even in a materialistic society like ours.
Actually, I would prefer to be happy over being rich. My husband and I, do not make any where close to $100,000. But we are happy and being happy is worth a fortune. After 42 years of marriage, we are still happy. When my husband was in the service in 1969, just home from Vietnam, we had nothing and I mean nothing, but we had fun and each other. My glass is ALWAY half full NOT half empty.
This is a trick question. For most of us nothing is ever enough. If you earn $50k, then sure $150 will seem like enough. If you earn $140k it probably won't seem like enough. If you are like most of us your expenses will either match or exceed your income. That's human nature. It's human to always want more. That's why we supersize our combo meals
I am single so living on $50,000 or $100,000 would be considered "rich" for me but I also don't live in one of those high tax or high property states like New York or California. I would have to make a lot more just to survive in those states.
Ah its obvious you the lower class below 1 million a year are not worthy of such riches. It takes an eloquent mind and hand to handle such daunting tasks. There fore you should consider your poor selves lucky not to have to deal with such hassles as too much money. Me i struggle daily with how to spend so much money its is complicated. Well time to go wipe a few hundred into the toilet. Enjoy your bread and water.
Richness comes in many forms--it's all a matter of perspective. I am rich in the fact I have great health, a loving family, happiness, a job, etc. Those that compare richness to money alone don't realize what they are missing.
I live in Canada so my health care is covered, my home is paid off and I have a small teacher's pension, But it isn't these things that decide weather or not I am rich, it is the quality of my life - my health, my friends and family. These are the true measures of wealth.
Well said!!
Cost of living throws this way out of whack. Living in coastal southern CA, $250k does not go far. We are "wealthy" according to recent debates but if you factor in the cost of livingwe are far from rich. If we lived in Ohio we would be. Not factoring cost of living is really unfair in this whole debate. I try not to complain but I'm tired of hearing that we are the 1% when we live a very middle class life. And we both have worked very hard for it!
Wow, I guess they didn't include taxes and whether you have children or not!! I make just a bit over 150K and I certainly do NOT feel rich!! Fortunate yes, rich heck no...
Just to have income satisfy expenses with a little left over is not rich. Rich is a static term. You either are rich or you're not. In my mind that is the accumulated worth both liquid and not liquid that , regardless of income, would allow you to live as you wish. Simply put, Rich people don't have to work. Ever.
Lots of people need to define "rich" if the responses so far are to be believed.
Very shortsighted if $150 is what is thought to be rich, and how diminished our expectations have become.
Until "Rich" is defined the responses so far are not indicative of anything. i.e "rich" needs minimally to include some future prediction of inflation, health set asides, taxation on $150K.
Bashir 2413336, above has it exactly right.
It all comes down to choices, for most of us as we increase our income we increase our living style. Living paycheck to paycheck is true for a lot of people at all levels of pay. Could I use more money to do better at retirement I have a Roth IRA, a 403b, and purchasing two homes (one to rent, one to live in.) I am doing ever thing I know how to and can afford to do to be prepared for the future. This leaves little room for vacations and other pleasantries. In Oregon we earn ($100,000-110,000), I do not feel rich but I know I am better off than most and many would wish to have my problems. However I have difficulty seeing passed what I do not have and need to do to put my family in a better financial situation.
Too many HUGE factors involved to get any sort of a true answer to this question.
1) Where you live is HUGE. In NYC, if you make 150K, you are not rich at all. They should do a survey on now many New Yorkers ride the subway even if they make 150k or more. But if you choose to live outside of big metropolitan cities, you can live very well on 150k a year.
2) How many kids you have to support is a huge factor.
3) What type of medical issues do you have? If you are healthy you are fine but once a serious medical condition arises, no amount of money is enough if you are in the USA. I have given serious thought to relocating to Canada or France or to another country when health care costs are lower.
4) And finally, how each person chooses to spend/save/invest is a HUGE factor. I know many people making very good money but their spending habits are terrible. One person made six figures a year for over 10 years but is now nearly broke. That is very very poor money management.
As for me, if I made 150k this year, I know enough about money management/investing to set me up for life. Remember this: IT TAKES MONEY TO MAKE MORE MONEY!
In the SF bay area 250k is what 50k is in middle America...comfortable, but by no means rich...