[2014millionaire]

What do you consider rich? Assume person is single and has no kids and lives in the USA.

[ShogunRua]

Depends where you live, but I'd say down here in the south someone making 500k a year with no family to support is wealthy.

[jmp]

My min would've ben 100k

[Donkey]

anyone with no debt

[YouHave2outs]

having a family to support can be cheaper than being a degenerate gambler.

[2014millionaire]

having a family to support can be cheaper than being a degenerate gambler.

What about just a regular gambler

[YouHave2outs]

define rich? in my opinion, with no ridiculous spending habits or family to support 500k/yr seems like you can get pretty much whatever you want within reason.

[8ArIvd5]

all of the above

[2014millionaire]

wow 200k a year is rich? low standards

[bjb7223]

anyone with 100 mil or higher in assets.

1 mil?

[2014millionaire]

HOW MUCH INCOME DO YOU NEED TO BE CONSIDERED RICH?

Instead of just saying what I think, I’m going to share my thoughts on various income levels per person for populations living in coastal cities such as San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, and Washington DC and work out the answer. The idea is to focus on the more expensive parts of America, which can therefore translate into living in other expensive countries in the world such as Paris, Hong Kong, London, Tokyo. Of course, if you move to much cheaper places, you’ll be considered that much wealthier.
Various Income Levels

$50,000: Not rich, but lower middle class. After contributing $22,000 to your tax-exempt 401K and IRA, you are left with $28,000 in gross income to live. With an effective tax rate of about 15%, you have about $24,000 left after taxes. $24,000 or $2,000 a month is enough to live a frugal lifestyle, however, you’ll probably want to find a partner who makes at least $20,000 a year to be comfortable with a family.
$100,000: Not rich, but middle class. After contributing $17,000 to your tax-exempt 401k, you are left with $83,000 a year in gross income, and ~$62,000 net income based on a 25% total effective tax rate. Notice there is no more $5,000 tax-exempt IRA contribution because you make over $68,000. That’s right, the government doesn’t want you to save money if you make over $68,000. Hopefully, you are following my savings guide and saving another 20% of your after tax income, equaling roughly $12,400 a year. You’ve got around $40,000 to spend on whatever you want and you’re breathing pretty good now.
$200,000: Upper middle class. After retirement contributions, you are left with $178,000 in gross income, leaving you with roughly $125,000 in after tax income. You boost your after tax savings rate to roughly 30%, leaving you with about $87,500 left. By the time you are making $200,000 in your career, you’re probably in your 30s or older and have a mortgage and kids to consider. Kindergarten/daycare may run $15,000-$20,000 a year, followed by $30,000-$40,000 in shelter costs for a reasonable home. You’re left with $20,000-$40,000 to spend on food, travel, groceries, gifts, lessons, and so forth. Not bad.
$350,000: Still upper middle class. After retirement contributions, you’re left with $333,000 in gross income, or roughly $250,000 in after tax income. With a 30% after-tax savings rate, you have $175,000 left to spend. Your family has grown to 4, and you seek a bigger home. An average 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath home in a good area in San Francisco will run you about $1,300,000 to $2,000,000. We’re not talking anything super fancy at 1,800-2,800 square feet. Your mortgage at 3.5% on $1.1 million will therefore cost around $60,000 a year + $15,000 a year in property taxes. I choose $1.1 million because that is the maximum level for mortgage interest deductibility. As a result, you’re left with about $100,000, or $8,333 a month in after tax income for school for two, travel, food and so forth. You’re doing well, and if you are frugal, you can certainly save more than $75,000 a year in after tax money along with the $17,000 401K contribution.
$500,000+: You are rich! With $483,000 in gross income after maxing out your retirement contributions, you have about $300,000 in after tax income (effective at 35%, which includes 10% state). That’s right, you are paying around $183,000 in taxes alone, yet the government still wants to take more from you! Undeterred, you crank up your savings to 35%, and put away another $105,000, leaving you with $195,000. Subtract $70,000 for annual mortgage/property tax leaves you with $125,00. Then subtract another $40,000 in tuition for two. With around $7,000 a month in money available for travel, food, entertainment, goods, gifts, you are sitting pretty, especially since you are putting away away $122,000 a year in savings.

[Frisco]

Rich is when you have so much money you will never have to worry about money again. 200k a year is nothing if you don't know how to manage it, same could be said for those making millions.

[riffraff24]

Over a million, not including assets, with no debt.

[2014millionaire]

Rich is when you have so much money you will never have to worry about money again. 200k a year is nothing if you don't know how to manage it, same could be said for those making millions.

So by your logic Mike Tyson was never rich?

[Frisco]

So by your logic Mike Tyson was never rich?

That 100 mil didn't last long. Can't be rich and be an idiot. It's not sustainable

[2014millionaire]

That 100 mil didn't last long. Can't be rich and be an idiot. It's not sustainable

Yeah the only time people get rich and are morons is powerball/athletes

[Coreos]

Rich is when you have so much money you will never have to worry about money again. 200k a year is nothing if you don't know how to manage it, same could be said for those making millions.

That kind of falls into my definition, but with the caveat that you have enough to cover at least 2 generations. So many ppl are "temporarily" rich in my opinion.

[Sumalia]

You are so penetrating lost.Rich can be a person who has lived on the streets for years and now he has a home and a bed.No matter how rich you are,sooner or later the hedonic adaptation will settle in and you will want more and you will think about certain people being richer than you,which will make you dissatisfied and unhappy again.Don't want to get too philosophical but some of you lost souls need to read a book for once in their life.

[YouHave2outs]

Yeah the only time people get rich and are morons is powerball/athletes

patently false

edit: i would conjecture that there are thousands of people in the U.S. alone that make 7 figure incomes and have certain degenerate problems (there are many besides gambling also) that would deem them 'unrich' in this thread.

[Frisco]

patently false

edit: i would conjecture that there are thousands of people in the U.S. alone that make 7 figure incomes and have certain degenerate problems (there are many besides gambling also) that would deem them 'unrich' in this thread.

Girls gone wild founder!

[2014millionaire]

You are so penetrating lost.Rich can be a person who has lived on the streets for years and now he has a home and a bed.No matter how rich you are,sooner or later the hedonic adaptation will settle in and you will want more and you will think about certain people being richer than you,which will make you dissatisfied and unhappy again.Don't want to get too philosophical but some of you lost souls need to read a book for once in their life.

ok ghandi. whats wrong with wanting more?

[darrell74]

50k

[Sumalia]

ok ghandi. whats wrong with wanting more?

There is nothing wrong with wanting more.The problem is that more won't make you happy because after that particular "more" there will be different "more". So you should strive for better while at the same time learn to appreciate what you have currently(stoicism,negative visualisation) and understand that you do have a lot right now.So it is really stupid to strive to be rich.It is all about approach and mental game.If you need more money that is fine,but don't go for being rich.Rich is also very subjective term.

[2014millionaire]

There is nothing wrong with wanting more.The problem is that more won't make you happy because after that particular "more" there will be different "more". So you should strive for better while at the same time learn to appreciate what you have currently(stoicism,negative visualisation) and understand that you do have a lot right now.So it is really stupid to strive to be rich.It is all about approach and mental game.If you need more money that is fine,but don't go for being rich.Rich is also very subjective term.

I understand what you are saying but I would counter that rich in the USA is not subjective at all. I am talking about purely from a numbers stand point and not what would make you "happy" per say. I know there are people that don't make much money that are probably a lot happier than someone making 7 figures but that isn't what I'm trying to quantify. In fact from a tax standpoint there is a threshold of what is considered "rich." Anyone making over 500k is a year is getting taxed 35% of their income. Compare this to someone that is making 350k and who only gets taxed 23%. The government seems to draw a line somewhere in the sand, and it seems we've found it.

I think you can appreciate what you have and still be motivated to want more.

[LowRollin]

10 million or more nowadays imo

[chopperocker]

$500,000 per year.

[Sumalia]

I understand what you are saying but I would counter that rich in the USA is not subjective at all. I am talking about purely from a numbers stand point and not what would make you "happy" per say. I know there are people that don't make much money that are probably a lot happier than someone making 7 figures but that isn't what I'm trying to quantify. In fact from a tax standpoint there is a threshold of what is considered "rich." Anyone making over 500k is a year is getting taxed 35% of their income. Compare this to someone that is making 350k and who only gets taxed 23%. The government seems to draw a line somewhere in the sand, and it seems we've found it.

I think you can appreciate what you have and still be motivated to want more.

Yeah from a number standpoint there are probably some lines and definitions what is considered rich.I was talking from purely psychological stand point that money rich is extremely subjective.But anyway for me anyone who wants to be "rich" has ego issues.Wanting more money is perfectly fine but wanting to be in that specified category that will classify you as a rich is stupid and childish(not saying this is your intention). And sorry for coming aggressive in the first post,I may have misjudged you.

[2014millionaire]

Looks like you guys think 200k a year is rich. Interesting

[2014millionaire]

10 million or more nowadays imo

a year? That seems a lot

[tenbas]

With 200k a year you can live pretty comfortably. If you are not dumb. And when you say 200k you don't mean 125k.

[El Sol]

To put things into perspective:

world's average salary - in PPP dollars - of $1,480 a month, or almost $18,000 a year, in context:

• It is less than half the average salary of the UK and the United States, where average monthly earnings are just over $3,000 a month, or around $37,000 a year
• It is twice the average salary of Bulgaria, and the same as the average salary in Poland
• The country at the bottom of the average earnings league is Tajikistan, where the average wage is about $2,700 a year - while the country out on top is Luxembourg with average earnings of around $48,000 a year

So if you make more than $18,000 a year, you're already living large.

[LowRollin]

a year? That seems a lot

didn't really look at the specifics of this thread. I meant having 10 mil in the bank.

[Jayvegas420]

$2,800.00
:d

[SpreadSniper]

200k/year is not "rich"

[Jayvegas420]

How can I tell, just by reading 8 or nine of your posts that I don't like the same type of music that you like?
Guys who brag about their cash are either liars or lonely A$$ HOLES!