Thread: How much do you have to make to be considered "rich?"

This is all relative...where do you live? San Fran, Manhattan, Chicago?...or Memphis, Jackson, Little Rock? Level of debt? Expenses?

If by single you mean they have no kids, do not support anyone but themselves and live in a decent place where the cost for living isn't extremely expensive, have a good credit rating, and do not lavishly spend on multiple cars, big homes they don't need, etc... then i guess $100k or more is pretty good.

Originally Posted by clemson357

Consider a single person making a yearly salary only, i.e. no inheritance or savings besides what they earned.

How much does their annual salary need to be before you consider them "rich?"

I say 400K in earnings per year, which is at a tax rate of 35%, right?

Correct me if I'm wrong on the tax rate.

And this, is not a lot of money.

You were smart in only included earned income and excluding inheritence and real estate.

Contrary to most Western thought, I believe that wealth and being "rich" is:

Being able to hold onto assets, real estate, and equities/cash over generations, and long periods of time.

However....there is a Chinese proverb: "wealth does not usually span over 3 generations."

Meaning, 3 generations is the max.

Originally Posted by Big Smoothy

I say 400K in earnings per year, which is at a tax rate of 35%, right?


Contrary to most Western thought, I believe that wealth and being "rich" is:

.

....and as a person currently living in vietnam, on a comparitive basis to the local population and cost of living, I would guess you would be very rich.

Originally Posted by lnvanry

This is all relative...where do you live? San Fran, Manhattan, Chicago?...or Memphis, Jackson, Little Rock? Level of debt? Expenses?

Good point, I live in NYC and a night out can be expensive.

Not sure where you're living dude but 400k is a shit ton of money to most people. I would be MORE than happy making 400k a year.

I don't think if that Chinese proverb holds true. With new wealth yes, but there are families that have been rich for over 200 years now. Some going back even further.

NYC is crazy with the cost of living. I know people making over 100k/year and i wouldn't consider them rich, just middle class with a decent house, nice car and expendable income to throw around.

NYC i would say rich is 200k+ (and i would say that is the lowest, a really rich person who wants more than one place to live or mansions and multiple cars etc would have to be making 300k+ and be responsible with that money[in terms of investments etc]).

Manic at $40k.....is that in Hawaii?

Originally Posted by min0 lee

Manic at $40k.....is that in Hawaii?

After taxes and cost of living in Hawaii I barely make over that but Danny said I was mad rich!!!!!

Well yea when you make minimum wage at Burger King 40k seems rich

Honestly in Hawaii you'd have to make $400,000 a quarter just to be considered modestly rich.

Last night I was watching one of those home buyers shows where they show a couple three different homes and they choose which one they like. These homes were awesome with 3 stories, huge bedrooms, marble floors, jacuzzi bath tubs and like $350,000....I could sell my home and buy 2 of those. I'd rent out one home and then retire for a few years and work on my writing then hopefully live off my writing monies.....

Originally Posted by danzik17

Well yea when you make minimum wage at Burger King 40k seems rich

He got the impression that our $800,000 home was something special, but in Hawaii that's your average suburban house. The mansions by the beach are like 7 million and they aren't all that....

If you're single and making 250K/year you're making some serious bank. Especially if it is outside the expensive areas like NY, SF, LA, Miami, etc.

Originally Posted by goob

....and as a person currently living in vietnam, on a comparitive basis to the local population and cost of living, I would guess you would be very rich.

I would be very rich to those who are poor. I don't want to go too off-topic but there is a huge income gap in Vietnam.

And it's changed in the last 4 years.

I have seen Bentleys here. I've also seen a Ferrari. There are some very, very, rich Vietnamese that literally live in mansions. Huge mansions.

Income Gap.

Across the street from my apartment, there are construction workers who work 7 days per week, that make about $50 USD per month. Even for locals, this is poor.

Inflation is at 15% + percent. These price hikes are for food, milk (for babies) and other commodities. Rice, the staple of diet has increased. Pork had doubled. Rents going up.

My idea of rich would start by owning a nice home in a nice part of LA. Say, at the foothills of Burbank; Up above Glenoaks. On a standard 30 year loan around 5.8%, the monthly payments would be about $6000.

I'd own two cars. Now, assuming that I had to pay monthly on these and not own them outright, I'd put the monthly bill around $6000, too. That'd be one $40,000 car and one $160,000 car (on a three year term). That's one "drive around" car and one decent high performance car, but surely not a Bugatti.

I'd have to have a spending budget large enough not to worry about spending during the month. I figure that $200/day should do it. That's another $6000 or so (this seems to be a common amount).

I'd also need to have a travel budget of $2000/month. Hey, I really like to travel.

Finally, let's say a catchall budget for monthly maintenance of the home, cars, clothing, etc. of $4000.

That's a total of $24,000 per month. But, in order to be "rich", you can't be living check-to-check, so I'd add on (at least) 30% more income. Which is about $7500. So that's a net grand total of $31,500 per month, or $378,000 per year. Assuming that I'm not using any tax smarts (which is gross fiscal negligence), I'd have a 35% tax rate. So that's another $132,000 in taxes for a gross grand total of $510,300 per year.

I know in this hypothetical situation, you said that this couldn't include savings, but a truly rich person could take (at least) a year off, and still have money left in the bank not to worry about finding gainful employment. Or building some sort of income, such as trading in the stock market. So, to truly be rich, I'd have to have at least two years of income in the back. A total of $1,020,600.

Truly being rich means not having to live paycheck to paycheck, worry about taking time off, or finding a way back into money after any off time.

Not that I have a written plan for this or anything. Which I do.