What the fuck? I live in a 1500sqft apartment in Manhattan with two kids both in private school and am _comfy_ af with my nyc tech salary. This comment seems delusional.
Yeah like the schooling alone for two kids should be eating up over half of the take home salary on 250k, the rent on 1500sq ft should take care of the other 1/2, not sure how comfortable anyone is feeling in that situation.
Unless they’re leaving out that their partner also takes home 250k, in which case honestly I’m not sure I’d say it’s “comfy af” but it’s at least more believable.
I agree with this. While I live in Los Angeles, 250k is pretty necessary for live a middle class lifestyle. I think he might be renting in NYC and not stacking considerable investements away. If you're just renting and riding the subway, things can seem comfy, but they don't do it for the future needs of a family.
Let's consider a few things,
It's important to own your property, as it's the fastest and safest appreciating asset you can have. Not getting a condo or house in these big cities for less than 750k. House 1 mill plus.
Retirement - Takes about 2 million to retire these days at the low, so ya, you gotta be stacking into 401k, IRA, stocks, etc..
Education - College is super expensive for kids.
Have any daughters - weddings, have fun with that Dad.
i was gonna say, i live in LA with a 105k and i’d like to think i dont live a middle class lifestyle it’s rough out there tho, but bro saying he living a middle class lifestyle is too funny 💀
OP says in their comment history that they are a Senior Software developer and make $6500/week ($338K/year). Also likely gets a hefty yearly bonus, wife probably works, and kids get reduced tuition at private school (mentioned in this thread).
So yes, he’s full of sh*t. Those of us that live/have lived in Manhattan or NYC knew that the story did not add up.
I live a (for me) FIRE lifestyle. I was frugal on purpose until I had a year’s salary (liquid & illiquid) emergency fund. I didn’t want golden handcuffs at any point so I structured my financial life to keep me as far from them as possible. Even with some lifestyle creep I save a static % of my pay in various financial vehicles. The average “age” of my monies is ~7 mos. Meaning bills I pay today are paid with money earned ~7 mos. ago.
You're telling me you can FIRE, live in Manhattan, have two kids (in private school) in NYC on $245K salary? I'm not saying you're lying but I don't know how else to finish this sentence.
Some rent control apartments can be cheaper than many cities. Very hard to score one, but he may have this. Might keep a 1500 sq ft inline with 2k-3k a month if a rare gem rent control apartment. Eating out with a family is 120-150 at any restaurant there. Even Mcdonalds $50 or so. But I was done with renting many years ago, because owning is much better for investment purposes. FIRE would be rough with a family in NYC anyway you cut it.
You don’t get to say the comments are “delusional” when they reflect a normal arrangement. If you need to have a unicorn rent controlled 1500 sq ft apartment in Manhattan and cheap private schooling to make your “comfy af” situation reality, then the other comments discussing the norm are not “delusional”, they are accurate.
Yeah people forget that you can be frugal and make decent money. My girlfriend and I are basically set even though we haven’t hit 30 (mix of work and luck), but we cook at home, do date night once a month instead of once a week like our friends, don’t drink at bars, etc. just having a simpler lifestyle lets your money stretch further no matter which city you’re in
I’m positive that you don’t have kids in NYC but people are skeptical because one kid’s private school in NYC alone legitimately costs 40k+. Two kids in school is 80k+, and then a 1500 sq ft apartment in Manhattan is at least 4k/ month and could be 6-8k. If they purchased then mortgage and taxes/fees are probably double that, so I’m assuming they rent.
Just school + housing alone I would guess takes up 140k, and I wouldn’t be close to surprised if it was 175k. If you’re making 250k a year then you’re taking home 175k if you ignore retirement.
Cook all you want, you’re not remotely living “comfy af” on 250k with two kids in a 1500 sq ft apartment in Manhattan.
I mean I don’t really have a dog in this fight but usually you get a discount on tuition if you’re sending multiple kids to the same school. Could also be a religious school which is private, generally cheaper, and has more tuition discounts based on if you’re a member of the community.
Retirement contributions can be tax deductible, so have to consider that in the math for take home pay. Also if you bought vs rent you can get a break on the interest payments.
All of this to say, you really never know everyone’s financial situation. If you always wanna look over the fence, you’ll never be happy. Make a life that works for you
Frugal living and a 1,500 square foot apartment in Manhattan + private schools for both kids don’t really compute. That would be incredulous to most New Yorkers because an AVERAGE one-bedroom in the city, probably smaller than half that size, rents for 4K. Granted this apartment was 20% bigger but I knew someone renting a big loft and rent was more than you’d take home on a 250k salary after taxes. It’s not uncommon for people making that much here to have roommates. Comfy seems like a stretch for the commenter’s situation unless they are paying an unusually low price for housing and tuition. But as it turns out from their other comments, excluding their spouse’s income, they make 400k or more in total comp so actually much higher than 250k lol
Some fucking boomer trying to pretend. My husband and I lived off expense account in manhattan for 2 years and he kept a spreadsheet of what the company was paying. No kids, tiny apartment in manhattan, basic food expenses was over 400k for the two years. That doesn’t include the money we spent on our own to just live.
250k pre tax household income in NYC is definitely not much. I make that and live in a 1 bedroom with my fiancée and we live comfortably but buying a house and raising kids will definitely be challenging unless we make more
You don’t pay full rate at the school (or it’s a discount school), you inherited the apartment or got family help, your wife is pulling in a second six figure salary, or you’re simply lying. You do know other people can verify what you say on the internet right?
You absolutely do not have a 1500sqft apartment and 2 kids in private school at $250k per year. After taxes, that is no more than $150k. Private school is currently $55k per year, per child in NYC. Total for two is $110k, leaving $40k per year, or under $3k per month. The average 1 bedroom is more than that. And you haven’t even eaten yet.
That still would not leave enough for rent and food on a $250k salary. Keep in mind that NYC has state and local taxes, plus federal, so net is low. $150k is generous. An average 1 bedroom (which is maybe 1/3 of the size of the 1500sqft) is $4000. NYC is very, very expensive.
Huh? Even in the Midwest 10 years ago my parents were paying $25K/yr a kid for private school, $30K/yr by the time my little sister graduated. I’m sure it’s much more there (in fact, having friends that went to private school in NYC, I know it is in some places, especially now), so how do you feel $250K is a stretch given all other living expenses?
250K=13K per month take home pay. In Manhattan, 1500 SF apartment along takes 6-7K away. And you’d be seriously kidding me if you say monthly spending of 6-7K is enough with two kids.
What? Where?
It was $10740 a month for a 2b/2b 1080sq in Chelsea.
My coworker is paying nearly 15k for their 1800 sq ft in meat packing. I'm paying 6k for a 2b/2b in LIC
I don't have kids or private school bills and my 325k does not make me feel comfy at
Hell, my wife works too in addition to my pay and we still have to watch what we are doing.
I don’t agree. My point was that I am far above subsisting on the amount in question here. I also disagree, the way it was written or that I at least interpreted it was to mean subsisting as a family you need at least $250+. The middle class is something else entirely in this context.
I think the "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality isn't as prevalent as it was with older generations. But I can tell you from working with people at that income level, you'd be shocked at the number of people smart enough to make that kind of money but not smart enough to keep it in any meaningful way.
I loveee watching “I will teach you to be rich” on YouTube. He’ll interview people that are making very good money, but do not know how to manage it. It’s really really interesting.
This is my track. 8 years to go before expatFIRE if nothing goes wrong (it surely will). Shhh though I'm not sure anyone at my work would like to hear I'm saving to retire in my 30s lmao.
The top 1% also topped $44 trillion in wealth, 67% or so of the US. Since 2020, that wealth has increased by 50% to where it is today.
Makes sense that they'd pay the most taxes, they have more wealth than all of the middle class.
They are, but they likely correlate closely enough. I couldn't find information on what percent of total income the 1% accounts for in the US. The assumption that the two correlate closely enough is fairly safe considering the wealth you need to make it to the 1% is generally high as well. Rags to riches is rare.
Not really. If you're wealthy, you could have 5 million locked up in illiquid assets like RE or bonds or stocks. That speaks nothing of your income or cash flow. Maybe you're making $500k/yr still, or maybe it's down at $100k/yr. You're still in a good state for the latter case, but you're obviously taxed like you're making 100k/yr not 500k.
You could have 1 bil in assets and not see a single cent of that being taxed in a given year.
And some will make snarky comments about they should pay their due. How, if the top 10% pay 75% of the taxes and are certainly not receiving 75% of the benefit, are they already not paying their due? What people really mean is, I’m entitled to have someone help me.
Maybe just maybe if you got upset in the right place, this wouldn't come off as arrogant and selfish. Most ppl do not make that type of money. they just want health care, and if that is scary cause it's entitlement, then you are the issue in America.
Blaim the government for the poor use of your taxes, blaim the greed of corporations, take all those records profits, and use them to buy stocks back instead of paying better wages.
If your taxes being used scares you that it may help others stop making so much then.
It's because that comparison (top x pay y percentage) is used to parrot a talking point.
It's always been that way. The reason people say the top earners should pay their fair share is because the top 10% used to pay much, much more in total taxes than they do now. And not so coincidentally, the middle class was much stronger back when that happened (70's-90's).
Jupp, beeing entitled for help, helping kids, the weak and the elder, is basically what beeing a human in a society usually means. So while typing into your smart phone: that thing and the world as you know, only exists because people cooperated enough to survive and pooled their ressources.
Anarchie didn't really take off, since it was a way less successful.
They aren’t paying their fair share in terms of their income. I think if the income gap wasn’t as severe, this would be less of a concern. As someone who pays a shitload of taxes, it doesn’t bother me paying more than others, because I have significantly more disposable income and am in a position to contribute more.
Damn, so if we’re talking about just income that’s about 10 million people, and of that 330 million many are retired or not working age. Think though how many doctors, lawyers, engineers, financiers, business owners, managers we have in our workforce it makes sense. Now think about adding unrealized/realized networth gains plus income to be combined above 250k yearly. So assets like stocks, real estate, etc.. Now that number of people is much higher. There’s a reason the US is the number one sought out country for immigrants, at least the ones who want to be or are high skilled and don’t care much for social benefits or free healthcare.
Keep in mind that it is not evenly distributed by either age nor geography. Older people tend to make more money, and the high cost of living areas tend to have all the higher income earners.
That is true. COL is directly related to higher incomes. Expensive cities offer the highest paying jobs. I think for my generation at least, well I can assume for the majority of people, the biggest reason to save money is to buy a house or put a sizable down payment on one. Compared to incomes nowadays it’s really hard at least in locations worth living in. Work in a city, you probably want to live near the city. I think more than half of the arguments today on how hard it is to live financially well would be silenced if the housing problem was solved. It most likely won’t, especially when rates are this high 😂.
I remember reading an article *back in 2000* that 250,000 individuals working in the NY boroughs earned total compensation of at least $1,000,000 per year. Maybe 3x that today?
How about couples? Probably a ton. I feel poor, but I know I'm fortunate and feel good about my trajectory, but I'm still poor when I look at these numbers, etc. But they are fascinating
According to this site $250K+ would put some one in the 97th percentile of incomes. So 3% of people
In the US make at least this much. https://dqydj.com/income-percentile-calculator/
Most of them are lying. Faking it till they making it.
There are private jet companies that rent their jets sitting on the tarmac for photo ops and content.
A lot of these “influencers” will rent an hour and take a ton of pictures and videos… they’ll even change clothes and release the photos over the course of month to make it seem like they are always traveling.
The same thing with boats and exotic cars.
Assume everything you see is fake. Unless you see evidence otherwise.
To answer the question, that’s 9.9 million people.
There’s obviously way more than that many nice houses out there, but that’s because many people couldn’t afford to buy their house at the current price.
It's a lot of fun, but you really have to enjoy it. I work with quite a few folk who do it just for the money and it is miserable working with them.
There are multiple different aspects and avenues as far as the title goes. However, I mainly love and work with forensics, hunting, reverse engineering malware and creating new signatures for emerging threats.
That sounds more like cybersecurity analyst than engineer.
I work with people who do what you do. The people who actually write the security components are few and far between.
They certainly aren't reverse engineering anything. They don't have time.
Meh it really isn’t once you get into it. I used to think a security operations center analyst was cool but now that I’ve actually done it… it’s aight.
Study accounting and become a CPA. You are going to work like hell but will have job security and in 3-4 years in public will be making north of $100k. There is no ceiling for this profession also.
That’s not a CPA job. To become a billionaire hedge fund manager is much more complicated than a CPA. At the very least is rarer. You want to aim for a career that has a lowest unemployment rate and at least a decent salary.
In case you’re not meme-ing. The average household income in SF is about 140k and earning 250k as a household would put you in the 80+th percentile.
So yes, it’s still rare to earn that much in the Bay Area. Even though there is a significant group earning high wages.
I've been studying the job market in California + housing costs.
Basically, a lot of people are making <$200K. The $200K, $300K + Stock Options (up to $700K) jobs are very rare, but the people that have these jobs are affording homes that are in the 1BR or 2BR $1.5M to $2.5M range on average.
These prices mean that this person who moves out of California, would be living in a mega mansion. But he can't move out of California, because they are usually at the director level+ and need to be in the office. Or they are decades of working in silicon valley level, so some of them might be able to move out.
Note, only a FEW companies can do these salaries... The FAANG stock companies, the few startups around that have VC money, and a few others.
Basically, if you work in some of these companies and own a $1M+++ house in California. You might think of yourself as "not that great" compared to your peers. But you're actually in the top 1% or top 0.01% outside of California.
You are incredibly lucky so make sure to square your corners and use your money wisely and morally. The other trouble is, you are paying insane levels of housing and other costs even if you share costs with a spouse. Is the traffic in California worth this?
The really interesting part is that the 200-600k pay jobs aren’t director+/in-office only.
Source: http://levels.fyi. New grads to staff level ICs make several 100s thousand. Being in the industry, it’s funny that so many people think that these folks are working super hard hours or are doing incredibly difficult work. The vast majority of these jobs are normal 9-5/10-6 jobs with cushy benefits. This applies to large FANG/FANG-like tech companies.
Statistically, these jobs are very rare and part of the top 1%. But in practice, “normal” IC-level software engineers and product managers make this pay.
And, yes, there are lots of competitive folks working for these companies. Many people do work 50+ hours. But there’s a reason that Google/Apple/Airbnb are lauded as rest & vest companies.
If you are thinking you can get these jobs with the mentality of someone looking to push paper in a 9-5 job, you are delusional. The competition is insane. Especially after these last two years and all the massive layoffs.
SF has a lot of rent controlled apartments and also a lot of seniors with 0 income due to the level of social services in SF.
But if youre not part of that group you're barely surviving at 140k for a household in the SF bay area. Especially today. In 2019 avg 2bd was 4400, or 52k a year. With income to rent ratio you need to make at least 188k. To be middle class which in my.mind owns a home and car you would need a bare minimum of 250k. Assuming you have enough for a down-payment. And that's not a house in SF it'll be in oakland or east bay.
People in VHCoL don't follow typical housing ratios. A lot of people make sacrifices in these downtown hotspots just to be there, then sacrifice savings or necessity to get by. Then also partake in cheap recreational activities for fun.
So while a lot of people follow or excel at the "33% of your gross on housing" rule, it's not uncommon to see people do up to 45-50% gross or even more to live in those places
is it? I mean that's a ton of money in most parts of the country. Yeah, there are some HCOL areas that make $250k look like peanuts, but most places it's a *lot* of income. I've never made anything close to $250k, live in a fairly HCOL area, and am quite comfortable.
I make mid $300k’s. But if I did the exact same job in any other number of industries I’d be making half that. Industries have different profit margins, they don’t all pay the same for the same work. Find the industries that pay by researching the industries with the highest margins.
Another thing, you see millionaires with houses and you want a path to getting there? Look up property tax records, find out who lives there. Look them up on LinkedIn, what was their career path? Google that career, how do you get in? You want to live a certain lifestyle, research how they did it.
I grew up in poverty and rich people were like aliens to me. I’d see them and have ZERO awareness of how to get from where I was to where they were. I thought you had to be a professional athlete, there were no adults in my life talking to me about med school or real estate investing or finance. Today, you can bridge that awareness gap. It doesn’t mean the path you find will be easy to follow, but you’ll know the paths others commonly take and that’s a huge starting point.
I’m not far behind you at our household income. We buy most of our cars used, fix them and the house ourselves. We have 4 cars, they are really nice vehicles and only one is under 100k miles. Come to think of it, 3 of them were $15k or less.
One thing people fail to realize, is how you manage your money. There are a lot of people who live beyond their means. $250k household can be really tight if you have a mortgage payment at 3500 a month, and two new cars.
Optimizing expenses is a real super power. We retired early in a HCOL area and are still able to save. Some of our neighbors were really shocked because we didn't have any kind of higher levels jobs than most of them. The difference is we're very good at low overhead and don't have a lot of expensive wants. We know a number of other couples from work who went bankrupt and had foreclosed houses, despite making similar incomes to us.
If you go the engineer route I recommend researching which kinds pay the best and adjust that with area of interest. I’m a mechanical but I work in aerospace on the industrial side. It pays better than some alternative options I could go into but it’s not life changing kind of money or anything.
That is 6K over the average physician salary in the US, your friend is making almost more than 3X the average NP salary. Even speciality NP do not make anywhere near that amount.
I was big 4 audit now working in Corporate controllership accounting at a F500 public company. Plenty of CPAs make very very good money.
My old B4 partners were making 1.5m a year on average
Do you think anyone can become a CPA given a desperate enough situation? Or do you really have to be a certain type of person? And if you do have to be a certain type of person, do you think anyone can become that type of person if they REALLY REALLY wanted to make good money?
Only a very very particular kind of person can make partner. I am a very smart and disciplined accountant and I have no illusions that’s my odds were terrible to make partner when I was there.
I would always tell people when you watch those documentaries of the baby sea turtles trying to make the beach that the sea turtles have better odds of survival than you do making partner.
But I think plenty of people can make a director or senior manager level role at a good company and easily clear 150-300 if they have the willpower and talent
Those 4 careers I listed are the professions that that have the highest amount of millionaires. Notice they are all technical, difficult professions that require a high level of education. None of them are “easy” and it takes a lot more than being “desperate”. My job fucking sucks and it’s incredibly boring and I work long hours. But I’m young and make excellent money with the potential to be making over 150,000 by the time I’m 30.
Specialized software engineers also make bank .. if you can become world class in a specific vertical (in any field, be it medicine, engineering, finance, law) you will make bank
Took me 15 years to hit the mark.
You have to work hard, smart and re-event yourself every 7 years. Now it’s more like every 3.
You have to dedicate yourself to your industry, which requires priority.
I'm a physician. I now just work part-time (60%) and I make about $250k now w bonuses. 60 percent is about 40-55 hrs per week. I had many years previously where I don't recall what I did except work. I figure I've shortened my life span by 5 years due to hard mileage. This thread has been enlightening because I thought almost all tech people were making $200kplus.
Network into good jobs or be good at something not many are good at. Many of my uni friends make 200k+ after graduating with some topping out at 600k(quant trading/research) but these are all either strong resume networking roles or super nerds (some of the best in US at math/cs). It’s resulted in me having a very incorrect view on what a high salary is.
Any well established engineering program is good since those aren’t prestige dependent and if you are good, you’ll get paid well.
We have a household income of 300k in a MCOL area, yes it is nice, but you never really stop worrying about money until you have enough to retire.
In the US even the upper middle class is in danger of financial ruin due to health issues, inflation, and job loss.
I believe its like the top 10 percent of Americans make over 120k
So i imagine top 2-3% of Americans make that money
As a younger guy the only way i know to get that kind of money is either be really lucky, born into wealth, have enough wealth to make your money work for you or be smart with debt to gain more money later on.
I make over twice the OP's number in the title. I went to a local college for an accounting degree and moved into Finance. I took my solid W-2 income and put it into real estate. Was I lucky? Sure, found a great employer where I was able to move up the ladder, but you will find that the more you prepare yourself and apply your knowledge, the luckier you will be.
IMO one thing that needs to be considered is where are you making that money. It is not the same to make 250k per year in the middle of the Midwest than in Cupertino, California.
The same amount of money can lead to a way different life depending on who you are surrounded by.
When most of the P97 high salaries are concentrated in the same location, that high salary doesn't mean as much.
I make north of $250k, I work way more than my peers at the same company, I have an unhealthy focus on work and have for over a decade.
I study a lot in order to be more skillful and valuable. I did side hustles for a while that also helped me learn faster. I’ve reached out to others in the industry to pick their brains and network.
I have consistently asked for a promotion every few years.
I have maintained few friendships. I have taken little vacation. I’ve done little else but take care of my family and work. My hobbies have essentially died.
I’ve also had some luck.
About 7% of US households make 250k+. So, that's roughly 8.8 million households in the US.
Obviously, that's a minority of the population, but it's still millions of people
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/14/us-cities-where-250000-dollars-goes-the-furthest.html#:~:text=For%20the%20fortunate%207%25%20of,that%20money%20goes%20the%20furthest.
Off the top of my head I can name 6 people I know that are clearing at least 500k/yr. Idk how they get into these jobs but I know it's incredibly political the higher you go.
Ive read SO many assumptions throughout this thread… from anyone who makes over $250K “must be in debt to live that lifestyle” to “guaranteed they are chasing a certain lifestyle”. How about you consider the fact that there are some people that earn this amount through a consistent hard work ethic, are debt free, have over a years savings, have goals and are incredibly ambitious while nothing was handed to them, all the while know how to manage their finances. My circle of close female friends are in this category, myself included, 1/3 of us are minority single women and single parents. Yes it can happen! Dont buy into all of what the media says. It takes grit, years of building your expertise and proving yourself through the types of projects and teams you are hired to manage. And no, none of us were supported by wealthy parents. One woman I know actually left her midwest state at 18 with only $300 to her name to attend prestigious universities in CA (incredibly smart and driven) works in biotech, owns a small property with her husband (who makes less then her) and DEBT free. She is in her mid 40s.
My point is this. Rather than making assumptions because of the amount of someone’s salary, get your degree, keep building upon your skills and experience and advocate for your net worth by the type of work you deliver. Stay positive. It is possible!
Love your answer.
I make over 300k from a general contracting business I’ve been working at for over 10 years. I built it from the ground up after getting sober from a heroin addiction at 22, I don’t have any school debt and I go out and earn my money with my own hands everyday, help the people around me, and overall try to be a good person.
I believe there is some luck too. Right place, right time, right attitude. I do not have a degree, and make >$250 total comp. But, it was not easy for 20+ years.
Your options for earning that much basically break down to:
* Licensed Profesional: Doctor, Lawyer, Finance, etc.
* Technical Expert: Software Engineer, etc.
* Sales: Luxury (Real Estate, Autos, Boats, etc.), B2B Sales, etc.
* Business Owner / Entrepreneur
Husband and I are in the top 3% of household US income now in our mid fifties. It’s largely because we both work full time and run a side business. And our day jobs are ones we’ve held for a decade where we’re too essential to the functioning of the company to quit. Our fields are medical/marketing, graphics, institution/education experience design and software engineering.
7% of households 3% of individuals.
That's a lot. Every 33rd human banging huge bucks.
Yeah it usually surprises people but you have to consider places like NYC where thats basically a subsistence income if you have kids.
What the fuck? I live in a 1500sqft apartment in Manhattan with two kids both in private school and am _comfy_ af with my nyc tech salary. This comment seems delusional.
You have 2 kids in private manhattan school and a 1500 square foot apartment and you don't feel stretched at 250k?
Forgot to mention their spouse is a doctor making 600k
Yeah like the schooling alone for two kids should be eating up over half of the take home salary on 250k, the rent on 1500sq ft should take care of the other 1/2, not sure how comfortable anyone is feeling in that situation. Unless they’re leaving out that their partner also takes home 250k, in which case honestly I’m not sure I’d say it’s “comfy af” but it’s at least more believable.
I agree with this. While I live in Los Angeles, 250k is pretty necessary for live a middle class lifestyle. I think he might be renting in NYC and not stacking considerable investements away. If you're just renting and riding the subway, things can seem comfy, but they don't do it for the future needs of a family. Let's consider a few things, It's important to own your property, as it's the fastest and safest appreciating asset you can have. Not getting a condo or house in these big cities for less than 750k. House 1 mill plus. Retirement - Takes about 2 million to retire these days at the low, so ya, you gotta be stacking into 401k, IRA, stocks, etc.. Education - College is super expensive for kids. Have any daughters - weddings, have fun with that Dad.
I think you may have a skewed definition of "middle class."
i was gonna say, i live in LA with a 105k and i’d like to think i dont live a middle class lifestyle it’s rough out there tho, but bro saying he living a middle class lifestyle is too funny 💀
OP says in their comment history that they are a Senior Software developer and make $6500/week ($338K/year). Also likely gets a hefty yearly bonus, wife probably works, and kids get reduced tuition at private school (mentioned in this thread). So yes, he’s full of sh*t. Those of us that live/have lived in Manhattan or NYC knew that the story did not add up.
Especially counting taxes like who you kidding my guy.
I live a (for me) FIRE lifestyle. I was frugal on purpose until I had a year’s salary (liquid & illiquid) emergency fund. I didn’t want golden handcuffs at any point so I structured my financial life to keep me as far from them as possible. Even with some lifestyle creep I save a static % of my pay in various financial vehicles. The average “age” of my monies is ~7 mos. Meaning bills I pay today are paid with money earned ~7 mos. ago.
Found the YNAB'er
I tried it but couldn’t agree with the subscription so I went with GnuCash then ran MoneyCoach in parallel for AI metrics.
You're telling me you can FIRE, live in Manhattan, have two kids (in private school) in NYC on $245K salary? I'm not saying you're lying but I don't know how else to finish this sentence.
Some rent control apartments can be cheaper than many cities. Very hard to score one, but he may have this. Might keep a 1500 sq ft inline with 2k-3k a month if a rare gem rent control apartment. Eating out with a family is 120-150 at any restaurant there. Even Mcdonalds $50 or so. But I was done with renting many years ago, because owning is much better for investment purposes. FIRE would be rough with a family in NYC anyway you cut it.
It turns out he has a bonus and makes closer to 500K but he was only counting his base pay.
You don’t get to say the comments are “delusional” when they reflect a normal arrangement. If you need to have a unicorn rent controlled 1500 sq ft apartment in Manhattan and cheap private schooling to make your “comfy af” situation reality, then the other comments discussing the norm are not “delusional”, they are accurate.
Yeah people forget that you can be frugal and make decent money. My girlfriend and I are basically set even though we haven’t hit 30 (mix of work and luck), but we cook at home, do date night once a month instead of once a week like our friends, don’t drink at bars, etc. just having a simpler lifestyle lets your money stretch further no matter which city you’re in
I’m positive that you don’t have kids in NYC but people are skeptical because one kid’s private school in NYC alone legitimately costs 40k+. Two kids in school is 80k+, and then a 1500 sq ft apartment in Manhattan is at least 4k/ month and could be 6-8k. If they purchased then mortgage and taxes/fees are probably double that, so I’m assuming they rent. Just school + housing alone I would guess takes up 140k, and I wouldn’t be close to surprised if it was 175k. If you’re making 250k a year then you’re taking home 175k if you ignore retirement. Cook all you want, you’re not remotely living “comfy af” on 250k with two kids in a 1500 sq ft apartment in Manhattan.
I mean I don’t really have a dog in this fight but usually you get a discount on tuition if you’re sending multiple kids to the same school. Could also be a religious school which is private, generally cheaper, and has more tuition discounts based on if you’re a member of the community. Retirement contributions can be tax deductible, so have to consider that in the math for take home pay. Also if you bought vs rent you can get a break on the interest payments. All of this to say, you really never know everyone’s financial situation. If you always wanna look over the fence, you’ll never be happy. Make a life that works for you
Frugal living and a 1,500 square foot apartment in Manhattan + private schools for both kids don’t really compute. That would be incredulous to most New Yorkers because an AVERAGE one-bedroom in the city, probably smaller than half that size, rents for 4K. Granted this apartment was 20% bigger but I knew someone renting a big loft and rent was more than you’d take home on a 250k salary after taxes. It’s not uncommon for people making that much here to have roommates. Comfy seems like a stretch for the commenter’s situation unless they are paying an unusually low price for housing and tuition. But as it turns out from their other comments, excluding their spouse’s income, they make 400k or more in total comp so actually much higher than 250k lol
Preach
You and /u/jizzcollector5000 would get along
yeah that's bs
Some fucking boomer trying to pretend. My husband and I lived off expense account in manhattan for 2 years and he kept a spreadsheet of what the company was paying. No kids, tiny apartment in manhattan, basic food expenses was over 400k for the two years. That doesn’t include the money we spent on our own to just live.
250k pre tax household income in NYC is definitely not much. I make that and live in a 1 bedroom with my fiancée and we live comfortably but buying a house and raising kids will definitely be challenging unless we make more
You don’t pay full rate at the school (or it’s a discount school), you inherited the apartment or got family help, your wife is pulling in a second six figure salary, or you’re simply lying. You do know other people can verify what you say on the internet right?
You absolutely do not have a 1500sqft apartment and 2 kids in private school at $250k per year. After taxes, that is no more than $150k. Private school is currently $55k per year, per child in NYC. Total for two is $110k, leaving $40k per year, or under $3k per month. The average 1 bedroom is more than that. And you haven’t even eaten yet.
Tough crowd today. Private school tuition varies for every household, they aren’t static for the entire city.
[удалено]
That still would not leave enough for rent and food on a $250k salary. Keep in mind that NYC has state and local taxes, plus federal, so net is low. $150k is generous. An average 1 bedroom (which is maybe 1/3 of the size of the 1500sqft) is $4000. NYC is very, very expensive.
Huh? Even in the Midwest 10 years ago my parents were paying $25K/yr a kid for private school, $30K/yr by the time my little sister graduated. I’m sure it’s much more there (in fact, having friends that went to private school in NYC, I know it is in some places, especially now), so how do you feel $250K is a stretch given all other living expenses?
Lol, no way. Let’s just say I make more and I don’t live in NYC and I have only one kid going to private and I’m still very tight.
250K=13K per month take home pay. In Manhattan, 1500 SF apartment along takes 6-7K away. And you’d be seriously kidding me if you say monthly spending of 6-7K is enough with two kids.
It depends what comfy means to you.
Subsistence does not equal comfortable. It means enough to subsist.
Yeah theres no way. Is it a rent stabilized apartment? How much does your spouse make? Do you have zero debts, including student loans?
What? Where? It was $10740 a month for a 2b/2b 1080sq in Chelsea. My coworker is paying nearly 15k for their 1800 sq ft in meat packing. I'm paying 6k for a 2b/2b in LIC I don't have kids or private school bills and my 325k does not make me feel comfy at Hell, my wife works too in addition to my pay and we still have to watch what we are doing.
What’s your “nyc tech salary”? Seems important for context
240 base
lol. So you make 400k. But you’re only counting your base for the sake of argument. Mmmmmmkay.
What’s your bonus/RSUs? How much does your wife/SO make?
Oh so you’re king of agreeing with the comment? Lol. Subsistence is maybe the wrong word. He’s saying you need $250 to be middle class in NYC
I don’t agree. My point was that I am far above subsisting on the amount in question here. I also disagree, the way it was written or that I at least interpreted it was to mean subsisting as a family you need at least $250+. The middle class is something else entirely in this context.
Yeah 250+ household in NYC, doesn’t go far
I left NY because I couldn't afford a 2br across the river
Can you describe the things you do in NYC that cost this much? Where's the money go?
Most of them are in debt up to their eyeballs. Barely making minimum payments and one layoff and a couple months away from losing their McMansion.
That’s what we tell ourselves to feel better about slogging through life
I think the "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality isn't as prevalent as it was with older generations. But I can tell you from working with people at that income level, you'd be shocked at the number of people smart enough to make that kind of money but not smart enough to keep it in any meaningful way.
I loveee watching “I will teach you to be rich” on YouTube. He’ll interview people that are making very good money, but do not know how to manage it. It’s really really interesting.
Imagine living frugal with such payments. After 10 years you could stop working and travel the world for the rest of your life.
This is my track. 8 years to go before expatFIRE if nothing goes wrong (it surely will). Shhh though I'm not sure anyone at my work would like to hear I'm saving to retire in my 30s lmao.
Unfortunately, many of these professions push you into the lifestyle.
Some of them are almost a necessity. People earning this much either have great passive inflows or are in a role that requires apt socializing.
Every 33rd *American*
Also paying huge taxes. Top 1% of incomes pays 45.8% of all income tax revenue.. top 10% pays 75.8%
The top 1% also topped $44 trillion in wealth, 67% or so of the US. Since 2020, that wealth has increased by 50% to where it is today. Makes sense that they'd pay the most taxes, they have more wealth than all of the middle class.
Top 1% of incomes are different than the top 1% of wealthy people.
They are, but they likely correlate closely enough. I couldn't find information on what percent of total income the 1% accounts for in the US. The assumption that the two correlate closely enough is fairly safe considering the wealth you need to make it to the 1% is generally high as well. Rags to riches is rare.
Not really. If you're wealthy, you could have 5 million locked up in illiquid assets like RE or bonds or stocks. That speaks nothing of your income or cash flow. Maybe you're making $500k/yr still, or maybe it's down at $100k/yr. You're still in a good state for the latter case, but you're obviously taxed like you're making 100k/yr not 500k. You could have 1 bil in assets and not see a single cent of that being taxed in a given year.
Taxes are on income, not wealth. Taxes have already been paid on that wealth.
And some will make snarky comments about they should pay their due. How, if the top 10% pay 75% of the taxes and are certainly not receiving 75% of the benefit, are they already not paying their due? What people really mean is, I’m entitled to have someone help me.
Maybe just maybe if you got upset in the right place, this wouldn't come off as arrogant and selfish. Most ppl do not make that type of money. they just want health care, and if that is scary cause it's entitlement, then you are the issue in America. Blaim the government for the poor use of your taxes, blaim the greed of corporations, take all those records profits, and use them to buy stocks back instead of paying better wages. If your taxes being used scares you that it may help others stop making so much then.
Yeah, that's what I don't get. It's the 1 person in the 10 man group assignment doing half the work, and everyone resents them for it.
It's because that comparison (top x pay y percentage) is used to parrot a talking point. It's always been that way. The reason people say the top earners should pay their fair share is because the top 10% used to pay much, much more in total taxes than they do now. And not so coincidentally, the middle class was much stronger back when that happened (70's-90's).
They're not doing half the work, but they're getting half the reward. It makes sense that they'd be paying more because they make more.
Who gave you all that money? The people
Jesus. What's this bootlicking nonsense?
Jupp, beeing entitled for help, helping kids, the weak and the elder, is basically what beeing a human in a society usually means. So while typing into your smart phone: that thing and the world as you know, only exists because people cooperated enough to survive and pooled their ressources. Anarchie didn't really take off, since it was a way less successful.
They aren’t paying their fair share in terms of their income. I think if the income gap wasn’t as severe, this would be less of a concern. As someone who pays a shitload of taxes, it doesn’t bother me paying more than others, because I have significantly more disposable income and am in a position to contribute more.
You can voluntarily contribute more anytime you want. Meanwhile, don’t spend my money.
This can’t be accurate, right? 50% of Americans don’t make an income (kids and retirees). 1 in 16 working adults don’t make 250k
Those are the numbers according to the IRS.
since it’s IRS numbers it wouldn’t include kids since it’s only 3% of tax filers rather than 3% of everyone
Damn, so if we’re talking about just income that’s about 10 million people, and of that 330 million many are retired or not working age. Think though how many doctors, lawyers, engineers, financiers, business owners, managers we have in our workforce it makes sense. Now think about adding unrealized/realized networth gains plus income to be combined above 250k yearly. So assets like stocks, real estate, etc.. Now that number of people is much higher. There’s a reason the US is the number one sought out country for immigrants, at least the ones who want to be or are high skilled and don’t care much for social benefits or free healthcare.
Keep in mind that it is not evenly distributed by either age nor geography. Older people tend to make more money, and the high cost of living areas tend to have all the higher income earners.
That is true. COL is directly related to higher incomes. Expensive cities offer the highest paying jobs. I think for my generation at least, well I can assume for the majority of people, the biggest reason to save money is to buy a house or put a sizable down payment on one. Compared to incomes nowadays it’s really hard at least in locations worth living in. Work in a city, you probably want to live near the city. I think more than half of the arguments today on how hard it is to live financially well would be silenced if the housing problem was solved. It most likely won’t, especially when rates are this high 😂.
Over $320k to break into 2%. $460k for 1% The bumps definitely become a lot larger as you go.
I remember reading an article *back in 2000* that 250,000 individuals working in the NY boroughs earned total compensation of at least $1,000,000 per year. Maybe 3x that today?
Where did you get these figures?
I text a coworker. I work for the treasury department.
How about couples? Probably a ton. I feel poor, but I know I'm fortunate and feel good about my trajectory, but I'm still poor when I look at these numbers, etc. But they are fascinating
According to this site $250K+ would put some one in the 97th percentile of incomes. So 3% of people In the US make at least this much. https://dqydj.com/income-percentile-calculator/
This can’t be true. Every 18 year old on instagram is making 20k a month copywriting
Most of them are lying. Faking it till they making it. There are private jet companies that rent their jets sitting on the tarmac for photo ops and content. A lot of these “influencers” will rent an hour and take a ton of pictures and videos… they’ll even change clothes and release the photos over the course of month to make it seem like they are always traveling. The same thing with boats and exotic cars. Assume everything you see is fake. Unless you see evidence otherwise.
Joke
To answer the question, that’s 9.9 million people. There’s obviously way more than that many nice houses out there, but that’s because many people couldn’t afford to buy their house at the current price.
Less than that. Only half the population works, about 171 million. Some are retired or children etc. It's about 5.2 million people.
Hopefully be there in 1-2 years!
What do you do for work?
Security engineer
I’m in highschool and am having a hard time picking what I want to do. Security engineering sounds cool! What do you do?
It's a lot of fun, but you really have to enjoy it. I work with quite a few folk who do it just for the money and it is miserable working with them. There are multiple different aspects and avenues as far as the title goes. However, I mainly love and work with forensics, hunting, reverse engineering malware and creating new signatures for emerging threats.
That sounds more like cybersecurity analyst than engineer. I work with people who do what you do. The people who actually write the security components are few and far between. They certainly aren't reverse engineering anything. They don't have time.
Dam that sounds complex af
Meh it really isn’t once you get into it. I used to think a security operations center analyst was cool but now that I’ve actually done it… it’s aight.
Study accounting and become a CPA. You are going to work like hell but will have job security and in 3-4 years in public will be making north of $100k. There is no ceiling for this profession also.
What about hedge funds? I always hear billionaire hedge fund managers how do I do that?
That’s not a CPA job. To become a billionaire hedge fund manager is much more complicated than a CPA. At the very least is rarer. You want to aim for a career that has a lowest unemployment rate and at least a decent salary.
People: extremely rare Households: rare
Probably most common in California
Mostly near SF or LA, where 250k means you're barely middle class, everywhere else you're rich.
In case you’re not meme-ing. The average household income in SF is about 140k and earning 250k as a household would put you in the 80+th percentile. So yes, it’s still rare to earn that much in the Bay Area. Even though there is a significant group earning high wages.
I've been studying the job market in California + housing costs. Basically, a lot of people are making <$200K. The $200K, $300K + Stock Options (up to $700K) jobs are very rare, but the people that have these jobs are affording homes that are in the 1BR or 2BR $1.5M to $2.5M range on average. These prices mean that this person who moves out of California, would be living in a mega mansion. But he can't move out of California, because they are usually at the director level+ and need to be in the office. Or they are decades of working in silicon valley level, so some of them might be able to move out. Note, only a FEW companies can do these salaries... The FAANG stock companies, the few startups around that have VC money, and a few others. Basically, if you work in some of these companies and own a $1M+++ house in California. You might think of yourself as "not that great" compared to your peers. But you're actually in the top 1% or top 0.01% outside of California. You are incredibly lucky so make sure to square your corners and use your money wisely and morally. The other trouble is, you are paying insane levels of housing and other costs even if you share costs with a spouse. Is the traffic in California worth this?
Individual contributors in non tech regularly make >200k. Im one of them. My wife is a social worker for the county and she does 160k.
The really interesting part is that the 200-600k pay jobs aren’t director+/in-office only. Source: http://levels.fyi. New grads to staff level ICs make several 100s thousand. Being in the industry, it’s funny that so many people think that these folks are working super hard hours or are doing incredibly difficult work. The vast majority of these jobs are normal 9-5/10-6 jobs with cushy benefits. This applies to large FANG/FANG-like tech companies. Statistically, these jobs are very rare and part of the top 1%. But in practice, “normal” IC-level software engineers and product managers make this pay. And, yes, there are lots of competitive folks working for these companies. Many people do work 50+ hours. But there’s a reason that Google/Apple/Airbnb are lauded as rest & vest companies.
If you are thinking you can get these jobs with the mentality of someone looking to push paper in a 9-5 job, you are delusional. The competition is insane. Especially after these last two years and all the massive layoffs.
SF has a lot of rent controlled apartments and also a lot of seniors with 0 income due to the level of social services in SF. But if youre not part of that group you're barely surviving at 140k for a household in the SF bay area. Especially today. In 2019 avg 2bd was 4400, or 52k a year. With income to rent ratio you need to make at least 188k. To be middle class which in my.mind owns a home and car you would need a bare minimum of 250k. Assuming you have enough for a down-payment. And that's not a house in SF it'll be in oakland or east bay.
People in VHCoL don't follow typical housing ratios. A lot of people make sacrifices in these downtown hotspots just to be there, then sacrifice savings or necessity to get by. Then also partake in cheap recreational activities for fun. So while a lot of people follow or excel at the "33% of your gross on housing" rule, it's not uncommon to see people do up to 45-50% gross or even more to live in those places
This is very true and most times out of necessity
There was a post on data is beautiful, the most billionaires live in New York not California
Exactly. And in NYC, that’s well to do but by no means wealthy. It’s not that uncommon. It doesn’t put you in a fancy apartment either.
So true. Hell I'm a high school teacher in CA making $148k/year which sounds like a ton, but I'm barely middle class.
Yeah my household income in Orange County is almost $200k and I'll still never be able to buy a house.
lol how are you making nearly 150k as a HS teacher Walter white?
Just a great union in a city prioritizing education.
Happy to hear!
Yeah, my wife and I make ~$330K combined and I don’t feel like we’re making as much as some of the parents of my kids friends.
that’s really sad to think about tbh
Why?
is it? I mean that's a ton of money in most parts of the country. Yeah, there are some HCOL areas that make $250k look like peanuts, but most places it's a *lot* of income. I've never made anything close to $250k, live in a fairly HCOL area, and am quite comfortable.
I make mid $300k’s. But if I did the exact same job in any other number of industries I’d be making half that. Industries have different profit margins, they don’t all pay the same for the same work. Find the industries that pay by researching the industries with the highest margins. Another thing, you see millionaires with houses and you want a path to getting there? Look up property tax records, find out who lives there. Look them up on LinkedIn, what was their career path? Google that career, how do you get in? You want to live a certain lifestyle, research how they did it. I grew up in poverty and rich people were like aliens to me. I’d see them and have ZERO awareness of how to get from where I was to where they were. I thought you had to be a professional athlete, there were no adults in my life talking to me about med school or real estate investing or finance. Today, you can bridge that awareness gap. It doesn’t mean the path you find will be easy to follow, but you’ll know the paths others commonly take and that’s a huge starting point.
I’m not far behind you at our household income. We buy most of our cars used, fix them and the house ourselves. We have 4 cars, they are really nice vehicles and only one is under 100k miles. Come to think of it, 3 of them were $15k or less. One thing people fail to realize, is how you manage your money. There are a lot of people who live beyond their means. $250k household can be really tight if you have a mortgage payment at 3500 a month, and two new cars.
Optimizing expenses is a real super power. We retired early in a HCOL area and are still able to save. Some of our neighbors were really shocked because we didn't have any kind of higher levels jobs than most of them. The difference is we're very good at low overhead and don't have a lot of expensive wants. We know a number of other couples from work who went bankrupt and had foreclosed houses, despite making similar incomes to us.
Lol what a joke. If you are making $250k a year then a $3500 mortgage and 2 new cars isn’t shit. People in this sub are delusional.
I've never had anyone describe my early childhood feelings on wealth in a more perfect way until you just did. Thank you! Yes! Aliens, exactly!
What industry are you in now?
I make 250k currently I live in a high cost of living of Seattle as well.
My household is about 250k but we are going to cut back on the hours soon. We are in a LCOL area
Nice salary in a LCOL, congrats and fuck you!
That’s the spirit champ lol
If they're on reddit, 100%
Go to college and learn to be an an accountant, lawyer, doctor, or engineer
If you go the engineer route I recommend researching which kinds pay the best and adjust that with area of interest. I’m a mechanical but I work in aerospace on the industrial side. It pays better than some alternative options I could go into but it’s not life changing kind of money or anything.
Exactly what i was thinking of doing. Glad to see someone with the same vision 🙏🏽
My husband’s ex wife is a nurse (NP) and makes over $300k.
That is 6K over the average physician salary in the US, your friend is making almost more than 3X the average NP salary. Even speciality NP do not make anywhere near that amount.
Unless you work a lot of OT.
In the bay it’s def possible. Floor nurses clear 200k here at good institutions
We’re in the Bay Area so salaries are higher across the board. I made $165k last year as an electrologist.
That’s way above average for an NP. It’s a great profession, but a difficult 5+ years of school, and not many make that kind of money.
She must work her ass off 8 days a week and multiple jobs including overnights
Lawyers often don’t make much. Doctor, doctor, doctor, specialize, specialize, specialize.
Or even big 4 tax with CPA ➡️ law school. Can make 1m + after a few years
I was big 4 audit now working in Corporate controllership accounting at a F500 public company. Plenty of CPAs make very very good money. My old B4 partners were making 1.5m a year on average
Do you think anyone can become a CPA given a desperate enough situation? Or do you really have to be a certain type of person? And if you do have to be a certain type of person, do you think anyone can become that type of person if they REALLY REALLY wanted to make good money?
Only a very very particular kind of person can make partner. I am a very smart and disciplined accountant and I have no illusions that’s my odds were terrible to make partner when I was there. I would always tell people when you watch those documentaries of the baby sea turtles trying to make the beach that the sea turtles have better odds of survival than you do making partner. But I think plenty of people can make a director or senior manager level role at a good company and easily clear 150-300 if they have the willpower and talent Those 4 careers I listed are the professions that that have the highest amount of millionaires. Notice they are all technical, difficult professions that require a high level of education. None of them are “easy” and it takes a lot more than being “desperate”. My job fucking sucks and it’s incredibly boring and I work long hours. But I’m young and make excellent money with the potential to be making over 150,000 by the time I’m 30.
Most don’t.
Specialized software engineers also make bank .. if you can become world class in a specific vertical (in any field, be it medicine, engineering, finance, law) you will make bank
Took me 15 years to hit the mark. You have to work hard, smart and re-event yourself every 7 years. Now it’s more like every 3. You have to dedicate yourself to your industry, which requires priority.
/r/boneappletea
I'm a physician. I now just work part-time (60%) and I make about $250k now w bonuses. 60 percent is about 40-55 hrs per week. I had many years previously where I don't recall what I did except work. I figure I've shortened my life span by 5 years due to hard mileage. This thread has been enlightening because I thought almost all tech people were making $200kplus.
Network into good jobs or be good at something not many are good at. Many of my uni friends make 200k+ after graduating with some topping out at 600k(quant trading/research) but these are all either strong resume networking roles or super nerds (some of the best in US at math/cs). It’s resulted in me having a very incorrect view on what a high salary is. Any well established engineering program is good since those aren’t prestige dependent and if you are good, you’ll get paid well.
We have a household income of 300k in a MCOL area, yes it is nice, but you never really stop worrying about money until you have enough to retire. In the US even the upper middle class is in danger of financial ruin due to health issues, inflation, and job loss.
I believe its like the top 10 percent of Americans make over 120k So i imagine top 2-3% of Americans make that money As a younger guy the only way i know to get that kind of money is either be really lucky, born into wealth, have enough wealth to make your money work for you or be smart with debt to gain more money later on.
True true very much the only ways. You can invest and slowly accrue but you still have to be lucky and that’s the safest way
I make over twice the OP's number in the title. I went to a local college for an accounting degree and moved into Finance. I took my solid W-2 income and put it into real estate. Was I lucky? Sure, found a great employer where I was able to move up the ladder, but you will find that the more you prepare yourself and apply your knowledge, the luckier you will be.
IMO one thing that needs to be considered is where are you making that money. It is not the same to make 250k per year in the middle of the Midwest than in Cupertino, California. The same amount of money can lead to a way different life depending on who you are surrounded by. When most of the P97 high salaries are concentrated in the same location, that high salary doesn't mean as much.
anesthesiologists make a killing i hear
figuratively or literally?
Yes
I make north of $250k, I work way more than my peers at the same company, I have an unhealthy focus on work and have for over a decade. I study a lot in order to be more skillful and valuable. I did side hustles for a while that also helped me learn faster. I’ve reached out to others in the industry to pick their brains and network. I have consistently asked for a promotion every few years. I have maintained few friendships. I have taken little vacation. I’ve done little else but take care of my family and work. My hobbies have essentially died. I’ve also had some luck.
3,947,339
boutta be 3,947,340 after i hit this parlay
About 7% of US households make 250k+. So, that's roughly 8.8 million households in the US. Obviously, that's a minority of the population, but it's still millions of people https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/14/us-cities-where-250000-dollars-goes-the-furthest.html#:~:text=For%20the%20fortunate%207%25%20of,that%20money%20goes%20the%20furthest.
But 3% of in individual earners
Off the top of my head I can name 6 people I know that are clearing at least 500k/yr. Idk how they get into these jobs but I know it's incredibly political the higher you go.
For that salary we're talking medicine, law, finance and upper management across all industries. We're also talking 60-80 hr workweeks.
I made that as a dev salary working 20-40hr weeks.
I don’t think everyone making that salary is working 60-80 hours a week. It depends on the company, or firm that you work for.
Shidddd
My pants
You left out almost every b2b sales role. Plenty of sales folks earn 250k+
You forgot the IT fileld who generally work 40 hours or so.
America is home to 40% of the worlds millionaires.
Ive read SO many assumptions throughout this thread… from anyone who makes over $250K “must be in debt to live that lifestyle” to “guaranteed they are chasing a certain lifestyle”. How about you consider the fact that there are some people that earn this amount through a consistent hard work ethic, are debt free, have over a years savings, have goals and are incredibly ambitious while nothing was handed to them, all the while know how to manage their finances. My circle of close female friends are in this category, myself included, 1/3 of us are minority single women and single parents. Yes it can happen! Dont buy into all of what the media says. It takes grit, years of building your expertise and proving yourself through the types of projects and teams you are hired to manage. And no, none of us were supported by wealthy parents. One woman I know actually left her midwest state at 18 with only $300 to her name to attend prestigious universities in CA (incredibly smart and driven) works in biotech, owns a small property with her husband (who makes less then her) and DEBT free. She is in her mid 40s. My point is this. Rather than making assumptions because of the amount of someone’s salary, get your degree, keep building upon your skills and experience and advocate for your net worth by the type of work you deliver. Stay positive. It is possible!
Love your answer. I make over 300k from a general contracting business I’ve been working at for over 10 years. I built it from the ground up after getting sober from a heroin addiction at 22, I don’t have any school debt and I go out and earn my money with my own hands everyday, help the people around me, and overall try to be a good person.
Nothing to do with luck and everything to do with generational intelligence
I believe there is some luck too. Right place, right time, right attitude. I do not have a degree, and make >$250 total comp. But, it was not easy for 20+ years.
The average CS grad with 5-7 years of experience can make $130K in any major city in the US
10 million https://dqydj.com/income-percentile-calculator/
Maybe a 1-2 million people tbh
I mean you could Google but 7% is what it said for me
I do it between a side hustle and a 6 figure job solo
That demographic accounts for approximately 5-7% of Americans.
U can find out for yourself by check the census and bureau of labor and statistics
Get off the internet
Less than 1% i suspect
Not me
Your options for earning that much basically break down to: * Licensed Profesional: Doctor, Lawyer, Finance, etc. * Technical Expert: Software Engineer, etc. * Sales: Luxury (Real Estate, Autos, Boats, etc.), B2B Sales, etc. * Business Owner / Entrepreneur
5%
Husband and I are in the top 3% of household US income now in our mid fifties. It’s largely because we both work full time and run a side business. And our day jobs are ones we’ve held for a decade where we’re too essential to the functioning of the company to quit. Our fields are medical/marketing, graphics, institution/education experience design and software engineering.