My wife and I have a combined gross income over $200k. Just leave me out of your altruistic view of things. It really depends on where you live and what you do. It’s spending wisely, saving, and planning a career if not starting a business. For example, a 3 br 2 ba, 1500 Sq foot home in San Diego runs about $499,000 vs in Alabama cities it might run you $123,000. Most worked their ass off to give their families a decent go of it. I am in Canada but based on your figures I think we are on track. Below is a detailed budget I’ve put together for a family of four earning $350,000 living in an expensive metropolitan area. Reason being: there are some tax benefits out there for low/middle income families with children that would be less available or more difficult to administer (e.g., child tax credit, earned income tax credit, double standard deduction for MFJ couples, etc.). What I’m trying to get at is that when I was at an income level that was closer to the US average, I would have considered my current income and lifestyle to be “rich”, especially if I lived in one of the houses that we are considering buying (landing squarely in the “Executive Home” or mansionette category. My husband and I are considered by the government to be in the top 1.5% of wealthiest Americans… but we live in Southern California!! So what exactly are these people at $350,000 being the “upper middle” part of? Ohh.. you really need a financial adviser. I just found it curious that this article wouldn’t list any advice for those 20-somethings who make under $50K a year – especially considering the recent article featured on Money Under 30, “The 2015 Millienial Money Survey”. It was a real lesson. even with NY & SF, I don’t think most people make that much. I’m sorry but this article just plain sucks sucks. in this country 58% make less than 27k and 17% make less than 57k. But this much I can ASSURE you. Yea, but we bail out entire countries, die for other countries, hunt terrorist for the worlds protection, search for missing people and planes, buy Chinese crap for the Chinese people, give the Chinese and multiple other countries our jobs. Salary tax deductions are higher though, and there is no 401k, deduction for pensions are relatively big, and the final value you get when you retire is small, not to be compared to 401k or other private company pension schemes that exist in UK for example. I honestly don’t know what my net worth is, really, but I have zero debt, decent savings, a healthy retirement account, and enough disposable income that I don’t even really pay attention to it anymore. At that income level, I didn’t care whether I spent $10 at McDonald’s or $200 at a stake house. switching to a higher paying field, second job, overtime, further education/ credentials)? I know you have already subtracted federal, state and property taxes, because that is more than 30k. I get quite upset when this rich topic comes up, because I feel if you can cover your basic needs, you are good, if you can afford multiple cars and vacations in exotic places, multiple homes, etc… You need to be so grateful, you are rich. Look at the bright side. You also talked about how there are many different ways of being in that position. What you wrote here makes me sick. Of course $50 million is rich. That’s a still a very comfortable distance away, but even so, what they call property taxes here are what we called mortgage, taxes, and insurance, for a house twice the size (and half the cost) in the state I’d rather call home. Eventually a mansion is just like any other house and a bentley is just like any other car once you get used to it. To me “rich” means money is no longer an object. If I decide I don’t like the finance field as work. Didn’t know that book was written as he came out of college. Also, never take advice from people who have not achieved what they advise about. I live in Vancouver (Canada), and it’s the second most expensive city in the entire world when looked at income vs. living costs (housing prices, transit and transportation prices, etc). I’ve had my share of lucky breaks and not-so lucky breaks. My wife also just began studying to be a pharmacy tech, which will earn us an additional 30K annually. Perhaps there some wisdom in government policy. Childcare alone is going to eat up about 40% of your after tax income, and mediocre housing is going to eat away another 40%. You’ll like this post: Once You Have F You Money, It’s Hard To Tell Others To F Off! Learn to cook and make choices about what is worth a splurge. Then I stopped worrying about price tags on groceries, clothes, etc… when I started making ~$300k/year. Will you soon see me out of debt and on the road to building income and capital? @ Jai Catalano We are able to save and invest a ton, live in a nice house (2200 square feet), drive good cars etc with this income level. I consider myself rich, point and simple. He had the best definition of being rich. The more income you currently have, the more additional income it will take to consider yourself ‘rich’. So if you get audited, will they find you overlap expenses? You can trust the integrity of our balanced, independent financial advice. This post aims to discover the definition of rich. All said and done, I’ll have 100-150k in debt, which I’m okay with. There are definitely avenues of life right now where I could use a good sounding board. The stock market and real estate market are on fire.