This says a lot about how little Americans actually earn these days - it doesn't take a big number to impress them. On the other hand I really don't think the average person can comprehend how much money the average CEO gets because it's simply beyond their powers of comprehension.

Either way, beware those who are spinning the tale of $150K means "rich" as a precursor of brainwashing people into thinking taxing the rich is bad. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those tax the rich to death guys. I'm only suggesting we actually collect the taxes due from the well off and eliminate all the dodges. Effective tax rates are reality; tax brackets are fictional starting points.

"Rich" for most people means no debt, freedom to stop working, and do a few things with the kids. It isn't so much a dollar figure as a statement about their quality of life. They used to call that "The Middle Class."

If more salaries went up with inflation 150k a year would be like a middle management wage. (Based roughly on the prices of gas and wheat for the past 30 years.)

On another note, 150k goes much further in some areas than others.

I make $150K/yr and I'm most assuredly NOT rich.

I have a nice home, a couple of decent cars and a refrigerator, but I also have a mortgage.

If I were rich, I'd be commuting in a helicopter, not on farking NJ Transit.

This is just a symptom of how shiatty life is becoming for the lower middle class... if you're living in a van down by the river, your neighbor rockin' a single wide and cruising in a '79 Camaro looks like Donald Trump.

Nope, that's not rich at all. I make about $100k, and we've got a mortgage, an 8 year old van, a 20 year old truck, student loans and run out of money by the end of the pay period.

I don't know how someone making average salary makes it.

edmo: This says a lot about how little Americans actually earn these days - it doesn't take a big number to impress them.

Came to write this almost word-for-word. It's more an indication of how badly wages have fallen in real terms in the past thirty years.

I know my share of rich people and none of them consider themselves rich.

Eddie Adams from Torrance: I make $150K/yr and I'm most assuredly NOT rich.

seems so to me.... 33k a year. I have a home, one good car, 2 old trucks, appliances and a mortgage... Oh and 2 teenagers with no spouse or second income. Sadly I am considered a high paid worker in my area

Majick Thise: Eddie Adams from Torrance: I make $150K/yr and I'm most assuredly NOT rich.

seems so to me.... 33k a year. I have a home, one good car, 2 old trucks, appliances and a mortgage... Oh and 2 teenagers with no spouse or second income. Sadly I am considered a high paid worker in my area

I think region is important here as well. Don't get me wrong, the people who say you can't live in NYC on $150K are crazy- of course you can if you live within your means. But of course, $150K only goes so far in NYC. In contrast, if you live in a different part of the country it can go quite far.

As I reread my post it appears a bit biatchy and I didn't mean it that way

anyway yeah coco, region is probably a big factor. Here in Podunk, Midwest money goes further but wages go down and prices go up just like anywhere else

Majick Thise: Eddie Adams from Torrance: I make $150K/yr and I'm most assuredly NOT rich.

seems so to me.... 33k a year. I have a home, one good car, 2 old trucks, appliances and a mortgage... Oh and 2 teenagers with no spouse or second income. Sadly I am considered a high paid worker in my area

I'm guessing you don't live in the NY metro area... with NY state, NYC, real estate,school taxes etc, it's very expensive to live in this part of the country.... I spend $500/month on farking commuting costs.

I'm complaining, I know it's a trade-off. I could move to Mississippi and probably halve my cost of living, but then I'd be hard pressed to earn what I earn in NY. I consider myself in the solid upper middle class segment... To me, middle class means you can afford to drop a couple hundred dollars going into NY for an evening... if you're rich, you fly to Paris for lunch.

Eddie Adams from Torrance:
I'm complaining

LOLFREUDIANSLIPPAD! I'm NOT complaining.

Another thing to keep in mind is that it really depends on how long you're making that type of salary. For a lot of companies, once you hit that type of compensation, you are becoming a liability if they can find somebody to do your job for less. Lots of people though, once they hit a high salary, start living as if they will always be making that type of income, and that's when you get into trouble. Instead of saving the extra money they make, they start living a more luxurious lifestyle, and buying houses or other big items that require years to pay off with the expectation that they will continue to make as much or more. That used to be kind of a truism. As you got older, you made more. It's not really true anymore though.

If $150K/year is "rich", where are my servants, vacation homes, private jet, and yacht?

jaytkay: Median household income in the US is below $50K.

$150K puts you in the top 3%.

If you think $150K is not a lot, you are a douchebag.

Nobody is saying that $150K/yr is not a lot, but here in the northeast, that gets you a nice 2500 sq foot home, a big screen TV, a Lexus, and a little left over for retirement savings.

It doesn't buy you 5 mansions, a Lamborghini a yacht and a Lear Jet... you know, the things that RICH people have.

Is 150K a year rich? No. Is it beyond comfortable? Oh, you betcha! $150K/year = $2884.62 per week. Now, let's say we're working 50 hours (maybe conservative, who knows), the hourly rate is $57.69/hour. Can't live on it? DIAMFF. LEARN to live on it, and quit your biatching.

GoodyearPimp: I get by on less than a third of that, so the question is: "where the hell are you spending it all?" Of course if I was making that much, I wouldn't be spending it on servants, extra homes or any of that either.

Link (new window)

final answer

jaytkay: Median household income in the US is below $50K.

$150K puts you in the top 3%.

If you think $150K is not a lot, you are a douchebag.

This comment put things into perspective for me.

Right now I'm making a little over $200K, but I don't feel rich at all. That might be because I've just started making that much, and have always been paid in the $60K range before. I suppose if I were still making that kind of money and read about someone making $150K or more that was "complaining" about not feeling rich, I'd feel the same way too.

The reality is, I still live in the same shiat hole apartment, have the same clothes and drive the same car as I did when salary was a 1/3 as much. Because my wife is unemployed and can't get a job, I'm now paying for ALL of the bills (including the credit card bills she brought into the marriage) and don't end up with anymore at the end of the month than I did before.

Yes, we could move from the S.F Bay Area to the Midwest and live like kings - but we've never lived anywhere but here and wouldn't last one winter out there.

Anyway, my point is, I see where you're coming from, but don't assume that people making a certain amount are living a certain lifestyle. Some of us are struggling just as much as we were before...which is what should give all of us incentive to make more.

8 inches: Right now I'm making a little over $200K, but I don't feel rich at all. That might be because I've just started making that much, and have always been paid in the $60K range before. I suppose if I were still making that kind of money and read about someone making $150K or more that was "complaining" about not feeling rich, I'd feel the same way too.

The reality is, I still live in the same shiat hole apartment, have the same clothes and drive the same car as I did when salary was a 1/3 as much. Because my wife is unemployed and can't get a job, I'm now paying for ALL of the bills (including the credit card bills she brought into the marriage) and don't end up with anymore at the end of the month than I did before.

Yes, we could move from the S.F Bay Area to the Midwest and live like kings - but we've never lived anywhere but here and wouldn't last one winter out there.

Anyway, my point is, I see where you're coming from, but don't assume that people making a certain amount are living a certain lifestyle. Some of us are struggling just as much as we were before...which is what should give all of us incentive to make more.


How does one find one of those jobs? I've got a good brain for logic, estimating, supervising, and office experience. Is this pure networking at that point? Where do I find these people to network with? Should I hang out at the snooty tourist bar downtown and chat up the guys slamming $20 cocktails like they're the elixir of eternal life?

If you can't live off of $150K-$200k in the Northeast, it's not because of the area. It's because you are trying to live a lifestyle that is flat out sucking your money out of your accounts.

I live in one of the most expensive areas of the country, and I know people who make less than half that amount who have all the same bills, all the same cars, and all the same monetary issues a lot of people in here have but are somehow able to do more than just make ends meet.

Not to say that that amount of money makes someone rich, because that idea is pretty stupid. But it's enough to live very comfortably if you're at all good with money.

Goimir: 8 inches: Right now I'm making a little over $200K, but I don't feel rich at all. That might be because I've just started making that much, and have always been paid in the $60K range before. I suppose if I were still making that kind of money and read about someone making $150K or more that was "complaining" about not feeling rich, I'd feel the same way too.

The reality is, I still live in the same shiat hole apartment, have the same clothes and drive the same car as I did when salary was a 1/3 as much. Because my wife is unemployed and can't get a job, I'm now paying for ALL of the bills (including the credit card bills she brought into the marriage) and don't end up with anymore at the end of the month than I did before.

Yes, we could move from the S.F Bay Area to the Midwest and live like kings - but we've never lived anywhere but here and wouldn't last one winter out there.

Anyway, my point is, I see where you're coming from, but don't assume that people making a certain amount are living a certain lifestyle. Some of us are struggling just as much as we were before...which is what should give all of us incentive to make more.


How does one find one of those jobs? I've got a good brain for logic, estimating, supervising, and office experience. Is this pure networking at that point? Where do I find these people to network with? Should I hang out at the snooty tourist bar downtown and chat up the guys slamming $20 cocktails like they're the elixir of eternal life?

Start your own business. It's what I did.

Aarontology: Not to say that that amount of money makes someone rich, because that idea is pretty stupid. But it's enough to live very comfortably if you're at all good with money.

Or even a bit sloppy, but still very much this.

For the most part, people just want to be comfortable. They will vote for whoever, believe whatever, hand over their freedoms and keep up the status quo if you threaten them with being uncomfortable.

GoodyearPimp: LordZorch: If $150K/year is "rich", where are my servants, vacation homes, private jet, and yacht?

I get by on less than a third of that, so the question is: "where the hell are you spending it all?" Of course if I was making that much, I wouldn't be spending it on servants, extra homes or any of that either.

After taxes, I net around $7K/month (a little more after quarterly commissions).

$2500 pays my mortgage.
$500 for commuting and gas.
$500 for car payments
$1200 for school/property taxes
$500-800 for utilities

The rest goes for food, misc and savings.

We live well, but I'm not jetting off to Europe or eating out at $400 restaurants twice a week.
Somehow, we've managed to lower the bar so that middle class = rich.

I've made everything from 12K/yr to 225k/yr (most I ever made), and the one thing I learned: handling money. Most don't get it. Funny. It's more fun to live on a 6 figure income, but if you know HOW to live and what to buy and when, you can live on much less. Fun? No, but you get by fine.

hillbillypharmacist: I don't know how someone making average salary makes it.

I don't know how someone making your salary runs out of money at the end of the pay period.

/38K with mortgage, one car payment, and we go on 2 or 3 decent vacations a year

8 inches: Start your own business. It's what I did.



Sadly, not an option, unless you think it's a good idea for me to do mobile welding or tree service without any insurance. I've got a little 100 amp welder, a set of torches, a chainsaw, and some hand tools. I have no money unless I stop paying bills or stop eating. I'm already behind on bills and my car needs some work for it to be legal.

This whole thread feels like that commercial where the guy is talking about his 6 figure salary, his big house with the big yard, his luxury cars and his golf club membership. And then he says that he's up to his eyeballs in debt and he needs somebody to help him.

RexTalionis: This whole thread feels like that commercial where the guy is talking about his 6 figure salary, his big house with the big yard, his luxury cars and his golf club membership. And then he says that he's up to his eyeballs in debt and he needs somebody to help him.

Boy do I have the greatest plan for him! It'll only cost him $75k. He lives off 25k, and I live off of $50k for a year. At the end of this, I give him the rest of the money he made that year and in 3 months he's out of debt, as he's figured out how to live on boiled pine needles and condiment packets stolen from the local fast food restaurants.

Goimir: 8 inches: Start your own business. It's what I did.

[i372.photobucket.com image 640x480]

Sadly, not an option, unless you think it's a good idea for me to do mobile welding or tree service without any insurance. I've got a little 100 amp welder, a set of torches, a chainsaw, and some hand tools. I have no money unless I stop paying bills or stop eating. I'm already behind on bills and my car needs some work for it to be legal.

You want a cool story, ok, here it goes:

I started my own company after I was fired from my last job, my wife was going through cancer, I didn't have a penny in savings, and had been rejected from the 100's of jobs I'd applied to (all paying in the $40K-$50K range).

Perhaps the difference between myself and others that complain about not being able to get ahead was desperation - desperation to eat, to pay my wife's chemo bills, and keep a roof over our head.

When your back is up against a wall, you'd be surprised what you (or anyone) can accomplish.