I have noticed people think the 20% income number is low because of how our society is isolated from each other. In suburbs around my town, almost everyone is in top 20% and most people are in top 10%. If everyone you know and socialize with is in top 20%, you don't see the 80% that don't have that income level.

I started with nothing and managed to make into the top 1% bracket. The main thing you realize when you reach this bracket is the fact that you don't worry at all about money anymore. You have less desire to buy big houses and fancy cars. You just enjoy the freedom that it gives you.

Great info. I just retired at 58(3 months before hitting 59) zero debt, modest lifestyle afford, monthly Pension, and a net worth about 1.5mil depending on market. We barely made over $100k/year.

Last night I found out that my grandpa left my family 20 million dollars and today I’m doing my research. I just never thought he was THAT rich. I miss him so much. Rather have him than the money.

I love how much research you always do, and how you make it easily understood. And interesting.

I live in the Midwest. It is tough recruiting potential employees from other areas because what we consider a large salary here seems low to those candidates. I finally landed one after showing him the data. His cost of living here was low in comparison and the pay was near the top of the average in the sector of work (actually about $20K above the average). Location makes a huge difference on the standard of living based on income and net worth.

Great channel, Erin. From one creator to another, you're doing something right because I watched until the end! Nice work.

I’m 57 and our net worth hovers around $6.5M, but I can’t convince myself to retire (private sector with no pension). I started maxing out my 401(k) in my mid-20s, the day I started my career job. I asked my fiancé to do the same, jokingly as a condition of marriage. For 30-ish years we’ve aggressively invested in the stock market, both individual stocks and ETFs, and invested in qualified in and non-qualified accounts. We also dabbled in real estate for five years, owning four rentals at once but we really soured on it and sold all and went back into equities. The key to becoming wealthy is start early and to think long term, and most importantly live well below one’s means. We do spend about $20k/year on international and domestic trips, but in everything else we’re frugal and even pay cash for our Toyotas.

When you reach more than $5 millions net worth, your income primarily come from business/passive/capital gain, not earned income.

Very much agree that many households can reach $2,500,000 net worth by retirement age. It does take consistent savings/investing and a willingness to live a little beneath one’s means.

Really a great video. I wonder how this would play out with retired families as they don't have the income from employment. We fared higher than I thought. We always lived well below our means and avoided all debt unless absolutely necessary. Thanks!!

I'm 50 and have a net worth of 1.3M and household income of $180,000. Paid off my mortgage 2 years ago, no credit card debt or car loans. I guess i just entered the top 10%.

Great video. I went to school with a kid whose family is in the top 0.1 percent and we remain friends as adults. From time to time, he invites me to one of his many resort type homes in different parts of the world and really, these people live in a completely different world from the rest of us. Literally no comparison. It’s hard for me to remain grounded in my own reality after experiencing a few days of their world.

On a $40k annual income I have managed to build a $1m net worth in the last 8 years through smart investing and by having money to buy undervalued real estate. It isn't terribly hard, but it won't just fall into your lap either. What is holding people back? 1) Cars loans 2) Credit card debt 3) Lifestyle 4) Habits I've tried to help others as much as possible to be able to get out of the rat race, but sadly too many are just comfortable in their situation.

Many new college grads have negative net worth (due to student loans). Forty years ago I was one of them. I prioritized net worth goals (as opposed to income goals) and regularly tracked my/our progress. A ship that's not tracking a heading won't likely reach the intended destination.

Rich = income Wealthy = net worth

Great content! You may have already shared this but I would be interested in knowing your family’s net worth goal. I hope it is more acceptable to ask this rather than your current net worth. If not, I’m happy you are obviously making progress.

Love this video! You make talking about money not boring! Lol. Just subbed!

So glad I'm in the top 10%. After grinding for years, going through highs and lows I finally did it. I earned 1 million simoleons in the Sims 4.

Only 71 more payments and that Benz is all mine! Great video. I just retired with $3.7MM in retirement account and I find myself still substandard while driving around in my 2015 Ford Edge.

Do keep in mind a couple things when considering this data… 1)This data is for Households and there could be a significant difference in the financial well-being of a say a household with an income of $106K that has say two parents, four kids and maybe a grandparent living in the household, vs. say a single-member household making $106K. Both constitute a ‘household’ but they are obviously very different from a financial perspective (unless you adjust the data for household size). 2)The household income number is for the entire USA but there are significant cost of living differences in different areas of the US and as such, one’s actual disposable income could vary significantly depending on the region they live in.

Thank you for doing that research into this group. I wonder if you were in the top 20% or 10%, would you totally get how the 1% spend their $$$? Through your videos, I've learn that our household is up there in the 1 - 5% group. The 1 thing I would say though, is that nobody in my neighborhood would ever guess. We drive a brand new modest car, live in tiny home and do most of our landscaping ourselves as 1 of us is fully retired and I work part time. Everything that we do, its paid in cash, no mortgage whatsoever. Sometimes we feel snubbed by our moderately 20% group neighbors for not being rich as them, and then also snubbed by our middle income neighbors for not enjoying their feast of cheap pizzas, cheap beers and wine. Some tried to tell us about the fantastic mortgage rates or cheapest source of groceries or healthcare products that we could not relate to and probably seemed uninterested. In the end, none of our neighbors would talk to us... they remain friendly but so superficial. I think they don't know where to place us, so they kinda avoid us. We feel so isolated from society. As a result, I watched too much KZfaq videos and discovered your channel while getting answers about the philosophy of the general public (my neighbors). Oh BTW, we did our taxes at the local H&R block, who had to contract out our taxes to their corporate office as they do not have the qualifications for our tax codes. The clerk who handled our case make snide remarks when I asked about a $4000 deductible that was not included because she had misfiled a document. And she gleefully broke it down for me, that we pay in excess of $2000 a month to the federal government, its at least feeding a small family somewhere.... that we shouldn't be concerned about a possible $800 back in additional refunds. Just pointing out that you can be equally misunderstood on either side of the 20% 80% divide.

At 51 years of age and as a 26-year retired Army officer. I get a pretty good monthly pension. I also own 3 properties, roughly worth 957k. Although, one property was an inheritance, along with 393k. I also have a pretty good amount of money in my Thrift account and a sizeable Roth IRA that I still contribute to, so I'm doing good in retirement with a net worth of 2.3 million.

Starting young is the key! I didn't start soon enough, but have still done well. I just can't believe how well off I would be if I started sooner.

Excellent video. We have a very hood household income and net worth. We don't buy new cars and actually now have one car that is a 2009 model. You showed in this video how steep the curve is when getting to the final few top percentages in terms of income and net worth. As a side note, be careful what you wish for in terms of having a lot of money. It also brings on a lot of potential problems and temptations.

Very good additional context to the numbers Erin. I live in one of the expensive area's listed however I live a modest lifestyle as that's what make me more comfortable. I do travel but not on the high end. In fact I really enjoy visiting developing countries. Money is important but it should never be the most important thing in your life.

Love the content! Would love to see how/where people spend their money based on income. Would be a cool indicator of where quality of life stops changing significantly with income

Hi Erin . Great work . Please keep it up . I like watching your videos . Just a little pointer .. the top 1 percent household income of over 800k is the average rather than the threshold income . The threshold is probably a little over 500k :)

Excellent video. And you are correct that any upper middle class household in America can easily get to $2.5M in net worth by retirement (and even much, much more than that if they are smart with their money).

I came to this great country in 1985 with $200 in my pocket. Even so I have not had high paying jobs and a homemaker wife, we have now close to 4 million in net worth. The worth are mostly from our investment in the stock market. How does a low income but decent net worth combination put us in the %?

This is a fantastic breakdown of the steps you have to take to build true wealth. I feel exceptionally lucky I started investing early and consistently compounded my income via assets to create more cash flow. I grew to a 7 figure mark well-diversified portfolio having exposure to different prolific lnvestments. Passive income is mandatory for building long term wealth

Wife and I are in the top 5 percent plus. Our combined incomes pre tax was approx 120 at the highest. No children, buy cars new or newer and drive them 10 years. Live in a home much below our means and paid it off as soon as we could, then saved and invested.

I wish you could give a breakdown of the top 2%, 3%, 4%. I know those numbers from another website. Top 2% are $6.7m and top 1% are $11m.

I like that Erin says these are household net worth and income amounts for households, not for individuals. Often times, stories like this are not clear.

One thing worth understanding about the higher income earners is that when you are in the top 5% and above where you are looking at the 340k+ income a significant part of that income is probably capital gains and dividends from investments rather than earned income that is basically being autoreinvested and is not actual pocketed income. So someone in the 5% may on paper have an income of $342k a year but they might have a pocketed income of somethihg like $110k, which is why you can have someone making that much seem not that wealthy just on the face of it. I mean if they wanted to redirect all those distributions to their bank account they could be a lot "richer" if they wanted but often that isn't the type of attitude that gets you that much net worth so a lot of them are relatively frugal. Just goes to show the person being "rich" is probably not the person who is actually wealthy.

The overall objective should be to maximize net worth, and minimize earned income. This reduces your tax liability, as our tax system penalizes folks who work for money, and rewards people whose money works for them.

Once our household reached retirement, our net worth was $5.25 MM though our annual income dropped to below $320,000 due to only gaining income from our capital gains and RMDs. It seems the net worth would be more important in determining which segment of the population to which we belong, say between top 4-3%.

I'm financially comfortable, but I mostly ride my bicycle to go places. I think it is a bit humorous that the person riding the bicycle is in a much more financially comfortable position than most passing the bicyclist in their expensive cars.

What an incredible video and channel. Keep up the great content!

I am in the top 10% of Networth and never earned more than 80k. It seems to me that many people don't save/invest enough.

My wife and I have been in the top 1% and debt free for decades. There are reasons not many people achieve a high net worth, even with a high income. Most people live far, far beyond their means. They buy depreciating assets like expensive vehicles and replace them with the same thing every few years. They live in homes they can't really afford, and a lot of their income goes to paying for it. They don't practice delay of gratification. They somehow feel entitled to have what they want, even if it means going into debt for it. A lot of the folks you see driving luxury vehicles and sporting a Rolex may have a high enough income to purchase those things, but many, if not most, of them, have very little net worth. Compounding is an amazing thing when you are on the right side of it. A lot of folks have built a high net worth with incomes that were average. It simply takes discipline and sacrifice, and most folks simply won't do it.

An interesting # would be entry amount of income/net worth at each percentile rather than the average since average includes a huge skewing with the stratospheric households

According to your video, my wife and I are in the top 10%. We don't feel wealthy, because our incomes aren't exceptional - we just managed to save a lot by keeping our expenses down. And most of our wealth is tied up in real estate, 401(k) accounts, and stocks ... so it's not like the money is readily accessible to us. We both drive ten year old vehicles and probably won't trade them in until they reach 20 years. Our discretionary expenses include a night out at a restaurant a couple of times a month and a trip to the movie theatre once a month (we even splurge on popcorn!). My wife still works. I retired in 2017. You could say that we are missing out on some of the best of our Golden Years. And there may be some truth to that. However, for the things that we value most (family), we are rich beyond words. We care for my 96 year-young mother. We care for our 20 year-old son, who is taking time "finding himself" (i.e., no college and no job). And we care for our 10 year-old labrador/golden retriever mix dog. They each have their own set of needs, requiring our attention and support, and we love them all. I don't consider what we are doing as a sacrifice. It's just the way things are: we're needed. At some point in the future, my mother will transition to a long term health care facility, my son will find his independence and our dog will go to Doggie-Heaven, freeing my wife and me to come and go as we wish. While we may enjoy the opportunity of taking long vacations then, I don't think that we'll be any happier than we are now. Life is good! 🌄

Wow this is eye opening. We have over $500,000 of annual income but are nowhere near the top 10% in terms of net worth.

Top 10% in income and top 20% in net worth at ages 29 and 25! Trying to take advantage of our DINK (Double income, no kids) years!

Great info every video ! Anything on retirees finances ?

If I were retiring today I would be fine with one million dollars as my nest egg. Since I'm going to be retiring in 20 or so, I definitely agree that 2.5 million will be the equivalent in today's dollars 20 years from now... hopefully

Just got back from collecting rents from my tenants. I have 7 digit investment portfolio plus owned home. I'm only in my 30's sitting at top 4% 💪

Excellent video once again Erin.

The issue here is it doesn't break down the brackets by age. Being worth 2M at 23 is infinitely more impressive and foretelling than being worth 12M at 65.

I understand the net worth portion and it makes sense the yearly income just doesn't seem to line up with what I've seen in reality for instance I have a net worth around 2.5 m but a yearly income closer to around 100 k

Getting there. Have an income right near the top 5% but have a long way to go for the net worth

Thank you!

I'm pretty much in the median. $71k base salary with around $128k net worth. If we include my wife, our combined pre tax is around $91k. We have a $102k mortgage, and every little consumer debt. We drive good used reliable vehicles that we already paid off. Thanks for the video.

Would love to see the debt breakdown if there are any statistics by each class. Thank you!

Very helpful and interesting 🙏

I was just thinking if you could look at wealth in relation to personal happiness. That would be a fascinating topic.

This is a great summary. The 40 hour per week is not a good comparison for a metric. It's more like 80 plus hours per week because it's nonstop.

Hi Erin. I am curious about calculating TOTAL net worth. Should the value of one's pension be included to get a true worth? Example, a way to calculate a pension's worth is to multiply the annual payout by 25. I've only heard this mentioned one time on financial channels.

Well I'm in the net worth 5%> group & 20%> income group. I guess being a single person house hold reduces your income, but not having, the expenses of a wife & children boosts your net worth.

Great analysis!!

Great job!

Great video!

VERY WELL DONE!

Thanks for the video.

Excellent episode! Thankyou

Erin - just read the news about those that could potentially be impacted by the new tax proposal. Billionaires and above or those with an annual income of $100 million. Now that’s a rarefied group!

When I look around me most of my neighborhood and people seem to be rich, I always thought most Americans were wealthy and just a small portion of them were poor.

I always feel like I am behind in finances until I see videos like this. I'm in the top 20%?! I feel bad for the 80% below me then. Still got a ways to go for entering that top 10% (mainly that Net Worth number is the reason), but I should reach it when the mortgage is paid off in 13 years.

Great content, you give a lot of points to think about and actions to take. We are at the median income 67K G And at 20% net worth +600K Maybe we are saving too much🤣 With 6 income streams

I never look at networth because it's mostly tended to owning a home for the majority of Americans. Calculating a single family home that you need to live in to not be homeless as part of networth to me is a trick to make people think they aren't as poor as they are.

Trying to claw and scratch my way out of the 10% to the 5%. I hope to get there by 2024 or 2025. Even being in the upper part of the lower half of the 10%, I can't imagine the lifestyle of the 0.1% for myself, though I can see what the 1% looks like as I have many friends and family in the 1%.

Great video. Ty

oh, like that you pointed our area out!

I enjoy your content.

Please post a video with data on lifetime mobility within and between these levels of wealth. This is a point that is often missing. Meaning, in the U.S. people do not tend to stay in the same category/rank throughout their lifetime.

Out of top 1% after taking some market hits (or they became somewhat richer 😄) - still all good. Upper middle income - steady savings and investments since my first pay check made it happen.

I’m in the top 5% with a net worth around 6-7 million. I worked my ass off for 20 years straight flipping and investing in real estate until Covid hit. Now I’m reaping the fruits of my labor I’m in my 40’s and have a high school education, if that.

Today I learned I'm the top 10% but I don't feel like it

My wife and I (mid 50's) fall into the top single digits. It's strange because I sometimes feel like I've failed financially. While I know we've done well, things still require planning, and hard decisions have to be made. The next one is how, where, and when to retire. Money isn't fun for some of us even when we've have a bit.

Thanks Erin, I appreciate your research. I am working on being “Absolutely Financially Free” = 11M” lol. So I assume if my net worth is on the high end of a category and my salary is on the lower end, we have done a good job of saving and investing vs being the winners of having a high income.

I’m a little over the top 10% net worth wise but due to being retired do not meet the income threshold.. am I still in the top 10%?

As a retired person my income fluctuates based on how much money I pull from retirement accounts. We use part of the interest and CG to spend on a few things and vacations. So we have a base income and what we decide to spend on fun. The rest of the income is tax sheltered until we pull it. How do you figure income? What is taxable or taxable and unrealized?

When you get into top 5% you think - darn it, wish I was in top 1%. It never ends.....

29 with a nw of 1.8m give or take. hopefully by the time i retire in 30 years i'll be in that top 2-3% range. Thats assuming the market doesn't just completely fall apart by then but if that happens i guess we have bigger problems to worry about.

Based on those minimum net worth thresholds, that easily puts the vast majority of CA homeowners into the Top 20% bracket of all Americans, since almost all homes today in the SF, LA, and San Diego metro areas (where 75% of CA pop. live), are valued at over $1.0 million! That doesn't even take into account their 401k's. I am referring to the millions of CA folks who have lived in their homes for, say, 10+ years, since these folks would have built tremendous equity. I know a few who bought as recently as 2012, just after the global housing collapse of 2008.

OK, not sure where I fall. Combined income 109K, includes rental properties (no liens) after expenses, VA disability, one retirement annuity and 2 SSIs. $1.5M+ Equity in house (reverse mtge, no pmts) and $1.5M+ in rental property. No debt. I seem to be in between brackets. Also a bout $40K in liquid savings.

Interesting! I’m interested in the mobility of the different quintiles and other divisions of wealth. How achievable is it to join the upper echelons of the economy?

Our net worth sky rocketed after we paid off our house. We haven't had any debt since paying it off early. That is the secret to wealth. No debt and live below one's means. I do think billionaires must be much more exclusive than even the 0.1 percent.

Great video. I am not clear if the income numbers are gross, net, or adjusted gross income (AGI). It's interesting to see where you stand on a scorecard compared to others. Appearances are misleading.

The statistic I find absolutely amazing is that the top 1% is only 2x as likely as others to own a luxury car. Hands down, anyone in the top 1% could afford one. The important thing I am noticing is they are choosing not to 'waste' their money in that way. Granted, nice cars are nice, so the follow-up question would be, "What is the definition of a luxury car?".

I like the content as well as the manner she presented it

Thanks for the reminder to pick up my lottery ticket

Your video shows that people in the US are highly geared toward consumption. Who didn't know that, right?? When you pair up net worth with income levels the incomes seem incredibly high when paired with a relatively low new worth because they are CONSUMING their income at a rapid rate and have nothing to show for it. Our income is slightly less than 6 figures but we invest well and have a net worth that put us at about the 6-7% line. It's not what you earn, it's what you KEEP.

Well done content.

Only problem is that by the time she retires and amassed $2M in wealth, it would only be worth $500K in today's money. The real goal is to hit the $3-$4M mark if you plan to retire in 20-25 years from now.

I do believe you are correct that the $2.5 million is very doable. If a household saves 15% of a $50,000 annual income and have a 10% ROI, it only takes 37 years to reach this point. You simply have to start early and stay diligent.

Stunning to me is the Top 20th percentile, an income of $106K. At the moment, the 30yr fixed rate mortgage is 6%. Using 28% of income to qualify, the 20%er can afford a loan of $413K. The median home price is $429K. Income drops quickly as we go to the 30th percentile, fewer than 1/3 of families can afford to buy the median priced home. Of course there are lower priced homes, but the imbalance, the fact that a median income household can't afford a median priced home is concerning.

Based on your numbers, My family (4) are somewhere in the Top 10% to Top 5%. If I liquidate all of my real estate, 401K, investment property, I would probably end up with 1.7M. Somewhere in that ballpark at the current market rates. We don't have any credit card interest, or car loans. We only have a modest mortgage of $75K left on an investment. Our family income is approximately $325K annual. We save alot, but we also have young kids that need child care and other things. Neither of us inherited any wealth from our family growing up, but we are extremely financially disciplined. My plan is to build my real estate investments to another 1 or 2 properties valued at $500K in the coming years, but I hope I have enough saved to retire comfortably. I grew up through college on a family income of $30K, so I feel very fortunate to have what I have in this country.

I know several people who are well past retirement age but still working. These are wealthy people who don't need earned income, but they enjoy their work and feel that it gives purpose to their lives. To me the notion that one should work productively until a certain day and then lie in a hammock for a decade or two doesn't make sense. Many investment companies and financial planners promote the idea that one's goal should be to coast through life after a certain age. For some people at least, this is not a good plan. Be productive, keep doing, and I think you will more likely stay healthy and happy.