How much money do you have to make to feel rich?
It’s a subjective question.
A lot depends on your lifestyle, where you live, how much you spend and save, your peer group, and your vulnerability to comparison.
The comparison piece matters more than most are willing to admit. Wealth is relative.
JP Morgan once said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.”
It’s easy to say when you’re one of the wealthiest men on the planet, but it’s much harder to abide by in the Instagram era, when everyone flaunts their wealth, world travels, and material possessions.
We live in a world where rich people don’t feel rich anymore.
The Wall Street Journal profiled people who make $400,000, a level some politicians are using as a new line in the sand to define wealthy households.
Just 2.6% of U.S. make $400,000 or more. Here’s a look at the breakdown by state:
Wealth is what you keep, not what you make but it’s hard to envision a world in which being in the top 3% of income is not considered rich.
Sometimes you have to call a spade a spade.
However, the Journal found people in the top 3% who didn’t feel rich:
“I don’t think of myself as rich. I think of myself as having worked really hard,” said Littles, a 41-year-old executive at a healthcare-staffing company in Tampa, Fla., whose pay has fluctuated around $400,000.
“I’ve hit the American dream and now I’m going to have to pay more taxes,” he said. “That doesn’t feel great to me. It’s demotivating.”
Everyone has their own definition of wealth but why do people with high incomes feel this way?
This one from the story helps explain the phenomenon:
Deyer said he could afford higher taxes but doesn’t think of himself
