- 10 Dec 11, 01:25#286050
Interesting read...
Politico Full Story
How much does the average American need to make per year to feel rich? $150,000.
In a new Gallup poll Thursday, people were asked an open-ended question about how much annual income they would need to earn to consider themselves rich and $150,000 was the median answer.
Gallup noted, “The question of who is ‘rich’ in the United States has been frequently discussed during the past few years as the nation’s policymakers debate income-tax and deficit-reduction policies. Additionally, the Occupy Wall Street protests have focused their attention on the wealthiest 1% of Americans. The poll results suggest Americans would need quite a bit less than what the wealthiest 1% of Americans earn to consider themselves rich.”
Here’s the poll breakdown: About one out of four people, 23 percent, said earning between $100,000 and $150,000 per year would be enough for them to feel rich, while 12 percent said an income between $60,000 and $99,999 was plenty to consider themselves wealthy. Almost one out of five people, 18 percent, said making less than $60,000 would be enough to feel rich.
And for about half of the people surveyed, 47 percent, anything less than $150,000 just wasn’t enough to cut it.
According to the poll, 18 percent of the people surveyed said they needed to make something between $150,001 and $299,999 annually to feel like they were rich, while 14 percent said they considered an yearly income that feel between $300,000 and $999,999 to consider themselves wealthy.
About one out of 10 people, 11 percent, said an annual income of $1 million was the threshold, while 4 percent of people said they would have to make more than $1 million per year to consider themselves rich.
Gallup points out that the median annual household income in the United States according to the Census Bureau is about $50,000.
The poll also found that men have higher standards than women for what makes a person rich: the median annual income for men was $150,000 and $100,000 for women.
People ages 18 to 49 years said $160,000 was their threshold for feeling rich, while those 50 years and older said $100,000 in annual income would be enough.
There was also a notable discrepancy in what college graduates and nongraduates considered the threshold for being rich: people with college degrees said they would need to make $200,000 annually, while those who didn’t graduate from college said $100,000 was enough.
Meanwhile, 26 percent of people said they would need to have a net worth greater than $1 million to consider themselves rich, while 13 percent said having less than $100,000 in savings would be enough to feel wealthy.
The Gallup poll was conducted Nov. 28-Dec.11 among 1,012 adults, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
Politico Full Story
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