Poll: Americans Need $150K Income to Feel Rich
EmailHow much do you need to consider yourself “rich?” Americans say they would need an annual income of $150,000, according to a Gallup poll this week.
Gallup asked, “Just thinking about your own situation, how much money per year would you need to make in order to consider yourself rich?”
The median income figure of the telephone responses was $150,000. However, 30 percent said less than $100,000 would be enough. Only four percent said earning $1 million or more would make them feel rich.
Americans’ perceptions of the income needed to be rich were a bit higher than in 2003, when Gallup last asked the question. Eight years ago, $120,000 was the median Americans said they would need.
In a separate question asking how much in net worth, or savings in cash, stocks, real estate and other investments, they would need to consider themselves rich, the median figure was $1 million, the same as in Gallup’s 2003 poll on the same issue.
Gallup published the survey amid discussion over tax cuts and Occupy Wall Street’s criticism of the richest one percent of Americans. Gallup said the results suggest Americans would need “quite a bit less” than what the wealthiest “1%” of Americans earn to consider themselves rich.
The survey showed a noticeable difference in answers by respondents’ gender, age, education and of course, income.
Men had a higher median threshold to consider themselves rich, $150,000, than women — $100,000.
Younger respondents age 18 to 49 years had a median of $160,000 while those 50 and older chose $100,000.
The median that college graduates wanted was twice that of those who did not graduate from college: $200,000 vs. $100,000.
The same was true for those who have higher incomes. Those currently with $50,000 or more in annual household income desired a median of $200,000 to consider themselves rich. Those currently earning $50,000 or less said getting $100,000 would make them feel rich.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the income people desire appears to increase for those who are earning more. Those earning $75,000 or more say they need a median of $250,000 to feel rich.
The median annual household income in the country is around $50,000 per year, according to the Census Bureau.
Gallup surveyed 1,012 adults who were 18 years or older from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1.
Incomes Needed for Survey Respondents to Feel Rich
Less than $60,000: 18 percent
$60,000 to $99,999: 12 percent
$100,000 to $150,000: 23 percent
$150,001 to $299,999: 18 percent
$300,000 to $999,999: 14 percent
$1 million: 11 percent
More than $1 million: 4 percent
Median: $150,000
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We need to remember that even the POOREST of Americans (think public housing, food stamps, welfare) are richer than majority of humans on earth. Let’s all be grateful today that we had food, water, a hot shower, a roof over our heads with a warm bed, and a toilet to flush it away.
Posted by: amy | December 9, 2011, 2:39 pm 2:39 pm
Looks like a lot of people can’t see too far into the future. 150K is way too low for even a hint at feeling rich.
Posted by: HarryO | December 9, 2011, 2:42 pm 2:42 pm
“Perhaps not surprisingly, the income people desire appears to increase for those who are earning more.”….Probably because those earning more realize that as income goes up so do taxes and all the previous thoughts of tax breaks for the wealthy gives way to reality – they don’t exist, if fact they decrease.
Posted by: Give Me a Break | December 9, 2011, 2:57 pm 2:57 pm
As long as Ohioans continue to vote for people like John Boehner you can forget about becoming rich. If you are rich now you can look forward to getting richer off the backs of the poor and middleclass! Why do people continue to vote guys like this in office? Boehner is for the “Republican Party” not you!
Posted by: Thomas | December 9, 2011, 3:25 pm 3:25 pm
“in net worth, or savings in cash, stocks, real estate and other investments, they would need to consider themselves rich, the median figure was $1 million,” – o.k., after working for the same IT Company for more than 29 years, I guess I finally made it. “The median annual household income in the country is around $50,000 per year, according to the Census Bureau” – my pension plus my Social Security benefit is a little bit over 50K a year – o.k. too. However, I wouldn’t consider my better-half and I are rich – far from it. We live comfortably nowadays. God bless everyone.
Posted by: Get_Down | December 9, 2011, 3:31 pm 3:31 pm
Very few people consider themselves rich… mainly because they spend most of what they earn, no matter if they make 50k or 500k. Starting out living in an apartment I used to think 100k was “rich”, now that I make 100k but have a house and other toys I still don’t feel rich and think making 250k would make me feel rich!
Posted by: Bob Z | December 9, 2011, 3:34 pm 3:34 pm
well bad i need at lease 30million to feel rich an i live in jamaica
Posted by: TroySchewnegger | December 9, 2011, 3:57 pm 3:57 pm
150k is nowhere near being rich. In southern cal well off would be about 350k/yr…rich would be about a mill/yr
Posted by: rich | December 9, 2011, 3:57 pm 3:57 pm
I am the 23%
Posted by: Paulie | December 9, 2011, 4:17 pm 4:17 pm
And when they have $150,000 they say they will need $250,000 to be rich and so on, it is called scarcity, there is never enough, there will never be enough, and everyone always wants more, more so if they think they are entitled to it.
Posted by: snewsom2997 | December 9, 2011, 4:19 pm 4:19 pm
Well, it is all relative, isn’t it? And who really cares, anyway?????
Posted by: dontheking | December 9, 2011, 4:21 pm 4:21 pm
Well, it’s settled. Anyone with over $150,000, tax the hell out of them.
Posted by: newcountryman | December 9, 2011, 4:41 pm 4:41 pm
I think where one lives makes a huge difference. The price of a home and no income tax in Texas requires a lot less income than for the same in most large Kalifornia and NY cities – esp NYC and San Fran.
Posted by: deanbob | December 9, 2011, 6:01 pm 6:01 pm
Right now (and for the last three years) I just need “An” income to feel rich.
Posted by: Ruler4You | December 10, 2011, 10:00 am 10:00 am
Perhaps the next question is: How much education are you going to get so that you can make $150K?
Posted by: Art Clemens | December 10, 2011, 2:25 pm 2:25 pm
My wife and kids make me feel rich just being there.
Posted by: Lee | December 10, 2011, 3:03 pm 3:03 pm
What was the purpose of this poll?
Posted by: Rose | December 10, 2011, 8:53 pm 8:53 pm
150,000 to feel rich?? and this is what majority of Americans are working towards (the American dream)? Where is all this money going to come from? I guarantee that the richest 1% of Americans will not forfeit their excess wealth to ensure all these people will reach their “American Dream”…so we can expect further global stratification as we continue to rape and pillage poorer countries for their cheap labour and resources so that we can all have over a million dollars in stocks and bonds and earn an annual income of 150K!! – we really need to change the ideals we have!!!!
Posted by: Felicia Sinclair | December 11, 2011, 12:58 pm 12:58 pm
$150K should be the middle class income… because nowaday… Living Expense is toooo expensive.
Posted by: Phlox | December 12, 2011, 1:41 am 1:41 am
Someone asked: “What was the purpose of this poll?”
I’d posit it was to demonstrate how little a large swath of the population understands income or economics in general. Which makes them ripe for demagoguing politicians seeking to exploit their ignorance.
Even for the informed, “rich” is obviously a fuzzy term.
Posted by: technologist | December 12, 2011, 7:35 pm 7:35 pm
I would love to pay $10 0,000 a year in income taxes. That would make me feel rich.
Posted by: lew | December 13, 2011, 7:39 pm 7:39 pm
It cost America 104.6 million dollars to print 9 trillion dollars of currency in 2008 and yet…
According to the I.R.S.;
There are 235,413 persons earning $1,000,000.00 or more a year.
8,274 earning $10,000,000.00 a year or more.
1,470 worth $100,000,000.00 or more.
959 billionaires.
These people own 80% of all publicly traded stock and make 40% of all the money annually.
…and half of the United States doesn’t earn enough income to pay taxes. 1 in 3 children live in poverty, and in 239 counties in the United States at least a quarter of the population receives food stamps, that’s one in four children nationwide according to an analysis of local data collected by The New York Times. 1 in 15 adults live in poverty, one out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one government anti-poverty program .
“The number of Americans living in poverty grew Monday to 49.1 million, or 16 percent of the total population”- AFP.
“The U.S. Census Bureau released figures Thursday that the number of poor children in the country rose by 1 million to its highest level ever. This increase has brought the total percentage of poverty stricken children to just over 32%.”
Annually the food stamp program is now growing at a rate of 8%. In 2010, 42 per cent of single mothers and 25 per cent of single fathers relied on the stamps. 40% of households are receiving some form of government assistance. 46 million adults are on food stamps. Half of all Americans (156 million) earn $505.00 a week or LESS.
308 million people never get bailed out when they make a bet and it doesn’t pay off.
308 million people don’t get loans directly from the Federal Reserve.
308 million people don’t get free health care, guaranteed pensions, government backed insurance on business deals, government back loan guarantees, tax subsidies, government financing, legislation protecting markets.
Posted by: Dave Mowers | December 13, 2011, 8:34 pm 8:34 pm
Hmmm. That’s strange. If I thought about what income would make me feel “well off” maybe it would be $150,000 but to feel rich? Probably over a million. I find it odd people in this poll answered such a low number. Maybe they didn’t see the difference between “well-off” and “rich”. Well off is you can afford to live in a nice area, have a nice car or two, don’t have to worry about bills, can go on a nice vacation a few times a year, etc. Rich is like Elmer Fudd said, “My name is Elmer Fudd, mansion and a yacht.” LOL
Posted by: michael1_4 | December 19, 2011, 3:48 pm 3:48 pm
interesting that the average american considers $150k to be rich, and the obama administration says $200k for individuals and $250k for joint filings makes one rich. interesting because my local paper (richmond times dispatch) just ran a piece on the highest paid local public “servants” most of them made in the $150k range and many were over $200k. raises the question about whether public “servants” should be getting rich serving the public on the public dime, doesn’t it? after all, if one wants to serve the public as say, a school superintendent (more than one made the times’ list by the way) shouldn’t one be willing to do so for compensation less than that making him/her “rich”? it also pretty much obliterates the argument that these folks would make a lot more in the private sector. after all, if one devotes themself to public service, should the issue of what they could make elsewhere even have any place in the debate?
Posted by: grumpopolis | December 20, 2011, 9:48 am 9:48 am
felicia sinclair, your post assumes that there is a finite amount of wealth in the world, and that the only way for one to gain is for another to lose. that’s an economic mentality that went away several hundred years ago with the death of the mercantile system. modern societies know and accept that wealth can be created…thus, all this, “he got rich because he took my money” is crass class envy social warfare nonsense. but go ahead and keep telling yourself you are economically depressed because the rich keep stealing from you…it may give you some comfort, but it won’t provide any real answers to anyone’s problems. and all this ignores that fact that some people couldn’t give a rip about being rich. whatever happened to simply being comfortable and happy? how about embracing as simpler lifestyle focused more on people and less on stuff? as if you have to either be rich or destitute. my wife and i are raising 3 kids on about $100k a year…we’re neither rich nor poor, and we’re generally happy. we don’t care about being rich and we spend absolutely none of our time worrying about it. horror of horrors, our younger kids wear hand me downs and as awful as it may seem…they actually attend public school…and my wife and i use the phones we get for free from the cell company rather than purchase “smart” phones that add $$$ to our plan…and i drive an 11 year old car with !50k miles on it and i hope to get another 100k out of it before the wheels fall off.
Posted by: grumpopolis | December 20, 2011, 9:57 am 9:57 am