Reading Time – 5 minutes

I remember what the word “millionaire” meant in the 1980s when I was a kid. It was an exciting word back then. If you were a millionaire back in 1985, this usually meant you were driving around in a top-of-the-line Mercedes at the very least, often a limousine instead. You lived in a mansion on the beach, had an amazing boat, and often traveled on private jets. Being a millionaire was a big deal back in those days.

But then Americans and other Westerners got stupid and irrational and idiotically started voting for the lesser of two evils in every presidential election, over and over again, for decades on end, starting with the 1988 election of George Bush Sr. vs. Michael Dukakis, and just getting worse from there.

As I’ve analyzed in great detail in the past, voting for the lesser of two evils (and Americans are about to do this yet again with Trump vs. Kamala because they have still learned nothing) eventually destroys your economy, economics, and purchasing power. So since 1988, real tax rates plus inflation have skyrocketed all over the Collapsing West, the value of the US Dollar and other Western currencies have plummeted, and now being a “millionaire” doesn’t mean shit.

Today, if you have a net worth of a million or two dollars, your lifestyle is very middle class, not “rich” at all, especially if you live in or near any major collapsing Western city like London, Chicago, Sydney, Toronto, Dallas, and hundreds of others I could name.

It was the same with making a “six-figure income.” That was my big goal as a young man back in the late 1980s and 1990s. Back in those days, if you made over $100,000 per year, you were living large. You lived in a really nice house, two nice cars, a wife who didn’t need to work, sent your kids to fancy private schools, and had a great time. I know all of this because that’s exactly what I was able to do back in the 90s when I made just a hair over $100,000 a year.

Today, once again, $100,000 a year for most Westerners is essentially middle-class. You live like a broke, debt-ridden, middle-class bastard just like everyone else at that level, especially if you have a 9-5 corporate job and pay more than half of your income in taxes. (I love guys who live in Southern California who actually brag they get paid $130,000 a year at their soul-killing Silicon Valley job. Uh, no you don’t. After all of the federal and California taxes you actually make about $65K a year, then have to use that pittance to rent the smallest and most expensive apartments in the world while being surrounded by homeless drug addicts. Not exactly a great life.)

So when people talk about “rich,” what exactly does that mean? What kind of net worth and/or income do you need to be “rich?” Or live a lifestyle most people would consider wealthy?

While there are no definitive answers, I can certainly assign some numbers as general ranges.

First, I have to be clear that no numbers I or anyone else assign to any sort of socioeconomic status will be 100% accurate simply because people live in different parts of the world, have different spending habits, and have different family structures. A 27-year-old single guy with no kids, wife, or girlfriend who lives in Chang Mai will live a much wealthier lifestyle on the same amount of money as the 47-year-old married father of three living in Philadelphia.

So all of the numbers I’m about to give must be adjusted for these factors:

• Where you live (expensive Western city vs. cheap non-Western city)
• Your spending habits (you are happy living in a studio apartment with no car or you need a huge house with multiple cars to be happy)
• The amount of debt you have
• How many kids you have, especially if they’re under the age of 22 or so
• How many family members you have who are relying on you financially (those of you who take care of your elderly mom or grandma, for example)

For the numbers below I’m going to assume you are a Westerner living in a typical collapsing Western city but don’t have lots of kids, debts, or family members to take care of.

I’m also basing these numbers on lifestyle, nothing more. Many other statistics on the internet will disagree with these figures because they’re factoring in all kinds of other things like median corporate incomes, education, and other things not relevant to this discussion.

Given all that, here is the breakdown based on my personal experience and the experience of many wealthy (and non-wealthy) people I know and have worked with. All amounts are given in US Dollars. All income amounts are pre-tax net income (after all expenses in your business but before you pay any taxes).

Broke
Net Worth: Under $100K
Annual Income: Under $50K/year

At this level you’re some variation of broke, anywhere from totally broke to sort of broke. Financial problems are a regular occurrence in your life and you spend most of your time worrying about your money and wishing you had more.

Lower Middle Class
Net Worth: $100K-$150K
Annual Income: $50K/year-$80K/year

At this level, you’re not broke anymore but you have extreme limitations on how and when you can spend your money. Financial stress is a common thing in your life, but you’re not quite as screwed as broke people.

Normal Middle Class
Net Worth: $150K-$2.5 million
Annual Income: $80K/year-$160K/year

This is when you’re the American version of what has historically been considered “normal.” You’ve got an “okay” place to live in a safe neighborhood and you have an “okay” car (think Honda), but that’s about it. You pay shitloads of taxes (the middle class gets hit with taxes the hardest of all socioeconomic levels) and you stress out about things like how you’re going to retire or send your kids to college. If you’re married, your spouse has to work to help pay the bills because you can’t afford to do it yourself. You’ve got some minor investments but you likely have lots of debt as well.

Upper Middle Class
Net Worth: $2.5 million-$3.5 million
Annual Income: $160K/year-$220K/year

This is just like living in the middle class except your stuff is bigger and better. Your house, car, vacations, and kid’s schools aren’t extravagant but they’re noticeably better than people in the normal middle class.

Lower Upper Class
Net Worth: $3.5 million-$10 million
Annual Income: $220K/year-$700K/year

This is where the very low-end version of where “rich” (by normal people’s standards) begins. At this level, you finally stop worrying about money (unless your situation is unusual). You stop caring about how much day-to-day things cost like groceries, eating out, and traveling, and just buy whatever you want whenever you want it. It’s pretty nice. However, you’re still not the classic definition of “rich.” You can buy some cool stuff, but you can’t afford things like flying private, a yacht, or a 15-bedroom mansion. Broke and middle-class people think you’re “rich,” but truly rich people think you’re a pussy.

Rich
Net Worth: $10 million-$30 million
Annual Income: $700K/year-$3 million/year

Okay, NOW you’re rich. You can buy just about anything you want and you don’t “feel” the expenses. Spending that kind of money (usually) doesn’t bother you one bit. At this level, things like private jets and cool boats are available to you BUT there is a limit to what you can do at these spending levels. But yeah, you’re rich.

Ultra Rich
Net Worth: Anything above $30 million or so
Annual Income: Anything above $3 million/year or so

Once your net worth is at $30 million+ and/or your pre-tax net annual income is at $3 million+, your lifestyle, at least to most people, is indistinguishable from that of a billionaire. Mansions, yachts, castles, private islands, jets, all of that stuff is yours if you want it. Honestly, there is no huge difference in lifestyle between a guy who is worth $50 million and a guy worth $1 billion. People at the $30 million+ level who set goals to be a billionaire are honestly doing it for numbers on a piece of paper; there’s no actual lifestyle difference in most cases.

You may find that the numbers at the middle-class levels were higher than you thought (because people always forget about taxes, inflation, and how much kids/spouses cost) but the numbers at the rich and ultra-rich levels were lower than you thought. Yes, if you have $2 million you’re just a middle-class punk, but if you have “only” $35 million you’re not any different in terms of lifestyle from most billionaires.

So, pick what level you want to be, adjust for things like lifestyle, five flags, taxes, family, and so on, then set a goal, and then get to work!

(FYI, I started at the broke level and today I’m in a pretty nice place, and that’s with no high school diploma, no college degree, no help from family, and born with less than zero social skills. If I can do it, you can too, and I mean that.)

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