this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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Chances are, you are part of the 10%
I am not, but i had wrongly the 1% in mind, when i wrote the comment
To be considered in the richest 10% of the world population, you would need a net worth of approximately $130,000 (as of late 2024). I don't personally know anybody just sitting on 130k of money and assets. If you are, good for you, but many of us are not.
The chances of an average American being in that group is comparatively high compared to much of the world (around 50%), but still on the "Chances are..." forgone conclusion of your comment
Net worth is what you own - what you owe, including your pension fund if you have one.
Also top 10% is people making 40k/year if we want to use that metric instead. If you're not part of that either it's probable that's it's just because you're too young to have a career yet.
I know what net worth means. That's why I said "sitting on 130k. The threshold is 130k. The mean net worth is something like 15k globally. And I'm a 34 year old man. I make 48k/yr and that's the most I've ever made. No savings. Just cashed out all 5k of my 401k to pay rent for a couple of months. I'm just an average dude who grew up in Southern California on food stamps and state healthcare. I just couldn't afford college, so a "career" isn't really an option for me.
You don't need to be sitting on 130k, you but a house, once your mortgage is worth 130k less than the value of the house you're worth 130k or more.
Also, you're in the top 10% based on income instead of worth, you're part of the statistics mentioned in the OP.
I find it HIGHLY unlikely that I will ever buy a house. The amount of money needed for a down payment, inspection, closing, etc. just seems astronomical to me. There's no way I'm buying a house, let alone getting 130k worth of equity out of it.
In terms of wages, I AM slightly above that 10% line, but that's like literally within the last month, so I'm not really sure what you're point is. I swear you must work in tech. Tech bros seem to be allergic to the idea that they aren't the lowest of the low
75% of Americans own their home (or are on track by their retirement) and I think it's just a tad lower for the EU.
While we can do better, many the term you used, is incredibly inaccurate and lacks precision.
My point is that people see "the 10%" and they can't imagine that if they live in a first world country, chances are that on a global scale they are the 10%, if they're not they're the 20% unless they live on the streets. People in third world and developing countries represent the vast majority of the world and those in rich countries live like freaking royalty in comparison to them and it reflects on their environmental impact as well.
I don't think anybody's disputing that. That's kind of the whole point of the post, right? Everybody here gets that.
What everybody here DOESN'T get is that this kind of poverty is also present right here in the USA. I've encountered quite a few people who seem to believe that if you live in the U.S. AT ALL, then you're automatically lumped into that 10%, when that isn't actually the case.
That's just about everyone that owns a home. And, you better have something much more than that if you plan to ever retire. In the US, $130k is both a lot and nowhere near enough.
This. I make around $125k, and can acknowledge I’m an outlier. Admittedly, I work in the tech field and know plenty of folks probably making more. But it’s not “rich” money, it’s like…. 1990 middle class money, maybe.
I had a house built in 2021, 1050 sq/ft for a bit over $200k, and even that was only feasible because:
If I still had to be tied to the city due to my career, I’m not sure I’d be able to afford it. The cheapest shithole of a place would cost more than twice what I paid for my house, and rent was the same and more. It’s utterly insane. Even moving to a more rural/ex-urban area, buying an old run down house that needed major work would have cost about the same as having my new home built and owning the land under it; it’s crazy.
I had to wait 11 months for the build to finish but it was worth it, got me out of this insane rat race. I don’t want to care about money, but that’s just life in a capitalist system.
The thing is, they didn't say earn $130k, they said have $130k of wealth. If your retirement account is below that, you're not retiring for a long while. With the exception of the few that have pensions.
I probably have that or a bit more if you account the house appreciation and my savings, but I’m not selling or moving, and with costs that’s nowhere close to what I’d need to retire.
Assuming my current living standard and estimating costs cautiously at 70k annual without accounting for inflation, I’d need around 2.4 million to retire today, and that’s assuming I only live into my 70s. No way that’s happening without a powerball ticket, but thankfully I’ve got more than a few years left in me before retirement age.
Yeah, that's exactly what I meant by it's both a lot and nowhere near enough. I also work in tech and I know I earn more than most, I own a duplex, I max my retirement accounts every year. I have well over the $130k, but I'm still 20 years away from having enough to retire. It's crazy that we have to essentially be in the top 10% of earners in the country to feel like we can actually retire one day. The system is fundamentally broken.
Yep. I struggled for years doing desktop and helpdesk work for fairly low pay. When I finally caught a break and started making “decent” money (aka, around $65k) I was happy initially, but costs kept rising, and at the time I got upset because I realized I could buy toys and amenities, but still couldn’t afford stuff that mattered, like a house or saving for retirement. Financial stability was still an illusion.
Now I earn double that, and I’m careful with money, and it’s still going to take a large amount of care and planning to make retirement possible and pay off the house. Shit’s not easy, and I particularly sympathize with people starting out today, it seems like entering any field but particularly IT now is harder than it’s ever been.
And that’s without the fuckhead in chief constantly sowing economic chaos like he’s speed running American collapse any %. It’s probably only going to get harder from here.
Yeah, I see the same things. Even though I'm making that money, I think I end up saving something like 30% or more of it. After all that saving and my mortgage, I do have enough for toys, but I still keep those even modest. I have a small truck the Hyundai Santa Cruz, a 1965 15' boat, and a small motorcycle. I realize I have more than most and I'm more comfortable than most, but I feel like I'm at the level everyone should be at. What I mean by that is everyone should be able to afford a comfortable life and modest toys. It shouldn't be only the high earners. I wish everyone could have this lifestyle. And they probably could if it wasn't for the greed of the ultra-wealthy.
It's certainly not the golden ticket it once was. It still has high potential, but it's just harder to get now. Even for us that are in it already, there aren't as many opportunities to jump over to a higher paying company because your raises didn't keep up with your growth like there used to be.
I don't and do not know anybody that owns a home. That seems like a thing from a bygone era to me tbh, and I accepted a LONG time ago that I will die working. There's no way, even with the magic of compound interest, that I could save enough to retire without starving to death.
Us older millenials only recently started buying homes. I don't know if gen z, or let alone gen alpha, will ever get the chance outside of the obscenely wealthy.
130k is a new car and some savings. With ~70k annual income, this isn't that hard to achieve
Okaaaay, but I've never had a new car, have zero savings, and despite making more money than I ever have in my entire life, I still don't even clear $50k before taxes. But I guess if it's not that hard to achieve I'll just go ahead and grab these boot straps here and- oops! They broke.
I'm not saying your life is a sunshine and rainbow. Just that there's shitload of people who make more than enough to pass that threshold
Yes, like I said, "around 50%" in the U.S. I'm just saying the phrase, "Chances are you're in that 10%" is highly reductive and ignorant considering that half of Americans are not, in fact, passing that threshold.