Depends on your gender, age and attractiveness, since you can leverage those assets into monetary gains; or leverage your cash into real power.
Rich? At least a 100k a month...after taxes, and that would just be borderline rich. 20k a month might not even be enough to be hood rich. Can you live well with 20k a month, yes. Doesn't mean you'd be anywhere near rich. Not to sound snobby, i'm part of the 54%.
I dunno if I'd be satisfied with ~50k a year even if it is Houston. If you want your kids to be at a good school, then the latter. Otherwise, you'd probably feel less reminded of money living like a king inside the poor neighborhood, sans the days you get woken up by gunfire.
Sounds like 2 different things It seems the more money you make, the more responsibility and stress you have in maintaining that level. So I'd go with the 2nd comment there. Not consistently working to maintain a lifestyle level is "PRIVILEGE", but not necessarily being" "RICH".
It's really hard to answer this question with a specific threshold number. It highly depends on where you live, your marital status (and whether the SO works or not), if you have kids under 18, and your lifestyle. $100K-$150K/year is middle-class AT BEST in a city like New York, Chicago or SF/LA. Anywhere else it may be MC or upper-middle-class depending on your status. I wouldn't consider that income anywhere near rich anywhere in the country. $20K/month would probably be upper-MC in most cases, but still far from rich. If you have to worry about whether you can afford something (think high-end property or new high-end vehicle), or have to finance it instead of paying cash in full, you're probably not rich. If you have to drive your own car, you're probably not rich (unless you just like driving)...rich people often have chauffeurs. A rich person could probably retire right now and live very comfortably for the rest of his or her life. Of course OTOH there are some people who are very wealthy but live way below their means...wear inexpensive clothes, drive used Camrys and live in modest houses. You probably couldn't tell them apart from a $30K/year guy. In short, I agree with wizkid and Space Ghost. Lastly, unless you own your own business, or are a high-ranking executive in a Fortune 500 company, or work on Wall Street in certain positions, or are a good neurosurgeon...your annual income will probably top out at around $200K/year. And many people who make much more than that have a good chunk of their compensation in stocks, not salary.
It also depends on the how you live your life. Basic Needs these days: Internet Cell Phone Cable/Satellite Electricity Either Mortgage / Rent Motor Vehicle Health/Car/House Insurance, we all know there are many people w/o these. Im probably missing few other items. A lot of people live beyond their means leading them to credit card debt, and other financial problems.
Here's the problem: When you start making a ton of money, you start buying really expensive things like a big house and expensive cars and private schools for the kids, etc. Then you make more money and add to this with a vacation house, nannies, etc. Your spending rises with your income. Then you set a savings goal per month in your head, and that becomes your expectation, but your new spending streams make it such that you can't hit your savings goal, so you feel poor. I'm being serious. I know multimillionaires who moan and complain about money all the time. I once witnessed a guy who makes over $5M/year chew out his teenage daughter for heating their backyard pool one day without his permission, which he calculated costed him $50 in energy costs. What would be perfect is if you are able to maintain your previous lifestyle after you make a lot of money, but nobody does that.
Internet, Cell Phone and Cable are not "basic needs" unless your job depends on one or all of those things.
Hell . . I think of rich like this After Expenses - 3~5K a Month Rich means no real worries Rocket River
