Rich is a relative term: the scale isn’t in dollars, it’s measured by how many people are below you. And If you’re richer than 19 out of 20 households, you’re just plain rich.
If you feel your top 5% income (minimum of around $166K) leaves you in the middle class:
a. you’re doing it wrong. (I couldn’t find a good statistic for the cutoff for the top 5% household net worth). If you want to feel rich: don’t have kids, don’t get sick, and don’t get divorced.
b. Lower your expectations. You’re just rich, not ultra-rich. Sorry.
c. Think about how you would be getting by on an actual middle class income, say the median ($48K) or double the median ($96K) income. I know it’s shocking and unpleasant to imagine, but somehow people do it.
