I make almost 600K and i aint F&%$*@ RICH ??

He needs to divest himself of all worldly possessions.

Feeling rich is a combination of how much you comfortably save every year and how many years you need to work to keep up your current lifestyle. If you have no savings and make 500k, you are not rich.

how many ticks before alan weighs in and tells MIBNYC that is delusional since anyone making over 100k in NYC should be eating w silver spoons.

sorry, alan. i meant matt.....

Before Matt tells me ?

Well, given that making $160K+ puts one in the top THREE percent not only of New York, but AMERICA ... yes, that is, in fact, "rich", regardless of how you "feel" about it.

Well, technically, in Manhattan even, $570k puts you in the top 1%. So you can't really slice it much further unless you say "well, for 15 CPW, its not rich!!!!!"

No, it's $790K for Manhattan according to this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/business/the-1-percent-paint-a-more-nuanced-portrait-of-the-rich.html.

Check out the income and wealth percentile on WSJ (bottom right). I define "undoubtedly rich" as someone who is in 2% of both wealth and income (including income from wealth) or will reasonably get there at age 50. For Manhattan, add $200k pre-tax income to account for higher housing cost and private schooling cost. Add $2mm to wealth for Manhattan for housing prices.

This makes $700k income and expected net worth $7mm at age 50 "undoubtedly rich".

http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/

Sorry using calculator and manhattan adjustment, $570k in income (98% percentile is $370k).

Sorry Inononada, he is only in the top 1.5%, my bad. I guess that makes him...rich by any stretch of the imagination. In New York CITY he is still in the top half of one percent.

Seems like any evaluation of a person's wealth in NYC must consider Rent Welfare subsidies (aka "Rent Control", "Rent Regulation", "Rent Stabilization", and other euphemisms.). A person making 70K a year but paying $700 for a Rent Welfare classic 6 would be doing better perhaps than a someone at 70K/year who pays $3000 for a studio walkup on the 6th floor. Aren't there something like a million Rent Welfare apartments in NYC or something pathetic like that?

see, matt hopped on board within sixty clicks...you rich bastard, you.

now stop complaining and pay your fair share.

oooops, there goes another albany "lawmaker" being led away in cuffs. sssshhhhhhhh, just pay your fair share......

and weiner is running. it just doesnt get any better. what a lineup: liu, weiner, porcine quinn (that was for you alan). roll call of who's who. smashing!

don't worry, shelly will be the counter balance. oh, wait....nevermind.

If you are a Dem, and don't want corrupt, or a weirdo, and are looking for a track record, Thompson is your choice.

weirdo=corrupt=incompetent=most nyc/nys politicians

now pay me! (sanitized line from goodfellas)

Am I missing something? 2.4 billion people live on less than $2/day. Maybe the interviewee would feel a little richer after spending some time in sub-saharan Africa. http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview

Or just getting a can of rich chocolately Ovaltine.

i like option two although a safari sounds appealing too.

Feel fine, there are multitudes who bought their homes during downturns, with very low total xosts (with refinancing, at low rates that exist for a number of reasons).

Your scenario only applies to a very small portion of the population.

Thanks AR

There's only one way to feel rich: Earn a lot more than it takes to maintain your lifestyle.

So the problem with that doctor earning $600K is that he has high carrying costs to maintain it all. He has to keep earning or he's in trouble pretty quickly.

He's also busy comparing himself with his neighbors, and apparently spending in response to them, which is a dumb exercise in a world with so many billionaires and so many suffering from crushing poverty.

With respect to the original article, about the doctor who doesn't feel rich: It was partly related to the fact that he grew up with a thrifty attitude, and therefore would not feel rich unless he were really rolling in cash... And also because he previously made a bad bet with investments that cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars, leading his family to live paycheck to paycheck. Consequently he feels like, realistically, like it can all go away any day.

Agree with kharby2 that he (and anyone) just needs to make a lot more than "carrying costs" to feel rich. He has a two year cushion but I might feel better with a 5+ year cushion. Don't know if/when I'll get there, however.

"There's only one way to feel rich: Earn a lot more than it takes to maintain your lifestyle."

Thats dumb. What a lot of the articles linked to above, and ones similar to them say is that people routinely ratchet up their lifestyle based on how much money they make. Thus people who make $50k say they'd feel rich at $100k, and when those same people make $100k they might say they need $200k, then at $200k they say if they only could make $400k, and so on.

If they really kept their expenditures flat, it might come true, but a lot of frankly assholes say things like "$38k for private school X2 for my two kids, a nanny, mortgage and maintenance on my 3 bedroom Tribecca condo, saving for an ivy league school for my two kids, aa few vacations, a hamtons summer rental, and suddenly my top 1% income does not feel rich at all."

Assholes.

Jason is poor.

"...Money: once you spend it all, you don't feel rich any more. Someone should write an essay about that..."

http://gawker.com/5885705/the-top-1-must-stop-insisting-theyre-not-rich-right-this-instant

Jason, were you laid off?

jason is also bitter but he continues to prophetize to the masses. thats the real ahole.

now pay me!

They way to feel rich is to make more than your PEERS.

Also, INCOME data is useless. The rich don't work.
$80k is an entry level stipend for 22 year olds in NYC
$150k is what you make by your late 20s, if you're a late bloomer.

"$80k is an entry level stipend for 22 year olds in NYC
$150k is what you make by your late 20s, if you're a late bloomer."

Which industry?

@ NYCMatt... Stripping

They way to feel rich is to make more than your PEERS.

^thank you dealboy. You snatched the words right out of my fingers!

@ NYCMatt... Stripping

^don't knock it! we all need our start.

"$80k is an entry level stipend for 22 year olds in NYC
$150k is what you make by your late 20s, if you're a late bloomer."

Divide those figures in half. Maybe that second one by three.

$600K not rich?!? Are you kidding me?!? Does he realize what that'll buy him in Meadowod at Gateway?!? He does?!? Well what is he waiting for?!? GO EAST (New York, that is!) YOUNG MAN!!!

In no time flat(lands) - he'll be The Real Estate Baron of Brownsville (or the Sultan of Spring Creek!)

He can then celebrate this important milestone at the nearby Olive Garden...oh yeah, baby...he's a mogul now!

walpurgis, what do you think about the hot dog hooker lady?

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/25/justice/new-york-hot-dog-hooker/index.html

This is the 1st I heard of it - LOL!

If our beloved Anthony's surname isn't ironic enough - hers is even more so (can you imagine if she's actually related to the good ol' Judge? This would be too much already - but even BETTER if Anthony was one of her clients!)

"Wiggle with your weiner"...hmmm...how 'bout "C***t with your Knish"?!? Why not?!?

The web would short out from blog & commentary overload...

@shinny ... I actually know a stripper that purchased a condo here in the city for about $580k. She makes about 50k at her regualr job and made another $125k cash for a couple of years strippin. She paid for her place all cash. She didn't bother taking out a loan because of course the banks wasn't going to give her one. Also she kind of made sense i n saying why apply pay taxes on monay I made when they will suck 40% from you and the bank won't bother to give you a mortgage ?

>Also she kind of made sense i n saying why apply pay taxes on monay I made

Can you provide her name and address so the tax collectors can address her tax evasion?

>@shinny ... I actually know a stripper that purchased a condo here in the city for about $580k.

MIBNYC, is this one of the people you want to be able to buy a co-op but co-ops are unfair to strippers and tax cheats?

@ Greenday .. why hate on her ? You're just jealous she makes money under the table and used it to purchase a home. Could she have done it if she reported her earnings ??

Am I jealous of a tax cheat stripper who has won the admiration of MIBNYC?

@ Greenday ... why should she report it ??? Whats her advantage ?? http://youtu.be/-twUCEfzrDk

anyone ???

You are asking why she should comply with the law as well as her obligations as an earner?

Think positive. Not feeling rich even when others think you are rich can be a good thing. He still has the drive to earn more, invest more and produce more. At the same time, he may not be behaving like a filthy rich. Since he is not feeling rich. Perfect.

what's your effective tax rate?

@ Greenday ... what was her FINANCIAL ADVANTAGE if SHE DID COMPLY ?

The census lets you search HH incomes by zip code. The median HH income in even Lenox Hill and Tribecca are like a third of $600k, perhaps as much as 40%. So EVEN by micro area, $600k is "rich".

The whole notion of "I am middle class is you ignore all the poor areas and all the poor people in my neighborhood and all the poor and middle class people who work for/with me or live near me" is stupid. Like NYMatt and I always like to say, its idiotic if someone from LA says "I am middle class if you compare my income ONLY to people who live in Beverly Hills above Santa Monica Blvd, Bel-Air, Pacific Palisades and Malibu. POOR even!"

The median HH income in NYC is $54k. In Manhattan its $68k. The AVERAGE HH income in Manhattan is $120k. If you make 11X the median for the city, 9X the median for the borough, and 5X the average for the borough, you are in fact rich. You are in fact in the top 1% of income earners in the US or NYS, or among the top 2% in NYC. You are in fact rich. And to deny this is to be an asshole.

http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/searchresults.xhtml?refresh=t

Look at the left for income.

Yo, Greensy Babes: Please remember that as long as you're not jealous of a dog's teeth - you're fine:

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/35234-landlord-hidden-cams-in-exit-signssmoke-detectors

Love when peeps love to DOUBLETALK thru straight up questions. Much like MADOFF did to his own peeps and left them BROKE.

You are advocating on behalf of a stripper who had cheated on her taxes and you are worried about so-called double talk from Jason the Retard?

@ Greenday .. Im making a observation just like anyone else can.Oh like people who pay their taxes don't try to right off ILLEGAL DEDUCTIONS AND GET AWAY WITH IT ?? Now ... what was her FINANCIAL ADVANTAGE if SHE DID COMPLY ? <<<< Can you answer this ?

who cares about income stats? all that matters is net worth.

You are asking why she should comply with the law as well as her obligations as an earner? <<<< Greenday

Now ... what was her FINANCIAL ADVANTAGE if SHE DID COMPLY ? <<<< Can you answer this ?

http://youtu.be/UXoNE14U_zM

jason, you are a mindless fool. typical cut and paste poster incapable of original thought. yet you are quick to judge and call out people on sh*t you clearly know nothing about. you sir, are the consummate asshole.

Jason you ignorant slut.

greenberg, please be appropriately respectful towards our handicapable fellow poster.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/crime_pays_BgvdWZ5sseRrlnXTYGmH0N <<<< The stripper wanted to declare ALL HER INCOME to help out this poor soul

"who cares about income stats? all that matters is net worth."

You can look up median net worth by zip code too, I believe.