When I was younger, I used to always think how hard it must be to make over $100k a year before taxes and that not a whole of people do so. Furthermore, correct me if I am wrong, but if you make 100k/year before taxes you are in the top 5-10% or so of the income bracket in the US, correct?

However, now that I am 1-year out from graduation (currently 23 years old) with a year's worth of work experience under my belt and having met a ton of people in many different working professions (I live and reside in Los Angeles FWIW), I have met so many people who "claim" are making over 100k (for example: I'll meet someone at networking events or whatnot and pick their brain on their profession and ask if they are making good money and they respond saying low 6-figures, etc.) or older friends of mine in my fraternity who are making 100k+ with 3-5 years of experience in their belt or just doing research on jobs/glassdoor/the Vault/etc. I even meet random friends of friends out in LA who are doing sales or just random gigs like a bartender for a medium-scale club in Hollywood etc. and they are all making 100k or close to it.

So while I used to think making 100k+/year is very difficult, I now instead think that making 100k+/year isn't that difficult at all objectively speaking, but what IS very difficult is making 200k-300k+/year. Thoughts?

Obviously this is all relative and LA being a huge metropolitan area also affects things, etc. but just wondering what thoughts you guys have on the topic.

If you made 100k in 2010 you were in the top 6.61% of earners according to wikipedia

100k isn't what it used to be with the ever growing cost of living caused by government.

In general:

Take the industry average, if you want to be above that average you have to have a informational competitive advantage. If you know how to position yourself to take advantage of that information you'll make a buck....if not, you can always just be lucky

A lot of people I know have been more lucky then skillful (right time, right place that sort of line - on average they didn't plan/prepare etc.)
so, don't be fooled by randomness (find your competitive advantage and milk that cow)

So much of it depends on where you live. I can't comment on what people make in LA although I would not be surprised if a decent percentage made over $100k -- my uneducated guess is that LA income is bi-modal.

I don't consider making $100k difficult in Ontario but it would be extremely difficult in certain parts of the States and probably very easy in others.

I'm also not really sure that using an absolute number is a good way to do this. Yes making $100k here is easy but a parking space costs about the same as an entry level home in some places where it is difficult to make $100k.

"work arbitrage" is all the rage now

buy workers in India, live in Thailand, get paycheck from Western words

so yea, purchasing power not 100k is what matters

you know what's cool? a BILLION dollars

+1......bottom line is you need to do something most people cant do thats needed.....too many people in the US bitch about how much money they make when they dont offer any skills and are easily replaceable.....find an industry you enjoy, try to master it, and 100k wont be a problem

As has been stated already, if you go to a Ferrari dealership, you will meet a lot of people who own Ferraris. But USA is bigger than a handful of expensive big cities like LA/SF/NY/DC. And 100K in DC, is like 50K in rural PA anyway.

Fed Reserve has an income survey that you can google.

That survey also breaks down what fields make that sort of money. Basically, if you are not self-employed or in finance, you will be depressed.

This made me lol, but it sums it up pretty well!

I think the area you are located in makes a huge difference. I live in Houston, TX, where there is no state income tax and we have plenty of space, which makes housing cost much lower than places like LA or SF.

Not just housing too, but parking is probably a huge issue if you don't have a lot of space. Here in Houston, our parking lots are always HUGE. Oftentimes, they may be as big or bigger than the store itself. I remember going to San Francisco when I was a kid and went to this grocery store with a parking lot that was 1/4 the size of the store and I couldn't stop thinking how awkward/strange that was. I imagine you guys probably have to pay for parking going to work/school or where ever and that's an additional increase in cost of living that causes pretty big differences in income amongst the states.

I know this sounds weird, but in some cities the people don't even own cars. They take trains and buses and stuff. Weird, I know.

Yes a situation that represents such a tiny minority of cities that I can't even name one is a weird situation.

I was being sarcastic, yes. But Henry, you know of cities that one does not need to own a car. Toronto being one. But on the American side we have San Francisco, NYC, Boston, and Washington DC.

Just because you don't "need" something, doesn't mean something isn't worth having.

No one needs a 5,000 square foot house with a game room and a pool. We could all live in small shoeboxes. But you know what? A big house, huge yard, sweet pool, and a basement theater and gameroom are awesome.

Same with cars.

I used to live in NYC, too. (Now live in DC) Sure, if you grind life and don't do anything aside from commuting back and fourth to work and then go to some happy hours and sit in your house - you don't need a car.

But having one gives you that extra freedom and flexibility that is hard to give up once you get a taste of it. All the sudden, you can go anywhere, anytime. You can go to a nice beach, you can visit people in the suburbs, you can go to Poconos/upstate for a weekend. Can you do all those things with public transportation? You can, but it's a huge expedition and lugging around your luggage is not fun, and neither is being on someone else's schedule. And if you have a family, 4 tickets are going to add up.

As for zipcars and car rentals, all that stuff adds up too. For the price of 4 days of zipcar, you can own your own car and not worry about the extra logistics.