
It Takes $4.2M Net Worth to Be Considered Wealthy in Silicon Valley [pdf] - 11thEarlOfMar
https://aboutschwab.com/images/uploads/inline/Charles-Schwab-Modern-Wealth-Index-Bay-Area-Press-Release.pdf
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jedberg
My definition of wealthy is being able to afford food, clothing, and housing,
as well as some luxuries, without having to work.

And by that definition, you _could_ make it work with $4.2M in the Bay Area,
but it depends on your lifestyle.

Even with a median home of $1.7M, assuming you own it, you'll still need
$20K/year just for the property taxes. You'll need transportation, which will
cost you about $5000/yr because you probably live in the suburbs so you either
have a car or two or use a lot of Uber/Lyft. You'll need food, which maybe if
you're super frugal you can get down to $200/wk per person, so lets say 2
people, that's another $20K/year. Let's say you use thrift shop clothing and
can get away with paying only $500/yr for clothes. So we need about $45K a
year _after taxes_. If you manage to get all your money from long term cap
gains, you'll need pretax earnings of about $57,000/yr for subsistence living
for two people, which if you can find a nice 5% per year return, you'll need
about $1.2M.

So for two people to live a minimal lifestyle in a median home with an amazing
investment return that is very tax efficient, you'll need $2.9M.

But most people want more than substance living, can't get that kind of return
or tax efficiency, have more people in their family, and want more luxuries.

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skookumchuck
A million dollars ain't what it used to be:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l91ISfcuzDw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l91ISfcuzDw)

