Just looked into something I was curious about - what % of americans make over 100k anyway? Turns out it's way more complicated than I thought. If you're pulling in six figures individually, you're definitely beating most people (median's around $53k), but you're still nowhere close to the top 1% who make like $450k+. So yeah, you're doing better than average but not exactly rolling in it. The household income picture is different though. Apparently about 43% of U.S. households are hitting that $100k mark or higher, which puts a $100k household income somewhere around the 57th percentile. So you'd be ahead of roughly 57% of households but nothing crazy. What's wild is that Pew Research says middle-income for a three-person household tops out around $170k, so a $100k household is just... solidly middle class. Not poor, not rich, just regular. The real kicker? Where you live matters way more than the actual number. Drop $100k in San Francisco or NYC and you're stressed about rent and childcare. Same $100k in the Midwest or rural areas? That's comfortable, maybe even feels upper-middle class locally. A single person making $100k lives completely different from a family of four with the same income. Bottom line: earning six figures puts you ahead of most people, but it's not the flex it used to be. You're comfortable for sure, especially depending on location, but you're not wealthy by national standards. Just in that broad middle zone where you're doing okay but still dealing with the same cost-of-living pressure as everyone else.