Early Retirement Extreme Forums

It takes more than $380,000 a year by household income, or more than $8 million dollars by net worth.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/ ... ot-income/
Note the article is based on data from a survey in 2007--PRE-recession--so I can only imagine how much higher the numbers are skewed today.
I see mention of the 1% frequently here, often in the context of "being in the 1%" or sympathizing with "the 1%" vs "the 99%", and it somewhat baffles me. The classical Jacob-style ERE of a few hundred thousand dollars and an annual income of 15k or whatever is not putting anyone in the 1%. I mean, let's call it what it is: ERE is living a "low income" lifestyle, intelligently and by design. So when people here say they're in the 1%, I usually assume they don't understand how much that takes, or that they're... well, in the wrong place. I mean, I know there'd be nothing "extreme" about my retirement if I qualified as a 1%er by either measure.

I think the number is lower than $380K. I can't find the link. Jacob (I think) posted a link to a great article defining the 1%, .5%, etc. I'm pretty sure it was in the thread last fall about OWS. (hard to search on my phone)

There are a lot of 1%s. There's 1% household income, 1% individual income, 1% net worth, the "cultural" 1% (e.g. people with no job, but get a modest stipend from rich parents), etc.

Here are some random numbers:
(from http://www.whatsmypercent.com/)
Married - 761,938

Single - 193,307

All Filers - 506,554
(of course there are different data sets and the above doesn't mesh w/ the NYT http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/ ... ot-income/)
Income - $380,000

Net Worth - $8.4 million
Plus, that's national -- you can break it down by state, age, ethnicity, compare yourself to the entire world, etc. If you compare yourself to Manhattan, it's probably a lot higher than other places.

Income chart:

http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/20/news/ec ... /index.htm
No, I'm nowhere near there, though I have one or two friends who might be.

I think I'm in the 99%... The 99% off people who are getting annoyed at 26 y/o NYC art students complaining about how other people have a positive net worth.
If only OWS could have forced some action/real dialog on regulatory capture, crony capitalism, monetary policy without degrading into "eat the rich" and "pay my student loans."

I found the article from last year that I liked. http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/po ... nager.html
I'll never be in the 1%. By the time I have 8 million dollars it won't be worth 8 million dollars anymore.

Jenny -- yeah, I think numbers just don't tell the whole story. The 1% is a symbol for those who control the world. The 0.5% just doesn't have the same ring to it.

A lot of us on the board might do well and never have to worry about money, but unless we're going to dabble in VC or we're planning some fabulous business (akratic?), we'll never be the 1%.

If we're talking medieval roles*, wouldn't we be hermetic philosophers? You know, the ones the common people think are witches and heretics, and the clergy and kings think are too smart for their own good?
*Which we're apparently not, since someone edited the reference after I posted! Haha, disregard the above paragraph.
Anyway, yeah, I remember (and enjoyed) that article. The way I see it though, ERE is even further removed from the "cultural" 1%--the "ownership class". The cultural 1% would hate, fear, and deride ERE, because self-sufficiency and anti-consumerism are anathema to their power.

"I mean, let's call it what it is: ERE is living a "low income" lifestyle, intelligently and by design."
I really like the way you put that, Spartan Warrior.
I'm nowhere near, and never will be, in the 1%. I'd quit work way before I got even close. Besides, I plan on giving up millions of dollars over a full working career by trying to retire before 40 years old.
The more I engage in ERE and trying to become FI, the more I realize that this really is just a low-income lifestyle by design as you put it.
The more I think of it, the more I realize that I could probably just give up trying to accumulate capital and work part-time for the rest of my life as my expenses could certainly support such a lifestyle. At that point you're purposely "opting out" of the system. That really doesn't require much money to do.

Not in the 1% but I feel pretty well off. Perception is a big part of happiness

DividendGuy - When people ask, you can say "I paid X million dollars to retire early"

@dragoncar: I LOVE that!

I claim that perhaps even less than 1% of all people in luxury countries can manage to live on 4-1% SWR of their saved money.

So ERE folk you are (on your way to) "The 1%"

@J I'd add that people here are 1% in relative terms. They spend a disproportionate amount of resources (time & money) on investing. By aping the 1% you can become wealthier even while not achieving 1% net worth. No, not by getting a better handbag or BMW to ape the rich, but by acquiring assets under favorable conditions.
A mentor of mine (easily a 1%) once said I need to stop acting poor and start behaving like a rich man. What he meant is I wasn't chasing the deal at the time...I had a month to month plan instead of the decade plan. He was discussing how I needed to be a scaled down version of him. After that I shifted my goal to living off investment rather than wages. I feel like a rich goat trader in the third world watching 747s fly over a valley of goat herders. A 1% relatively speaking...but only in my tiny world.
I actually think that is what this whole ERE thing exposes - wealth is relative.

Well if you ERE at 30 and your gains each year are higher than your withdrawals the magic of compounding interest might get you up into the 1% if you live up into your 90's. - Depending on how big a buffer you start out with.

I think right now the point is moot. Most members of this forum are saving up a (compared to most retirement goals) small savings amount by living a low-money lifestyle. I guess that disqualifies most of us from being part of the 1%.
But if anyone comes up with a longevity pill in our lifetime, we'll certainly end up there.

Interestingly, if life was longer, I'd Be in less of a hurry to ere.

@dragoncar - agreed, but for me "if the healthy, youthful part of life was longer, I would be in less of a hurry to ERE".