A Majority of Americans Believe You Need to Earn $270,000 a Year to Be Successful

Money may or may not be able to buy happiness, but Americans often associate wealth with success.

In fact, a majority of those who live in the United States think that you need to make $270,000 a year to be considered financially successful, Bloomberg reported on Friday. That’s according to a new survey from the financial-services company Empower. As far as net worth is concerned, survey respondents placed that figure at $5.3 million.

Those numbers, though, may be a pipe dream for many people. Just 37 percent of respondents said they were financially successful now, with 42 percent of men and just 33 percent of women saying that, Bloomberg noted. Less than half said they don’t believe they’ll ever reach the level of financial success they would like to. The economy and a lack of savings were both chosen by 35 percent of people as the reason why; 30 percent said it was due to “irregular or insufficient streams of income.”

Of course, some people don’t tie their financial well-being to their overall success. In fact, 43 percent of survey participants said their idea of success wasn’t related to a set number, Bloomberg wrote. Almost six in 10 said success was best measured by happiness—although the survey defined happiness as being able to spend money on the things that bring you joy. Another third of respondents said success was tied more to physical well-being and free time.

While being wealthy doesn’t perfectly align with being successful, and vice versa, people in the U.S. have a lot of thoughts about the two. Last year, another survey found that Americans believe you need $2.2 million to be considered wealthy. But even then, 48 percent said they felt wealthy with an average net worth of just $560,000. If someone’s looking to join the crème de la crème of rich individuals, though, they’d need at least $5.8 million to be part of the 1 percent in the U.S.—not terribly more than the $5.3 million that respondents aligned with success in the new Empower survey.

That sort of wealth isn’t the norm in America, however: Bloomberg noted that the average salary in 2023 was about $67,000. Those who make something closer to that amount might still be feeling pretty successful themselves, though, depending on how they choose to define the word.