What Percent Are You?

The last five years has put the spotlight on the division of the one percent and the rest of the country, the 99%. That’s a very important distinction when it comes to public policy, but it makes it very hard to take stock of your own progress when it comes to income earning.

So for anyone who’s curious where they stack up, I bring you two of the most robust income percentile calculators on the internet. There are a few dozen floating out there, but I like the sample size and source data used by this one in particular

Figuring Out Your Percentile

DQYDJ

DQYDJ has a calculator for individual income, household income, and one by age. The interface is not super sleek, but you can’t argue with the data and its granularity.

Takeaways

There are a ton of gems in this data. For an individual:

• Breaking the six-figure mark of $100,000 puts you in the 88th percentile.
• Earning $50,000 a year puts you at the 63rd percentile. You would be doing better than almost two thirds of the American population at that level!
• Earning $37,500 a year puts you at the 50th percentile. You are doing better than half of working Americans, and that doesn’t count the many millions who don’t earn an income at all.

This exercise is like a jolt of gratitude injected straight into the the vein.

It’s easy to get caught up in how others have more than you, but you may forget to look at the whole landscape and realize how far you’ve come.

Of course, there’s nothing with wanting to improve your game.

Maybe you’re asking yourself how you inch up in those rankings. There are plenty of ways to get started today. My favorite is, unsurprisingly, blogging, and you can see real blogger incomes over here.