I know enough to know that $100k a year isn't goin to be the life of kings with Dom Perignon sitting in your hot tub with a playboy bunny waiting for you. However, $100k/year, if managed in a shrewd and efficient manner, can go a long way. FWIW, you are talking to someone who lived in a car for a summer (during my college years) and lived with a well off relative for a summer (when I was in my teens). I have seen how the poor, the middle class, and the upper middle class have lived. Now, for most parts of the country, you should easily be able to afford two cars, a mortgage on a reasonably priced home, bills and other day to day expense. To me, that is being rich, you can afford everything that you need and some things beyond that. Anything beyond that is personal excess.