What Your Income Should Be by Every Age (Individual)

Did you know that from an income perspective, women peak between ages 35 to 54 and men peak between 45 and 64? Do you know if you're ahead of everyone else or falling behind in terms of how much money you make? Well, let's put that to the test. Here's what your income should be at every age.

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Okay, all right, before you get out your pitchforks, these numbers are based on North America and Western Europe. Not because we're biased or anything, just because their reporting is better and more consistent. Your little country is doing a poor job at segmenting income per age and making that info publicly available. A rule of thumb for Asian countries or the rest of the world: find the parity to the US dollar and adjust it to your local currency.

We'll share with you four numbers: a low income, a high income, the median income for your age group, and what it would take for you to be in the top 1% of earners.

Okay, so with everyone comfortable with the rules, let's get started. We'll skip the under 16-year-old crowd because, let's face it, okay, you're not really making any money.

The first age group we're looking at is 16 to 21 years old. Now, this is probably your first job, your first side hustle, or your first paid internship. You know it's not the thing you'll do for the rest of your life, but it feels great not having to ask your parents to take someone out on a date. A low income is $750 a month, a high income is about $3,000 a month. The median for 16 to 21-year-old earners is around $22,500 a year. To be in the top 1% of 16 to 21-year-olds, you'd have to make over $90,000 a year.

Now on to 21 to 25 years old. It's still early, but some members of your group have already started making money moves. While you're in class making a PowerPoint, you've got a taste of independence, but your cost of living is relatively low, so you don't need a lot of money yet. You share an apartment with other people, and you don't really have job stability. Your income fluctuates with tips or overtime; you're not paid for your expertise because you don't really have any right now, despite what your college roommate says. At most, you've got an in-demand skill set that you can freelance in exchange for a below-market rate.

A low income is $1,250 a month; a high income would be $4,500 a month. The median yearly salary for 21 to 25-year-olds is $31,000 a year. The 1% of your group have already set themselves apart from everyone else, earning over $150,000 a year. Even at this age, they're usually creators or small business owners that have already gotten traction.

25 to 31-year-olds: now you're in the early days of your professional life, something Boomers used to call a career. Your lifestyle costs are still low, but all of a sudden, life starts getting more and more expensive. You're taking your job more seriously now, but you think about switching jobs or are unsure if you should start something yourself. Most of your income goes into rent, utilities, hanging out with your friends, and ordering food. Even though you live paycheck to paycheck, it's a controlled chaos you're comfortable with.

A low income is $1,850 a month; anything under that, and you know you're falling behind. A high income is $6,500 a month. The median yearly income for someone in your age bracket is about $50,000 a year. Times have changed, prices have shot up, and gone are the days when you could live a comfortable life with two grand a month. You could still do it, but you'd have to be lucky enough to not have to pay rent. You know you want to own something at some point, but you push that thought into the future. Meanwhile, the 1% of your age group are earning over $275,000 a year. They've already purchased their starter home and are looking to add at least one investment per year.

Now on to 31 to 35 years old. Well, well, societal pressure starts creeping in at this point. People expect you to be a full adult, but you still feel like a kid. You've got a stable job and a stable income, but nothing that allows you to take your life to that next level. You got promoted once or twice since you started this job, but you feel like the cost of everything is going up faster than your income. You've done the math on taking out a mortgage, and you're looking to save for a down payment.

Now the cohort splits into two here: one that has their first kid and one that decides they still want to travel the world while they're young. Deep down, you feel some financial anxiety, but when you look around, your peers calm you down because at least you're doing better than they are.

A low income is $2,500 a month; a high income is $8,500 a month. The average 31 to 35-year-old has a median income of $66,000 a year. To be in the top 1% of this age group, you need to earn over $350,000 per year.

35 to 41 years old: by this stage, things start to settle down a little bit. You now realize you'll not date a model, you're not going to become a professional athlete, and you won't be in the next blockbuster movie. But you've been living this current life for long enough to be comfortable. It's predictably good. You've calibrated your spending, and there's even money at the end of the month. You've got a safety net, and you're getting great at your job. You're being poached and offered more money by headhunters.

A low income is $3,500 a month; a high income is $10,000 a month. The median income for the 35 to 41 age group is $65,000 per year. You take your finances a lot more seriously than before because other people rely on you to perform. You begin making your first investments with one of three purposes: outpacing inflation, capital gains for a life upgrade, or simply as a superior alternative to a savings account. You worry about the economy; part of the issue is the amount of money needed has changed drastically as time goes on. The latest survey has Americans saying they need $1.4 million to retire. That's a 53% increase in just four years.

Although retirement is still a long way away from where you are, and you don't see yourself working until you're old, as a result, strategies for building wealth have evolved. At the same time, right now, the Bank of America found the latest generations of investors are expanding their strategies to alternative investments, because at this point, anything is basically better than just having money sit in your account. This includes collectibles like rare cars and an investment mentioned before on our Channel, fine art. As this interest in alternative markets grows, companies are rising to meet the demand, turning this previously inaccessible asset class into a legitimate option for investors.

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All right, now on to 41 to 45 years old. By now, you've achieved what you consider to be financial security. You're on your way to paying off your house and ridding yourself of debt. Kids are still locked in on their track, and you've still got that fire in you. You've established yourself in the marketplace, and it's showing in your end-of-year bonuses because they've never been as high as they are right now. You're a senior in your position at work, although you don't feel old. You start to question things and are scared that time might be flying by too fast. You might be going through your midlife crisis right now; it's all normal.

Anything under $3,850 a month is considered low income; a high income is $11,000 a month. The top 1% of earners in your age group are taking home over $700,000 per year.

45 to 51 years old: now statistically, this is your peak from an income perspective. You've been through thick and thin with some of your clients. You've earned your trophies. You've seen trends come and go, and the industry knows who you are. You're personal friends with many of your clients or business partners because you've been together through all of it. Loyalty is extremely high, business is good, and this is when you cash in.

A low income is $3,850 a month; anything lower than that, and you probably missed multiple opportunities to increase your income potential. You played it too safe, you chose the wrong industry, the wrong field, or you failed to upgrade your skill set. And if that's you, you probably worry a bit about retirement and what comes next. On the other hand, a high income is anything above $11,500 a month. The median income for someone in this age bracket is $85,000 per year. And just to put things into perspective, those who got all of it right and made it to the top 1% of earners are bringing home over $800,000 per year.

51 to 55 years old: now historically, this is the golden watch period where you receive your last salary increase, but the volume of work plateaus or starts to go down a bit. The hunger's gone away. The kids are out of the house, or they soon will be. Your monthly bills are declining; you still got a decade of decent health ahead of you, so you're not stressed out. You take the foot off the gas and you coast toward your professional finish line.

Sure, the environment has changed. There are new kids on the block who are leveraging technology to get the new money out there, but your clients got old alongside you and they're locked in. You mentor someone in your field, and you hope they'll be okay. A low income is $4,000 a month; a high income is $12,500 a month.

Although the bracket at the extremes has moved slightly to the right, overall, the median income is $80,000 a year. To be in the top 1% of earners, you need to make over $750,000 a year.

55 to 61 years old: now the relationships are still going strong, but talk of retirement starts to buzz around. You're doing some quick mental math, and you can't quit just yet, because anything you add now will prove useful in a couple of years. You max out your 401K, your Roth IRA, you've got a stock portfolio that's a good mixture of ETFs and indexes. Your kids are evolving into full-grown adults, and you count yourself lucky they still want to visit now and then. You realize the importance of having the right partner and the support you've shown each other to get yourselves here. You think of this period as your last hurrah.

$3,750 a month or lower is considered a low income; a high income is $1,500 a month. To be in the top 1% of earners, you need to bring in over $500,000 a year.

61 to 65 years old: people at work are starting to call you old man, and you're starting to feel like an old man. The passion is still in you, but the drive is no longer there. The body can't keep up with the hungry young bloods; they need it more than you do. You have the highest understanding of how the company got to where it is, but it's becoming clear that you're not sure how it's going to translate into the future.

At this stage, the environment and the way of doing business is changing faster than your ability to keep up with it. It's fine; this is the final round. It's okay if your bonus isn't something crazy. A low income is $3,650 a month; a high income is $10,000 a month. The median for 61 to 65-year-olds is $77,000 a year. To cross into the 1% of earners, your income should be over $450,000.

65 to 71 years old: you're either retired or you simply can't let go of it. Either way, a clear decline is visible in the ability to enact change in your organization. Maybe you stay on the board, but you no longer take an active role. Most will choose to retire and begin relying on their pension and investments to keep them afloat. Your cost of living goes down dramatically; instead of two cars, you only keep one. You focus on comfortable essentials.

A low income is $2,500 a month; a high income is $10,000 a month, and the median yearly income into retirement is $660,000. If you did really well or are still involved in the marketplace, to make it to the 1% of earners at this stage, you'll need to earn over $450,000 a year.

Now on to 71 to 85: you no longer earn any income yourself. Whatever it is that you were able to save, invest, or earn until now is getting chewed up by old age. Health problems are your primary concern because you're uncertain that what you've saved up could keep you afloat after a serious health incident. You consider downsizing or liquidating assets to maintain a certain lifestyle into even older age.

There's no longer the issue of a low or high income. Based on our research, the median income for this age bracket is $47,500 per year. That's just shy of $4,000 a month, and almost all of it is a combination between a benefit you get from the state and investment income.

Now, this is the Gauss bell curve of income distribution in 10-year brackets. Almost everyone wants to earn more, but very few people actually do something about it or even understand where they fall on the spectrum of earning. So, we're curious to learn if you adjusted these numbers for your geography. Are you a low, median, or high earner for your age bracket? Let us know in the comments and maybe even share what you do for work. This will help our community understand where the earning potential is.

And since you stuck around until the very end of this video, well, we saved a little bonus for you. If you think the 1% makes a lot of money, you're about to be in shock. Okay, the US population as of 2024 is 341 million people, and that means that in the United States, there are over 3.4 million individuals earning on a yearly basis more than the numbers that we shared with you today.

3.4 million people earn close to a million dollars every year. That's a lot of people earning so much money; it's not just a handful of billionaires. So, not only is it possible, you have a one in 100 chance of being one of them. And if you want to learn something even crazier, the top 0.1%, that's about 350,000 people, earn on average $2.8 million a year.

Now, we're about to share a golden nugget with you that will change the lives of true hustlers that have the ears to learn from this. The reason why these people earn exponentially more money than everyone else is because they decided to earn more, and they made it their business to earn more. They made it their mission in life to learn everything they can, obsessively about how money works and how they can insert themselves into the economic flow to capture value.

You're unlikely to get those kinds of numbers as an employee, so you need to start a business. You need to learn different skills than people who will work in your business. If you get really good at it, the results are worth it.

If you believe you're one of those people who's destined to be one of the 1%ers or even the 0.1%ers, we've built something for you. Your earning is directly correlated to your speed of learning and the quality of the guidance you receive. This is why Silicon Valley CEOs pay millions to executive coaches. They're not buying advice; no, they're buying time and efficiency.

And look, okay, we paid those coaches their ridiculous fees on your behalf, so you can have access to all the same kinds of insights and guidance as the super-rich do at a fraction of the cost. That's what the Alux app is for. For $1.99 a year, you get the smartest and most efficient brains in the world walking you through your financial goals in life. And since you're true Aluxers that happened to watch this video until the very end, we've got a gift for you.

Scan the QR code on screen, and you'll get 50% off your yearly plan. The average Alux app user sees a 48% jump in their income year-over-year after using our app, and we've made it our mission to make that number get even higher.

People who end up earning more have no problem making these kinds of investments in themselves because they see the value. The low to median are the ones who never are able to pull the trigger and find an excuse to postpone their decisions. If you believe the choices you make play a major role in how well you do in life financially, write the word "choice" in the comments. Let's see how many of you made it to the very end of this video.