State by state list of the easiest states to move from middle class to upper class as determined by annual household income change over a 5 year period.
Upper Class = earning $200,000 or more per year per household.
For example: The easiest state in which to get rich is the state of Washington which saw a 98% increase–nearly double–of those households earning $200,000 or more per year over the 5 year period measured.
Starting with the easiest states to get rich: The Top 15 are:
Washington
Oregon
Utah
Colorado
Idaho
Georgia
California
Minnesota
North Dakota
Arizona
Florida
New Hampshire
Massachusetts
Wisconsin
Hawaii
The least easiest states to get rich: The bottom 15:
Interseting to note that the top 5 states are all located in the West.
In some locations, such as Seattle, earning very high salaries in one’s twenties is as easy as it gets and there is not much competition from Ivy League grads as the University of Washington and other Washington schools dominate.
Surprised that #6 Georgia & #7 California were not ranked higher.
49 Louisiana & #50 New Mexico are in their own worlds. Both states offer unique cultures & not much in the way of Fortune 500 jobs.
If you want to practice law in either state, LSU & Tulane & the Univ. of New Mexico law school degrees are more valuable than a law degree from any T-14 law school.
I think that the point of the article is economic mobility. College grads in Seattle, for example, can easily obtain a six figure job while those in the lowest ranked states cannot.
I know folks in Seattle who can literally accept a position one block away from their current employer & double their already six figure salary. Move two blocks away & more than double their current earnings. Ease of economic mobility is the key. And none of this involves working in an high intensity/super high stressful atmosphere commonly found in NYC biglaw & on Wall Street.
Another interesting aspect is that housing is afforable in the top 5 states.
What was the 5 year period measured? ND, for example, had the big fracking/oil boom for a while, plus with their lower total population, these high paying jobs would have shifted that average pretty fast. Good for MN being number 8. Maybe my kids will settle here after all. I always said I wouldn’t, and yet.
I am not sure, but I believe that the 5 year period ended in 2018 or in 2019 as the article was originally published about 45 days ago in late November, 2019.
@chardonMN: I do see, at least for major law & accounting firms, frequent ads seeking experienced attorneys for Minneapolis locations.
If one can’t even afford to send their kids to schools and colleges they want to attend, why would they claim to be upper class? … and what’s the point of getting fake upper class tag if you have to cut down all expenses and mess up retirement just to be able to afford a desired college? Upper class starts where you can send kids to any private school or college without making any sacrifices.
Interesting that a thread titled “Easiest Places in America To Get Rich” has attracted less than 200 views.
Maybe I should have put “Ivy League”, “Harvard”, or “Stanford” in the title. After all, isn’t financial success a primary reason for attending elite colleges & universities ?
There is no “easy” way to get rich. I agree that the industries located in certain areas may increase the likelihood of getting rich … but there is so much more to “getting rich” than simply being in a particular place.
“The easiest state in which to get rich is the state of Washington which saw a 98% increase–nearly double–of those households earning $200,000 or more per year over the 5 year period measured.”
This could be explained by a phenomenon such as more high tech firms paying higher salaries to more employees in the Seattle area.
What it means to “get rich” is rather nebulous, but I wouldn’t define it as going to college and getting a high paid job in the Seattle or San Francisco area.
Maybe, maybe not. I know many who do tax returns for many of the twentysomething-year-olds in major West Coast cities. If I shared what the bonus income was for these young adults earning base salaries in the $140,000–$200,000 range, most would not believe the numbers. In short, not uncommon for the bonus pay to exceed the base salary.
Probably CA and GA are somewhat established and mature with many residents already rich and growth is slowing. This study seems to reflect expanding states.
One thing that doesn’t appear to be calculated is how many wage earners are in a household and how many jobs folks are doing to earn their income.
In HI, sometimes when there’s a fire destroying a single family dwelling, 17 or 25 people are displaced by the fire—not sure whether they are considered one household or multiple, based on how they file taxes or some other metric?
Clearly $200,000 divided by 2 or 4 is vastly different than divided by higher numbers of individuals.
Many in HI that I know have multiple jobs as well. My niece in the Bay Area has multiple part time jobs and no full-time job. My S has both a full-time and part time job because he loves having more disposable income.
Sometimes the part time status is what workers choose and sometimes it’s all they are offered.
Success is, in addition to hard work & talent, often partially due to luck such as being in the right place at the right time.
The most surprising Top 5 state in the list is Oregon. I know Nike is in Beaverton, but not sure what other major employers are in Portland, Oregon. As the survey / study / article focused on income, it is unlikely that rising real estate values are a significant factor other than for real estate agents.
Utah & Colorado have very healthy economies & Idaho must be benefitting from the influx of those leaving California.
Those are still unlikely to be the common case. Remember that tax preparers probably get the more complex cases like ISO, NQSO, and stock grant related income, which are likely to have those big gains. Someone with $140k-200k of W-2 income and some ordinary investment income may be more likely to DIY tax preparation.