About 20% of U.S. Households Earn $100,000 or More Per Year; Less Than 7% of the Population Has Personal Income of $100,000 or More Per Year

This varies greatly by race. Asian have the highest percentage of households earning over $100k at about 28% of Asian family's. Whites are next with just under 20% earning more than $100k. Blacks and Hispanics have the lowest percentages with between 5% and 10% of households. Education is the biggest single reason for incomes discrepancies. Basically the longer one stays in school the more money they make per year. People with Masters and above tend to break the $90k mark, those without do not. Individuals is 7%. About 9% of our population has a graduate degree or better. [Source] [Source]

Of those individuals with income who were older than 25 years of age, over 42% had incomes below $25,000 while the top 10% had incomes exceeding $82,500 a year. The distribution of income among individuals differs substantially from household incomes as 42% of all households had two or more income earners. As a result 20.5% of households have six figure incomes, even though only 6.24% of Americans had incomes exceeding $100,000. [Source]

First Person: How to Earn $100,000 and Still Feel Poor

March 12, 2012

Laura Cone | Yahoo! Contributor Network - Our family income recently topped $100,000, but we aren't spending as though we make six figures. We don't sip Mai Tai cocktails at resorts or buy pricey tech toys.

According to recent data, incomes are rising and consumers have more money to spend. They are also taking on more debt for the first time in three years. Financial experts say the increase in borrowing can be attributed to buying cars and paying for college. We bought a new car this past year so our son could earn money for college delivering pizzas. He may need to borrow money for grad school.

Is six figures the new minimum wage?

Although I admire people who live on fixed incomes or minimum wage, I have no idea how they do it. When I was younger, I got by on a salary of just $19,000 a year. At that time, I did not have a mortgage or two sons attending college. Back then, the high cost of childcare took a big chunk out of my pitiful paycheck. Still, I never thought we would have trouble living on $100,000.

What's up with my net worth?

I always figured my net worth would increase as I earned more income. In fact, I thought that clearing that six figure "hurdle" meant we would be financially set. However, our net wealth plummeted since the housing bubble popped. Our home is on the "liability" side of our net worth chart. Although the stocks have recovered, our retirement accounts do not reflect the balance I would have expected once we earned six figures.

Why don't I have money to burn?

My lifestyle isn't extravagant. We are spending less money on clothing, entertainment and anything that is not a necessity. We don't have money to burn because of the high cost of gasoline, car insurance, groceries and college tuition. We also have a high tax bill every year.

Housing: We live in the Tampa, Florida area, where we had our 1,800-square-foot home built at the top of the housing bubble. I’d feel a lot richer if I could take the $183,000 we spent seven years ago and buy a home twice the size today in a better neighborhood. Some of the homes in my subdivision have been vandalized. I never thought I’d see broken sliding glass doors and graffiti on the walls of homes that people had to get on a waiting list to buy. Houses were in such high demand we put a $3,000 deposit on our lot at the builder’s model home center before even seeing the subdivision. To try to stay above water on our mortgage, we pay an extra $250 a month to the mortgage company. That way, we will at least have the option to move if we need to in the future without ruining our credit.

Expenses: Our fixed expenses include $350 a month for utilities, $300 for car insurance, $175 for Internet, cable and phone. We owe $1,222.02 a month on our mortgage and $300 on a car loan. We have no other debt. We save 10 percent of our income for retirement. We spend at least $500 a month on gasoline and an astounding $1,000 a month on food. I’d feel rich if I was eating at upscale restaurants or buying gourmet foods, but our food budget just provides the basics for four people.

Education: We are spending about $15,000 a year for tuition and books to send our two sons to community college. When they transfer to the university in another year, those expenses will more than double. My older son pays $5,000 or about half of his tuition costs since he has a part-time job, but my younger son hasn’t been able to find employment. I’d feel wealthy if I was struggling to send my sons to an Ivy League College, but this is just community college.

We purchased stocks to help fund our sons' college education, but the stocks took a big dive. We are hoping the value of their stocks will recover to help pay for the last couple years of college. We don't want them to take out college loans, but they may have no choice.

But it's not all bad

Although we have a lot of expenses, we have managed to stay out of debt. I am sure if we did not make six figures, we would fall into the debt trap. Experts say people tend to take out more debt when they have more equity in their homes. Even if the value of our home begins to increase one day, I won't feel comfortable taking on more debt. Instead, we plan to be free of our mortgage debt within the next 10 years.

I may never have money to burn, but I hope to have a chance to enjoy something before the tax man takes his cut.