What it Takes to be in the Top 1% in Australia

Interesting article in the AFR on what it takes to be in the top 1% in Australia currently by both income and wealth. You can go to the free article to see lots of charts, so I won't post them here.

To be in the top 1% by income, you need a household income of AUD 532k. The top 5% is above AUD 306k. The top 10% starts at AUD 235k. I predict that our taxable income will be AUD 263k for this tax year. So we fall within the top 10%.

The wealth data are also broken down by age group. For the 41-64 age bracket the top 1% starts at AUD 7.7 million, while the top 5% starts at AUD 3.8 million. At AUD 7.4 million we are just outside the top 1%. Our average adult age is 55. The top 1% for 65+ starts from AUD 10.9 million!

There are also breakdowns by type of asset. The top 5% by home equity for our age band starts at AUD 1.42 million. So we are well below that. The top 25% is AUD 650k and above. We are within the top 25%.

A top 1% household superannuation balance is one of more than AUD 2 million. We are definitely in the top 1% by this criterion. Moominpapa alone has almost 1.9 million and Moominmama more than 900k. The top 1% of individuals starts at 1.4 million.