There’s a good chance that, whatever money you make in a year, you could probably do with a bit more. Most of us aren’t extravagantly wealthy and our annual income is enough to get by, but a few thousand dollars more would certainly make things more comfortable.
There is a very diverse range of incomes these days when you have people who can make over a billion dollars a year and others are struggling to just get food on the table. With that in mind, there’s a lot of interesting things to learn about annual incomes in general.
10. The Average Broadway Theater Goer Makes Over $260,000
Live theater took a bit of a hit during the Covid pandemic but it’s been slowly regaining ground and returning to its former popularity. Broadway made about $1.5 billion in the 2022-2023 season and the US theater industry in total made $8.7 billion in 2023. So what kind of people are going to see plays these days?
People who frequent live theater average between 40 and 45 years of age, it’s not typically a young person’s cup of tea. On Broadway, the average annual income of a theatergoer in 2019 was $261,000. For the 2022-2023 season that went up to $271,000. The average ticket price for a show is $161.
Going to the theater isn’t a daily or even weekly occurrence for most people, and the bulk of Broadway audiences are tourists stopping in for a one-time experience. If you ever wondered what sort of people were heading to see Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, now you have a bit of a better idea.
9. Finland Fines Speeders Based on Annual Income
Over 40 million Americans are ticketed for speeding every year. People just really like to go fast. And depending on where you are and how fast you’re going there can be a lot of variation when it comes to the cost of that ticket. You may pay as little as $25 but it can get up to over $1,000 sometimes.
Things work differently in Finland. Finland is less concerned with where you got ticketed or how fast you were going than they are with how much money you have in general. Tickets are based on your annual income which is meant to be more of a deterrent than static fines which would mean nothing to a rich person.
In 2023, a million was hit with a $130,000 fine for traveling 18.6 miles per hour over the speed limit. It’s believed that the fine may be the most any speeder has ever been fined anywhere in the world.
The speeder, millionaire Anders Wiklof, didn’t seem as annoyed as you might think. For one, he’s a millionaire, so he’s probably fine. But also, he was quoted as saying “I had just started slowing down, but I guess that didn’t happen fast enough. It’s how it goes” and that he regrets it.
Finland’s math for coming up with fines is based on what you make in a day divided by two. So if Wiklof had been employed part-time at a low-paying job he may have only had a $20 fine. That said, if you are significantly over the speed limit, they may make it several days’ worth of pay, not just one.
8. Your Annual Income Increases With Your Height
It’s not uncommon knowledge that attractive people tend to have things easier in life. That doesn’t make it fair, but it’s still the way things go. A lot of things go into being attractive, at least in the conventional and generally accepted sense. One thing that is usually considered a point in your favor is your height.
The taller you are, the more attractive you are considered at least if you’re a man. Have you ever been afraid that tall people have an advantage over you beyond what they can reach on top shelves? You’re not going to like this entry.
Studies have shown that your annual income increases by almost $800 for every inch of height that you have over the average person. One study showed that someone who is 6 feet tall will earn, on average, $166,000 more over 30 years than someone who is 5-foot-5 regardless of sex, age, or weight. One in China suggested every centimeter in height increased your annual income by 1.3%. That’s about 3.3% per inch.
7. $60K Per Year Puts You in the Richest 1% of the World
For several years now people have referred to various income groups by their percentage. As in what percentage of the population falls into that income bracket. So we’ll refer to the wealthiest 1%, or the poorest 50%, or what have you. To be in the wealthiest 1% of Americans, you need an annual salary of $483,000. America is hardly the world, though.
If you want to feel better about your own financial situation, or worse about a lot of other people’s, look at world statistics. If you want to be in the wealthiest 1% globally, you don’t need to make $483,000 per year. Or $300,000 or $200,000 or even $100,000. If your annual income is $60,000 per year after tax then you are the one percent. In 2012 all you needed was $34,000 per year.
How can such a low number, at least by most Western standards, make you seem so wealthy globally? Well, the question answered itself. Those are Western standards. Over 900 million people on earth live on less than $1.25 a day.
6. The Shorter Your Name is the Higher Your Annual Salary
You already know that if you’re tall, you’re making more money. What else can you do to maximize that annual salary? Shorten your name up and make it real tight. The shorter your name is the higher your salary is going to be. If you’re seven feet tall and your name is Max Pip, you are set.
According to one study, a short first name is the key to your financial success. Each extra letter in your first name costs you about $3,600 per year. That includes long vs short forms of the same name, so Bart vs Bartholomew or Chris vs Christopher. Pick the short name and reap the rewards.
Weirdly enough, variations of the same name still benefit from brevity. Michele makes more money than Michelle. That extra letter is putting you in the poorhouse. There were a few names that broke the mold, like Christine for women and Wayne for men, but for the most part, you want five or fewer letters to earn the most.
5. Households Earning Under $13,000 May Spend 3% to 9% on Lottery Tickets
Back in 2012 it was reported that households making under $13,000 a year, which is decidedly below the $104,000 per year MIT has calculated as a minimum liveable wage for an American family of four (in 2023, so the numbers are a little off) spends 9% of their income on lottery tickets.
Now, since PBS released that figure in a documentary it has since been noted that it may be wrong and the real number may be 2% to 3% instead, and somehow PBS messed up their figures. There is a rabbit hole to go down trying to explain the different percentages but the result still has you pondering how much money people spend on lottery tickets as a percentage of their entire yearly salary.
The most significant takeaway, and one that may not be hard to wrap your head around, is that people without a lot of money will risk money on a desperate attempt to somehow make more.
4. For About 1,000 Years the Average Annual Income Never Exceeded $500
Elon Musk makes about $14 billion per year, which is about $1.6 million per hour, every hour, or $27,000 per minute, or about $456 per second. The average American earns just under $60,000 per year, or just over two minutes of Elon’s time. But that’s all right here in the present. Things weren’t always so high falutin’.
After the fall of the Roman empire, the average person’s annual wage was about $500. That was in money calculated in the early 2000s. So, if we’re talking cash from back then, it was maybe a few copper coins and some chicken feet or something. But the annual income stayed at that level for centuries.
It wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution that income started to go up across the board for everyone. Growth rates increased at two percent annually since the 19th century and that led to GDP increases that were substantial and got us to where we are today. But for the better part of 1,000 years, no one made any great financial strides.
3. 10% of Pablo Escobar’s Annual Income Was Lost to Rats
How do you feel about losing money? Have you ever reached into your pocket for a $20 bill and realized you dropped it? That can ruin your whole day. Now try to imagine life as famous drug lord Pablo Escobar.
According to Escobar’s brother, they had to write off about 10% of their annual income to losses from rats. Which is to say they had so much money, they had to just stick it wherever they could, and sometimes rats would come and literally eat it or maybe rain would destroy it. That’s 10% of their annual income.
It already sounds terrible at 10%, because you can imagine 10% of your income. Let’s say you’re making $60,000 a year, can you afford to lose $6,000 to rats? Probably not. But Pablo Escobar was losing $2.1 billion per year to rats. That’s what 10% meant to him. And he didn’t even care because how could you when you had that much cash?
2. The Average Indie Musician Makes Just a Few Thousand Per Year
There’s something about indie rock that many people feel is more artistic or pure than commercial music. In fact, if an indie rock band gets signed to a label they will often be accused of selling out. No one likes to sell out, right? By that definition, however, to be an indie musician means you have to not be selling anything. You may not be surprised to learn that’s entirely true; the average indie musician makes pretty much no annual salary whatsoever.
In Canada, an indie musician makes an average of $7,200 per year which is as paltry as it sounds when you convert that to US dollars. In America, the median salary for an indie musician is almost $13,000 but most make under $6,000. To make even that much money you’re going to have to go on tour, sell merchandise, get a manager, and have several income streams at the same time. Indie rock is generally not the way to get rich.
1. According to Research, Money Can Actually Buy Happiness
You’ve heard that money can’t buy happiness, maybe one of the most famous quotes in the world about money. But have you also thought that having more money would still make you happier than you are right now? Most people who don’t have a lot of money agree that more money to pay their bills, get rid of debts, afford the things they want, and so on would probably make their lives easier and therefore happier. Lucky for us, someone looked into all of this.
It turns out that money can make you happy up to a point. That point is $75,000. Or maybe even $500,000. Researchers looked at the lives of people making various sums of money and found that happiness did increase up to $75,000 per year. After that there was no appreciable increase in happiness, it was just like you were accumulating more stuff but you felt the same about it.
That study was conducted in 2009. In 2023, a Nobel Prize-winning economist determined that $75,000 was not cutting the mustard anymore and true happiness could be found at half a million dollars.