Texas Wealth: What It Takes to Be in the Top 10%

As kids growing up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the Texas Panhandle, the Gulf Coast, or the Piney Woods of East Texas, we all dreamed of being rich.

We dreamed of owning an extravagant home surrounded by acres of land filled with horses and animals, driving expensive sports cars, and traveling the world.

Or your dream could have been to live in a luxury high-rise apartment in the city, drive an expensive sports car, and travel the world, too!

As soon as adulthood hits us, or sometimes before, we quickly realize those dreams are just that, dreams.

While it is possible to be rich and live that lifestyle, we have to work hard to make a lot of money to make that lifestyle a reality.

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The realization is, that it's hard to make a living to live that dream that we dreamed up as a little kid. Since the pandemic of 2020, the cost of living has become out of control for many Texans. In most cases, wages aren't keeping up with inflation, the cost of healthcare is through the roof, housing is becoming too expensive to own, and now there are new threats to whatever wealth we may have.

Threats like the bird flu and tariffs on goods from other countries. Bird flu is jacking up the price of eggs and the president has slapped a 10% tariff on all goods coming from China and at the beginning of March 2025, a 25% tariff is set to go into effect on products from Canada and Mexico.

Making a decent living as a middle-class citizen is hard and it's hard to make that jump to 'being rich'.

How much does it take to be among the 1% of the wealthiest in Texas?

To answer that, we turn to GOBankingRates. The publication recently determined that you need to have a yearly salary of $794,129 to be considered among the top 1% of earners in the U.S., that's about $66,180 a month.

In Texas that number is slightly lower at $789,003, averaging about $65,750 a month making Texas the 14th highest among all the U.S. states.

By comparison, the U.S. Census Bureau determined the average annual household income in 2023 was $80,610.

The top 10% wealthiest in Texas earn...

$260,767

GOBankingRates publishes that the median income in Texas is $73,035 based on data collected before February 2024.

For this contributor, I do believe I will never see that 1% or 10% top-earning position ever. However, I am happy with life despite paying $4.85 for a dozen eggs (for now)!