All this talk about the top 1% just sounds like envy. Why do we compare ourselves to that?
I live in a neighborhood of a thousand 3000 square foot houses with three car garages. I imagine all the people in them reading that article and shaking their fists with anger at the 1% and realizing they're all failures who will never get ahead.
I just don't get that mentality.
Also, you clearly live in a very wealthy neighborhood, but many people are struggling. Even if people aren't struggling, the "you can't complain about anything being injust because someone, somewhere is in a more unjust situation" is an absurd line of reasoning.
Also, why can't owning a hot dog stand that pays the bills and puts your kids through college be considered the American Dream? When did that turn into yachts and trips to the International Space Station?
One could point to basically every country in Africa and many in Latin America and Asia for support of the assertion. One counter-example (not that I agree China is even a counter-example in this case) doesn't disprove the theory in social science. There are always weird exceptions.
Sure you can. Anyone "comfortably in the top 5%" can afford a very large home, it just might not be exactly where you'd want it to be.
You're choosing instead to devote more of your income to being close to where you work and/or living in an area with ready access to services you find valuable.
Even where I live, which is very rural with comparatively cheap homes, only gets you a modest sized home. You need at least $500K to even start looking at 3000 sq. feet homes with big garages unless they are complete dives.
I'd be interested to see which calculator and which figures randomdata was using. I have a hard time getting less than $750,000 for a "conservative" figure, assuming your debt isn't absurd and you save up for a $100K down payment (should be very manageable with $200K gross).
And what about local wealth distributions? A $100K income puts you in like the top 0.5% in my community. Someone making that much here is part of a 1% group, just not at the country scale. If houses are cheap in your locality, I expect things to be similar.
I usually make the wild assumption that most people who post here are in San Fran.
A top 1% personal income starts at around $190K per year. A $120K job and a decent investment portfolio and you are there.
If you are still young, my only tip is to start investing too. With any luck, your time will come as well.