The researchers at the Institute of German Economics (IW) in Cologne say that a couple without children is rich from just under 6,500 euros net per month. If one takes into account the spouse splitting in the income tax, that could be two gross salaries totaling around 10,000 euros. That would be feasible for two employed skilled workers or academics who have already made the first leaps in their careers. At the IW you can determine your personal wealth on an interactive calculator.
If you want to be in the top ten percent, you need more than 3,400 euros net per month as the sole earner. This is how the Federal Statistical Office calculated it. This means that most executives – including those in the public sector – probably belong to the crème de la crème of Germany.
According to the Hans Böckler Foundation, the richest ten percent in Germany recently owned around 60 percent of all assets.
The icing on the cake are Germany’s millionaires. According to a Cap Gemini study, the number of high net worth individuals (HNWI) increased by 6.4 percent from 2020 to 2021 (2019-2020: 4.7 percent). That’s 97,900 more HNWIs than in the same period last year and equates to 1,633,000 million fellow citizens who are millionaires.
