Why High Income Earners Go Broke: 5 Wealth Killers

An investigative look at the paradox driving 51% of six-figure salaries into living paycheck-to-paycheck

Vic Danh
ILLUMINATION
Published in
8 min readMar 24, 2024

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If you find yourself among the 51% of Americans earning $100,000 or more per year who are still living paycheck-to-paycheck, you’re probably wondering — how did this happen? How can someone making a six-figure salary be broke? As counterintuitive as it sounds, a high income is no guarantee of wealth accumulation.

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Vic Danh
ILLUMINATION

Senior Research Associate by day and MBA, economically-inclined blogger by night. A life-long learner and observer of technological, health and social trends.