Came across an interesting blog post on the Wall Street Journal where there was heated debate on whether earning an annual salary of $250,000 (approx 1.7m ksh p.m) makes one wealthy. That brought to mind the phrase 'earns a good salary" that is common in Kenya. Am sure each person has his own idea what this figure is and as argued by many on WSJ, it all depends on where you live and that 250k in New York is hardly middle class. But as pointed out by others, the median HOUSEHOLD income in the US is $50,000 (approx 355,000ksh p.m) and hence anyone earning 1.7m is riiich! The comments on WSJ make very interesting reading.

Whats your take wazuans? Is a household (2 person) monthly income of say, 200,000k net the figure?

Article: http://blogs.wsj.com/wea...-if-you-are-a-democrat/

Comments: http://blogs.wsj.com/wea...-democrat/tab/comments/

Live within your means and better still,that's if u can, live below your means and your salary would be just the right salary.

Boss, things fallen apart or what? Two things - though I've not opened the link, am pretty certain the US income figures are per annum (not p.m); secondly,you omitted a zero when converting to KES - US$250k is circa 17m etc.

Its what you keep or rather what you are left with that counts not your "salary". And maybe of more value is what you do with what is left.

Some people say that someone should pay not more than 30% of their net pay for housing. For Nairobi a good stand-alone house with a compound in a good neighbourhood goes for 150-200K. Thus a net income (household, 2 person) of 450-600k per month could be considered good for Nairobi.