When people talk about a 6 figure salary, it’s hard to miss the impressed tone in their voice. After all, most of us associate 6 figures with a wealthy lifestyle and having made it big. But have you ever wondered how much is 6 figures?
6 figures is any amount between 100,000 and 999,999.
But wait! Even better than knowing how much is 6 figures, wouldn’t you like to know how you can make 6 figures?
What about 7 figures, 8 figures, or 9 figures? How much are those? Who earns that much? And most importantly, how can you earn that much?
Well, that’s what we’re going to cover in this post!
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Contents
- 1 First, How Much is a Figure?
- 2 Is Six Figures a Good Salary?
- 3 Who Makes 6 Figures And How Common is a Six-Figure Salary?
- 4 How Can I Earn a 6 Figure Salary?
- 5 How Much is 6 Figures – Is a 6 Figure Salary Rich?
- 6 What is a 7 Figure Business?
- 7 8 Figures
- 8 9 Figures
- 9 What About 10 Figures And More?
- 10 Tip on Understanding How Much is 6 Figure
- 11 Final Thoughts
First, How Much is a Figure?
Before we talk about how much is 7 figures, 8 figures, or 9 figures, let’s back up and talk about how much money is a figure.
Figure is just another word for a digit. So, a 1 figure number is any single-digit number. (i.e. 0, 1, 2, 3… all the way to 9.) And a single figure salary would be between 1 and 9 dollars.
2 figure numbers are the tens. They start at 10 and end at 99.
3 figure numbers are the hundreds. They start at 100 and end at 999,
4 figure numbers are the thousands. They start at 1,000 and end at 9,999.
5 figures are the tens of thousands, starting at 10,000 and ending at 99,999.
and so on…
Is Six Figures a Good Salary?
Six figures is certainly a good salary. In fact, it’s often the threshold used to determine when you’ve achieved career success.
But there are a few things that will affect how much is 6 figures income.
Where you live – For example, if you live in Small Town, Texas your $100,000 salary will go much farther than if you live in a place like New York City.
Taxes will eat into your 6 figure salary – $100,000 is a six figure salary, but after taxes, your take-home pay will be less than 6 figures. And if you live in a city or state that collects additional income taxes, your 6 figure salary won’t seem as good as it could be.
There’s a huge range in 6 figure salaries – both $100,000 and $999,999 are both technically a six figure salary, but let’s be real… $999,999 is basically one million dollars! If your salary is on the high end of 6 figures, it’ll be fantastic no matter where you live.
Who Makes 6 Figures And How Common is a Six-Figure Salary?
Around 9% of Americans make six figures.
The people who make a 6 figure salary aren’t usually be high profile, so you won’t find a list of who they are. They’re just everyday people.
Like your dentist, a corporate manager, or maybe even a company’s IT guy.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are quite a few corporate/white-collar jobs that can earn you six figures.
Check out these median annual salaries from the Bureau of Labor Statistics…
- Psychiatrists & Surgeons – median pay was $208,000 a year
- Chief executives – $184,000 a year
- Airline pilots – $147,000
- Computer and information systems managers – $146,000 a year
- Petroleum engineers – $137,000 a year
Now, does every psychiatrist or pilot make that much?
No…
But the point is, six figures isn’t in the realm of movie stars and athletes. You can reach 6 figures with a regular day job if you’ve got the right skill set.
How Can I Earn a 6 Figure Salary?
Knowing how much is 6 figures is all well and good. But a better question is how can you make that much money! There are a few different ways.
1. Pick up a Side Hustle
There are a number of people who make six figures by creating multiple income streams and picking up side hustles. Here are some ideas.
- Start a blog
- Start a YouTube channel
- Teach classes on Skillshare
You’re not going to make 6 figures overnight, (let’s face it, Rome wasn’t built in a day) but if you build up a large enough following, you could earn 6 figures doing any of these things.
2. Enter a Field That Pays Big
One way to earn six figures is to enter a field that pays big money.
Like we talked about before, there are 6 figure jobs in all types of industries. With medicine, business, and computers being the ones that stand out in the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
There are also air traffic controllers, web developers, nurse anesthetists, and a bunch of other careers that can make a bunch of money.
But what if you don’t have a college degree in computers, business, or medicine? Can you still make 6 figures?
Yes!
3. Climb The Corporate Ladder
There are plenty of stories where people went from cashier to CEO of the company during their career. But honestly, not everybody gets to be the CEO!
The good news is that you don’t have to reach the top of the ladder to make 6 figures. Often, it’s enough to become a manager of some kind. (Maybe corporate manager, or regional manager…)
The point is, if you stick with your job, develop skills, and start climbing that corporate ladder, you have a good chance of getting those six figures!
Hey, do you want to learn some extra skills from home? If so, check out Skillshare! It’s basically the YouTube of online learning. Sign up for a 2-month free trial when you use our link!
How Much is 6 Figures – Is a 6 Figure Salary Rich?
The answer is… it depends. How do you define rich and how much can you buy?
Imagine someone with a six-figure salary of $100,000 that lives in New York City. After paying their taxes they’ll have much less than $100,000 of take-home pay.
And the cost of living in New York City is 148% higher than the average cost in other major American cities. So, they may even be struggling financially!
In this scenario, that six figure salary is anything but rich!
Now imagine someone with the much higher six figure salary of $999,999. (That’s just $1 shy of a million!)
And let’s say they live somewhere with no state taxes and where the cost of living is really low. They could live like a king with that salary, and most people would consider them rich.
It’s also the case for a long time in American culture the starting place for “rich” has been one million dollars. One dollar less than that is still six figures, but it may as well be rich, right?
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How Much is 7 Figures?
When you talk about 7 figures, you’re talking about millions of dollars.
Any amount between $1 million and $9 million (technically $9,999,999) is 7 figures.
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What Kind of Jobs Pay 7 Figures
Most jobs that pay big tend to stay at 6 figures. But the 7 figure jobs out there tend to be top executives at big corporations or large banking bosses.
CEOs Paid 7 Figures
- W. Jelinek – Costco – $8.02 million
- Richard Fairbank – Capital One – $7.71 million
- Robert Lynch – Papa John’s – $7.30 million
- Mindy Grossman – Weight Watchers – $7.30 million
- David Overton – The Cheesecake Factory – $6.72 million
You’ll also see celebrity movie stars and athletes making seven figures, and even some bloggers!
How Can You Earn 7 Figures
You don’t need me to tell you that the odds of becoming a movie star or athlete are slim. But I can tell you that the best way to build a 7 figure income is to find something you’re willing to dedicate an insane amount of time to and go into business for yourself.
Hey, you could even start your own blog. Some big bloggers out there have been known to make 7 figures a year.
By building your own business, whether it’s physical or online, you’ll take the risk, but you’ll also get the reward! And honestly, that’s the path for earning a 7 figure income. Because it’s unlikely that you’ll make that much working for someone else!
What is a 7 Figure Business?
A 7 figure business is a company that generates between $1 million and $9,999,999 in sales every year.
And the goal for a lot of business owners is to become a 7 figure business. Why is this so important?
Well, 7 figures start at $1 million. And for a lot of business owners, $1 million is a huge threshold to reach, and if you can do it, you’re very successful.
By the way, the IRS still considers 7 figures to be a small business. But once a company reaches an 8 figure income ($10 million or more) they’re no longer considered small.
Hey, do you want to learn some extra skills from home? If so, check out Skillshare! It’s basically the YouTube of online learning. Sign up for a 2 month free trial when you use our link!
8 Figures
What is 8 Figures And What Kind of Jobs Pay 8 Figures?
8 figures is any amounts between 10 million and 99,999,999 (one less than 100 million).
You’ll find that CEOs for the biggest companies and the highest-paid movie stars and athletes make 8 figures.
CEOs That Are Paid 8 Figure Income
- Robert Swan – Intel Corporation – $67 million
- Miguel Patricio – The Kraft Heinz Co – $43 million
- Satya Nadella – Microsoft – $43 million
- Reed Hastings – Netflix, Inc. – $39 million
- Carl Douglas McMillon – $22 million
Actors That Earned an 8 Figure Salary
- Dwayne Johnson – $89 million
- Chris Hemsworth – $76 million
- Robert Downey Jr – $66 million
- Akshay Kumar – $65 million
- Jackie Chan – $58 million
Actresses That Earned an 8 Figure Salary
- Scarlett Johansson – $56 million
- Sofia Vergara – $44 million
- Reese Witherspoon – $35 million
- Nicole Kidman – $34 million
- Jennifer Aniston – $28 million
9 Figures
How Much is 9 Figures?
9 figures is any amount between 100 million and 999,999,999 (that’s one less than a billion!)
There are very few people who make that kind of money, but the people that do make 9 figures are CEOs at the largest companies.
CEOs That Earn a 9 Figure Salary
- Elon Musk – Tesla, Inc. – $595 million
- Tim Cook – Apple, Inc. – $134 million
- Tom Rutledge – Charter Communications – $117 million
- Joseph Ianniello – ViacomCBS – $117 million
- Summit Signh – Chewy Inc. – $108 million
What About 10 Figures And More?
10 figures is any amount between 1 billion and 9.99 billion.
Once you reach 10 billion, you’ve gone into 11 figures and, well… that’s kind of ridiculous.
When numbers get that high, you’re no longer talking about annual salaries, but about net wealth.
There are very few people in the world who have wealth in the 10 figure range, but those who do are well known and are usually in the tech industry.
Here’s their net worth, according to Forbes.
- Jeff Bezos – Amazon – $114 billion
- Bill Gates – Microsoft – $106 billion
- Warren Buffett – Berkshire Hathaway – $80 billion
- Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook – $69 billion
- Larry Ellison – Software – $65 billion
- Larry Page – Google – $55.5 billion
Tip on Understanding How Much is 6 Figure
The thing that confused me when I started learning about six figure income was the zeroes.
Since a million has six zeroes, I thought six figure income referred to millions. It took me some time to realize that a six figure income really has 5 zeroes.
If it helps, keep in mind that a number with X figures has X-1 zeroes.
So, a 7 figure number has only 6 zeroes and refers to millions,
8 figures have 7 zeroes and refers to tens of millions and,
9 figures have 8 zeros and refers to hundreds of millions (not a billion!)
Final Thoughts
I hope you now have a better understanding of how much is 6 figures! It’s good to know, but even better is knowing how to get a six figure income for yourself!
Whether you
- get a college degree in a high paying field,
- start at the bottom and climb the corporate ladder,
- or go out and start your own blog or business
you can earn the six figure salary you’re looking for!
Cheers!
Oliver
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