Here’s what you need to earn to be among Australia’s richest 10%

Australia is the third richest nation in the world, according to a new report, with data revealing exactly what Aussies need to earn in order to be considered part of our country’s elite.

The top 10% of Aussie earners make $122,664 or more, Knight Frank’s latest wealth report for 2023 shows.

This, therefore, puts financial advisors ($155,882), engineering managers ($161,514) and even school principals ($130,142) among the top-earning professions.

By comparison, the average Aussie earns around $69,400 a year in taxable income.

Homeowners make the rich list too, with the report categorising anyone with assets of $1.5 million or more as a high-net-worth individual.

That means that any Aussie homeowner who owns a property with a value in excess of Sydney’s $1.25 million median is in the running for being among the world’s wealthiest.

What it takes to be among the top 1%

The report also revealed that Australia’s mega-wealthy are among the richest one-per-centres in the world, sitting in third place behind Monaco and Switzerland.

To be considered among Australia’s top 1% for income, you need to have an annual salary of $352,719 - which puts only our 2 highest income-earning professions in the richest bracket.

Surgeons are the highest-earning profession, making an average of $406,068 a year, or about $4,703 a week after tax, according to the latest ATO data.

Anaesthetists come in second place, earning an average of $388,814 a year, or around $4,527 a week after tax.

But income isn’t the only way to make it into the top 1%.

To be considered among Australia’s highest percentage of wealth, you need to have a total net worth of $8.26 million (US$5.5 million).

So, owning a property in one of our city's richest streets would easily put you at the top of the rich list.

Where else do the world’s wealthiest people live?

Monaco comes in first place with the world’s densest population of super-rich individuals, the entry point for the principality’s 1% is US$12.4 million.

The level is still almost double that of second-place Switzerland at US$6.6 million.

Australia rounds off the top 3 with US$5.5 million with New Zealand and the US sitting in fourth and fifth place with US$5.2 million and US$5.1 million respectively.

Next in line is Ireland where the top 1% have US$4.3 million in individual net wealth, followed by Singapore in 6th place with US$3.5 million.

In 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th place are France, Hong Kong, the UK and Italy with US$3.5 million, US$3.4 million, US$3.3 million and US$2.6 million respectively.

The report’s authors said the Middle East was “the standout region” when it came to adding ultra-rich individuals to their ranks, with a 16.9% growth.

Our wealth has grown

The report also found that wealth levels across every country analysed had risen since 2021, despite experiencing a “dip” the following year.

Australia has almost doubled its 2021 wealth figure, unveiling that the rich did in fact get richer during the unprecedented pandemic years.

Two years ago, Australia was lower on the list, at number seven, with US$2.8 million being the baseline.

Grow your net worth with property

At Metropole we recommend property investment as an excellent wealth-creation tool because it provides both high capital growth which grows your net worth, and a secure income which increases over time, to help you pay the mortgage.

And while it takes a few decades to grow a sufficient size asset base to become financially independent, using the power of leverage, it is possible to speed it up.

While there’s no “secret” to achieving significant net worth, there is a strategy.

All our wealthy clients at Metropole first built an asset base through capital growth and only then, once they had built a substantial asset base, they moved to the “cash flow” stage of their investing journey.

It also involves having a strategy and following a plan, because property investment is a long-term process, not an event.

While they had to save a deposit for their first property, the deposit and serviceability for future properties then came from their existing property portfolio.

So we strategize and buy properties for our clients to enable them to buy more properties.

And given that property is such an important factor when considering net worth, this strategy for property investment success can even jet rocket you into the top 1% of elite net-worth individuals as well.

About Brett Warren Brett Warren is National Director of Metropole Properties and uses his two decades of property investment experience to advise clients how to grow, protect and pass on their wealth through strategic property advice.