How much money do you need?

And does Generation Z know something you don't?

Before we dive in — For tomorrow’s newsletter ahead of Valentine’s Day on Friday, I’d like to try this weekly feature where I introduce a life question (which I did last week), and then put together something interesting about the answers.

The current question is: How did you find the love of your life?

If you’d like to share your story, please do so if you haven’t! There are two options.

• Go here, and add a comment.

• Call (762) 250-5433 and leave a voicemail.

I’d love to get more calls, to be honest! This is something I’ve wanted to try — actually, I think I did try it once before a year or so ago, and it worked — but for whatever reason we have a lot more written comments than calls so far.

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Average Americans

Average Americans want to do better than average.

But average younger Americans, meaning members of Generation Z? That’s a different story altogether, according to a new study.

Let’s go through the data and the source, and maybe try to figure out why Gen-Z apparently has such a different perception of money, and how much an American truly needs to feel successful.

We start with a benchmark: The U.S. Census Bureau says that if you make between roughly $150,000 and $300,000 a year in the U.S., then you’re in the top 20 percent of earners—but not the very top.

A shade over $150,000 in annual income would put you right at the 80th percentile of all Americans, and $300,000 would mark you right at the 95th percentile. At that point, only 5 percent of all Americans make more money than you do.

Sure enough, the average American’s annual wage aspiration, according to a recent online survey of 2,203 Americans conducted by business intelligence firm Morning Consult on behalf of financial planning company Empower, lines up pretty well with that.

On average, Americans overall say they feel like they’d need to make $270,214 per year in order to be “financially successful.” Drilling down:

• Boomers say you’d need $99,874,

• Gen-Xers say $212,321, and

• Millennials say $180,797.

• But Gen-Z is entirely different. According to the survey, its members say you need to make considerably more—$587,797 annually—to be successful.

The survey also asked about net worth. Boomers said they’d be happy with just more than $1 million ($1,049,172), and Gen-X and Millennials had similar answers ($5,295,072 and $5,638,205).

Again, Gen-Z thinks you need significantly more: $9,469,847.

For context, the Congressional Budget Office says $9.1 million in net worth puts you in the top 10 percent of all American families, and a net worth of $1.3 million to be in the top half.

Why is Gen-Z the outlier? And what can we learn from it?

Maybe it's because Gen-Z lived through the pandemic at a younger age, or because they lived through the inflation that resulted and internalize the idea that this is the norm.

But another theory is simply because of where they spend so much of their time -- all of us do, really, but Gen Z the most: glued to our phones, and entertained and "algo-ed" within an inch of our lives by hustle culture and consumerism.

O.K., I sound like an old man saying that! But I think it's legit.

Other explanation: We're all just terrible at math as a culture.

Most Americans can't even articulate the difference -- both numerically and in standard of living -- between say, $10 million, $200 million and $300 billion.

I'm in no hurry to find out what the next generation -- Generation Alpha -- will think, mainly because I'm in no hurry for my daughter to grow up.

But I'm awfully curious if it will be an even bigger number.

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How about a poll?

OK, now I’m curious. How much money do you think a person needs to be “financially successful?” (Let’s go with “net worth,” so compare it to the $1 million, $5 million, and $10 million answers above.)

(Fun fact: Even the top “$50,000,000+” choice starts at a number that is about 0.0125% of Elon Musk’s net worth.)

Thanks for your vote! And don’t forget about your “how I found the love of my life story” if you’re so inclined and haven’t shared already.

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7 other things worth knowing today

• Federal judges have issued President Donald Trump stinging legal rebukes in the early clashes over his blitz of executive orders, and two of his top aides -- namely Vice President Vance and Elon Musk -- have responded by suggesting that his administration simply defy the courts and move forward with its agenda. (Washington Post)

• A Hamas spokesperson said Monday that the terrorist group will delay the next planned release of hostages in the Gaza Strip after accusing Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement. The sides have carried out five swaps since the ceasefire went into effect last month, freeing 21 hostages and more than 730 Palestinian prisoners. The next exchange, scheduled for next Saturday, calls for three more Israeli hostages to be freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. (Fox News)

• Astronomers are enlisting the help of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to study an asteroid that has a small chance (about 2%) of striking Earth less than eight years from now. Characterized as a potential "city-killer," the asteroid was first detected in December and its odds of impacting our planet have increased slightly since then, according to the European Space Agency. The space rock is formally named 2024 YR4 and will reach this part of the solar system on Dec. 22, 2032. (CBS News)

• A countrywide power outage in Sri Lanka has been blamed on a monkey that clambered into a power station south of Colombo. The blackout, which began around midday on Sunday, left many people sweltering in temperatures exceeding 86F. Sri Lanka is no stranger to power shortages. In 2022, amid a deep economic crisis, rolling blackouts became a grim reality as fuel shortages forced authorities to ration electricity for up to 13 hours a day. (The Guardian)

• Tech layoffs reveal the unintended consequences of mass job cuts: the declining glamour of working in Silicon Valley. (Washington Post)

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shot down an unsolicited offer by a group of investors led by Elon Musk on Monday to purchase the nonprofit that heads up OpenAI for $97.4 billion. "No thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want," Altman wrote on X in an apparent response to the offer. (Yahoo Finance)

• Many workers value remote work to such a degree that they'd take a pay cut to be able to work from home, even on a part-time basis, studies show. A new study says 40% of workers would take a pay cut of at least 5% to keep their remote job, and 9% would trade at least 20% of their salaries to preserve telework. (CNBC)

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Thanks for reading. Photo credit: Photo by David Sager on Unsplash. I wrote about some of this before at Inc.com. See you in the comments!