From stubborn inflation to rising interest rates, it’s exceptionally expensive to have a shaky personal financial situation in 2023 — but in today’s era, it costs a lot to be financially comfortable, too.

Americans feel they’d need to earn approximately $233,000 a year on average to be secure or comfortable with their finances, a new Bankrate survey finds. To be rich and achieve financial freedom, Americans say they’d need to make about two times more: roughly $483,000 on average, according to the poll. Both numbers are significantly larger than the average earnings full-time, year-round workers made in 2021 ($75,203), according to Census Bureau data.

Americans’ income needs highlight mounting affordability challenges that households are facing when it comes to growing their wealth — a problem many were navigating long before inflation skyrocketed in the aftermath of the pandemic. More money seems like it may beget more financial success at a time when college tuition has more than doubled and the median home price when adjusted for inflation has climbed 40% over the past 20 years. On the flip side, Americans’ buying power judged by their personal income has climbed a smaller 21% pace since 2003, according to the Department of Commerce’s per-person measures.

Bankrate’s key takeaways on Americans’ path to financial freedom

—Americans are more than two times more likely to feel financially insecure than secure. Slightly more than 1 in 4 (28%) Americans say they are completely financially secure. That compares with the majority (72%) who say they are not, which includes 26% who expect they’ll never be completely financially secure.

—U.S. economic factors are overwhelmingly keeping Americans from feeling financially secure. More than 3 in 5 financially insecure Americans (or 63%) say high inflation is keeping them from being financially comfortable or secure, along with 48% who blamed the economic environment more broadly and 36% who pointed to rising interest rates.

—Americans’ personal finances are also interfering with their financial comfort. About 2 in 5 each blamed insufficient retirement funds (41%) and emergency funds (42%) as factors keeping them from feeling financially secure. More than 1 in 4 blamed high or revolving debt (26%) and renting instead of owning or housing affordability (25%).

—Highlighting wealth gaps and varying costs of living, many Americans feel they need even more pay than the national average. Women, on average, say they’d need to earn roughly $237,000 annually to be comfortable and about $502,000 a year to feel rich — which is nearly $37,000, or 8%, more than men. The average income that Black Americans, baby boomers, Generation Xers, as well as Northeasterns and Westerners say they’d need to feel both comfortable and rich is also larger.

Most Americans say they aren’t financially secure

Americans indicate that their finances aren’t stable at a time when the economy’s continued growth is in question. For more than a year now, economists have been predicting a recession could knock job growth and Americans’ incomes off course as the Fed combats stubbornly high prices with the fastest pace of rate hikes since the 1980s. About 1 in 4 (or 28%) say they’re completely financially secure, revealing that most Americans (72%) are experiencing the opposite.

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