How much money does it take to be 'rich'?

And more of the week's best financial advice

Wealth.
(Image credit: Hulton Archive / Stringer)

Here are three of the week's top pieces of financial advice, gathered from around the web:

Taxing college financial aid

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What it takes to be rich

"How much money do you need to be wealthy in America?" asked Suzanne Woolley at Bloomberg. The answer you give may depend on your age. According to Charles Schwab's annual wealth survey, the average net worth that people said it took to be rich came to $2.3 million. The number was higher for Baby Boomers, who put it at $2.6 million. That was slightly more than the figure for Gen Xers ($2.5 million) and 35 percent higher than the number for Millennials ($1.9 million). But more than three-quarters of Millennials "said their personal definition of wealth was ­really about the way they live their lives, rather than a discrete dollar amount." Whatever the threshold, Americans are optimistic about reaching it, with 60 percent saying they expected to be wealthy within one to 10 years.

New grad salaries flatten out

Starting salaries for college graduates have been on a hot streak in recent years, said Kelsey Gee at The Wall Street Journal, but the growth rate may be slowing. "Salaries for entry-level jobs for new-degree holders average $51,347 in 2019, up 1.9 percent over last year — which is virtually flat adjusting for inflation." Some of the biggest increases are in unexpected professions. "Marketing analysts, for example, are expected to earn $52,557 this year, reflecting a 5.4 percent increase" over 2018. But software developers will see only a 1.4 percent increase from the year before, to an average starting salary of $68,145. Despite the strength of the job market, the raise is significantly smaller than those of 2016 and 2017.