Who Will Stand Up For the HENRYs

At Harvard Business Review, Justin Fox offers an interesting insight into HENRYs - people who are "high earners, not yet rich".

Very successful households (two-income couples, mostly), on the young side, who are making $250,000-$500,000 a year but don't have a whole lot in the way of assets — and may have big housing and/or education debts — don't feel particularly rich, and bear just about the heaviest tax burden of any income group.

As the post notes, Matt Miller has also commented on this group, what he calls the "lower uppers". I've also heard them described as the "aspirational rich" - people who may well become rich by virtue of their income, but have yet to acquire the base of assets and wealth that is traditionally associated with being "rich".

Update: Financial advice for HENRYs from the WSJ, closing, "Never, ever, ever again blog about how hard it is to live on $300,000 or $350,000 a year at a time when one middle-aged man in four can't find a full-time job, and one in five can't find any job at all." The biggest takeaways are probably to watch your discretionary expenditures and not to waste money on fancy cars.