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This week I read a couple different articles that brought real numbers to things I had previously only had emotional reactions to.

From the Wall Street Journal online, for you to be one of the 1% in 2012 you need to have an adjusted gross income of about $350,000. That is it. Not a million or something huge, just 350 thousand US dollars puts you in the top 1% of income earners.

From the most recent issue of Foreign Policy magazine (which I subscribe to) for you to be in the top 1% of income earners world wide you need to make just under $35,000 US dollars. Pretty much everyone in the US is a 1%-er world wide then. To make 35 grand in a year you only need to make $18 an hour and work full time.

My nuclear medicine job pays me $45 an hour. Which does not make me nearly a 1%-er in the US but sure does in the whole wide world. What this all means, I don't really care to think too much about. But to have reliable sources give real hard numbers to the debate, that did give me something to think about.

So when you file your taxes, I think it is a good time to sit back and be thankful for what you do have. Or what you want and how you're going to go about getting it.