I'm rich[1]. I keep my 1040 numbers in a spreadsheet. Here's some overall numbers for tax years 1997 - 2018:

- Wages $4M (Min $38K, Max $375K, Mean $179K) (Excludes FICA and 401(k) contributions.)

- Total income $4.3M (Min $39K, Max $377K, Mean $195K)

- AGI $4.3M (Min $38K, Max $377K, Mean $194K)

- Taxable income $3.4M (Min $26K, Max $325K, Mean $156K)

- Tax $742K (Min $3.8K, Max $81K, Mean $34K)

- Overall effective tax rate (tax/AGI) is 17.4% (Min 5.5%, Max 23%)

Marginal tax bracket has been as low as 15% and as high as 33%. Some specific years:

- In my lowest income year, I had total income of $39K (AGI $38K) and paid $3.8K in taxes (10%).

- In my highest income year, I had total income of $378K (AGI $377K) and paid $81K in taxes (21.6%)

- In my highest tax year, I had total income of $341K (AGI $341K) and paid $76K in taxes (22.3%).

- One year I had total income of $151K (AGI $146K) and paid $14K in taxes (10%).

- Another year I had total income of $127K (AGI $117K) and paid $6.4K in taxes (5.5%).

Married filing jointly for all years. Spouse has had no income since 2000. Two kids since 2003. Since 2004 I've lived in a state which currently has a flat income tax of 5.5%. With SALT, mortgage interest, and charitable contributions, I've itemized every year. Last year it barely made sense to itemize, and this year I'll probably be right on the itemize line again.

Including SALT, I estimate my total effective tax rate at around 30% most years. I'd have to do some math to figure out how much sales and other non-SALT taxes are as a percentage of income.

I'm a tech worker with a CS degree. I've been lucky with my career. One startup I joined circa 2000 made it to an IPO and was acquired by an F100. Another startup I joined was acquired by a public company which itself was acquired by an F100. Salary a few years into my career has been in the $125K - $200K range and bolstered by ISOs, ESPP, and RSUs.

We're fortunate we can accord to put our kids through college. I expect to spend about $150-$200K total for both in a state school.

Tangent:

I would pay more in taxes for a stronger social safety net. Retirement is more than a decade off, but I'm counting on Social Security for 25-50% of our retirement income, and Medicare for health insurance. We'll do fine in retirement, but in retrospect, I wish I had been saving even more each year. Having SS tax uncapped (no wage base) in return for higher payout is a tradeoff I'd make. I don't see any reason to tie SS to wages and not total income (include capital gains and dividends).

In general, I think there's too much reliance on the stock market for retirement. The mishmash of retirement plans we have in the U.S. is crazy. The 401(k) only came about due to some Kodak executives lobbying for a special exemption in the tax code. The deduction limits are arbitrary (why does a 401(k) allow almost 4x the deduction of an IRA). Expecting your average person to save for their own retirement is a lot to ask. My parents certainly never figured it out (both still working in their 70s). "How to save for retirement" wasn't a course I had in school. Even if (say) you're diligent enough to set aside 25% of your income each year into a target retirement fund and retire at 65, how well you do in retirement is still up to the whims of the stock market and how smartly you invested. Because most people don't have significant earnings till later in their careers, compounding isn't as valuable individually as it is collectively. And yet, corporations and governments haven't been reliable guarantors of retirement pensions. I don't really have an answer.

[1] According to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/12/upshot/are-yo... if I set the threshold to top 10%.