Are You a HENRY?
A growing number of individuals fall into the category of HENRYs—High Earners, Not Rich Yet. Despite commanding impressive salaries, these professionals often grapple with a paradox: they earn more than most, yet they don’t feel wealthy. They thought a high salary would deliver financial success and happiness. Instead, most find it brings additional feelings of stress and inadequacy.
Attending church can intensify those feelings. Pastors often cite statistics showing that some of the lowest-income Americans still earn more than most of the world. The HENRYs hear another voice telling them they are rich when they feel the opposite. In a recent Wall Street Journal column by Callum Borchers[i], one HENRY expected a $300,000 salary would leave her free of financial stress. Instead, she and her husband rent a home as they pay off debt.
This month’s blog delves into the unique economic challenges and lifestyle pressures HENRYs face, exploring why high incomes don’t always translate to financial peace or a sense of affluence.
Who are the HENRYs?
Who are the HENRYs? They are households earning over $200,000 annually and having less than $1 million in net worth. They typically attended college, hold a salaried position, and own a home with a mortgage above $300,000. They are generally millennials or younger Gen Xers. Just over 90 percent are married, and 31 percent have no kids. [ii]
What plagues HENRYs?
HENRYs suffer from financial myopia. They have focused on succeeding in a high-earning career and didn’t see that the destination wouldn’t be satisfying and that the path had its financial costs. HENRYs face three significant challenges:They are focused on the wrong goal
They have a distorted view of how wealthy people live
They overlook their progress
HENRYs focus on the wrong goal.
The discouragement HENRYs feel comes from pursuing the American Dream version of mammon rather than a deepening relationship with Jesus. They want a lifestyle, possessions, and status that will prove satisfying. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:24 that you can’t serve two masters. Many HENRYs are trying to serve both God and mammon. Others agree that you can serve only one, and they pick the mammon.
HENRYs have a distorted view of how wealthy people live.
One HENRY imagined life would be driving his Lexus between his large home and the country club. Instead, he occasionally golfs at a public course and lives in a rental home. In his book, Stop Acting Rich, Thomas Stanley chastises HENRYs for their misguided view of the rich life. The average millionaire doesn’t have a wine cellar, a country club membership, great cars, a vacation home, and a beautiful primary residence filled with custom furniture. They certainly don’t have it at 40. Stanley’s research shows wealthy people, whether Christian or not, became wealthy because they worked hard, practiced simplicity in areas that weren’t important to them, and didn’t spend money trying to impress people or live up to the world’s expectations.
HENRY’S overlook their progress.
Every person in the article had spent considerable sums on special purchases that drained their overall financial reserves. Some had done it years ago by attending college or graduate school at an expensive university. About half of HENRYs still have college loans, averaging $50,000. Some send their children to private schools. They earn robust salaries but live in expensive cities with higher property costs. They rarely look back on how far they’ve come or find contentment in where they have landed. Instead, they look ahead to their next big financial leap.
What should you do?
If you are a HENRY, I have three suggestions. First, stop chasing a goal that won’t satisfy. Second, engage in the spiritual discipline of simplicity. It will force you to identify what purchases provide real joy and which are made to maintain your image or impress others. Third, be patient! Adding a shot of contentment and two pumps of patience to your morning coffee will go a long way.
For those who minister to HENRYs, please don’t call them rich. That will only deepen their sense of failure and guilt. Their elevated expectations inflict a heavy yoke and are likely a more significant roadblock than their relentless desire for wealth. Our role is to help them throw off that heavy yoke and invite them into a relationship with the One whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light.
[i] https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/high-earner-not-rich-yet-finances-fb8ae842
[ii] Who are the HENRYs? Charts show who makes more than $200,000 and how they earn it (msn.com)
