Are you wealthy?

[calmloki]

Damn!. Had to borrow against both places when the PenFed 5/5 loans were at 3% with no fees. There goes our standing in the country club. poor us. I feel about as bad as when my Creditkarma score drops because I'm picking up $400 in bonus money by signing up for a new card

 

[traineeinvestor]

In spite of being in the top 5% on the scoreboard and being pretty confident I can safely FIRE later this year, # 3 was the only question I could answer in my favour.

Interesting but a pretty poor test.

 

[comicbookgujy]

I can also answer all 4 questions which favor my being wealthy. The scoreboard is a moving target because I turn 50 in a few weeks. I am in the top 10% now but will move down to top 25% once I join the 50-59 age group. I feel so poor now LOL!

Same here. Turned 40 this year and went from being in the top 5% to only top 25%.

I'm going downhill!!! We're truely in a great depression!!

 

[Tyro]

I love question number 4!:

You are at a cocktail party and a stranger asks: “What do you do?” If you answer this with any known occupation, you are not wealthy and you’re probably a workaholic.

+1. If this were the only question/criteria, then all retired people are wealthy. I don't think so.

 

[Tyro]

Sorry, too busy swimming in my pools of money to look at a silly set of questions!

 

[bondi688]

Stupid article and useless and silly questions.
"Question 4:
You are at a cocktail party and a stranger asks: “What do you do?” If you answer this with any known occupation, you are not wealthy and you’re probably a workaholic."
So if your answer is I do not work, I am on welfare. Does that make you a wealthy person?

 

[obgyn65]

Not sure how to answer the OP's question. Wealthy as compared to what ? Poor people in third world countries who come to my free clinics ? Yes. Compared to Wall Street guys making $100,000,000 per year? No.

 

[Ronstar]

I'm not wealthy - I spend all day doing my own yard work, etc. If I was wealthy, I'd have a gardener and other servants.

 

[Walt34]

We're there, and although I'm working I have an attitude problem and will leave if/when things don't suit me.

 

[clifp]

#4 my answer is retired. Isn't that an occupation?

 

[growing_older]

You are at a cocktail party and a stranger asks: “What do you do?” If you answer this with any known occupation, you are not wealthy and you’re probably a workaholic."

So the only choices are "no known occupation - therefor wealthy" or "a known occupation - therefor workaholic" Seems pretty silly.

 

[eytonxav]

LOL, if you have to answer questions to know if you are weathy, you ain't wealthy. I'm with W2R, happiness is a much better measure of wealth

 

[Texas Proud]

Damn!. Had to borrow against both places when the PenFed 5/5 loans were at 3% with no fees. There goes our standing in the country club. poor us. I feel about as bad as when my Creditkarma score drops because I'm picking up $400 in bonus money by signing up for a new card

LOL... I had something similar with Creditkarma.... they dropped my score after we paid off our car loan and our mortgage was 'paid off' because we were refinancing... the new mortgage did not show up... these, along with the credit checks because of the refi lowered my score a lot... seems pretty dumb to me...

 

[Spanky]

I am wealthy as wealth is defined as love, time and quality relationships.

 

[kcowan]

I guess my answer to #4 of Private Portfolio Manager should change to "'Bout what?" although I do say to friends that I am independently wealthy when pressed because that means I do not need to work any longer.

The wealth grid would be more meaningful if they published the boundaries rather than the medians. I can see that as we age and move into our 70s, we become wealthier according to their table.

We are not only wealthy but also blessed!

 

[HFWR]

1. Yes and yes
2. No; I pay interest on a mortgage, and a slight bit on the car loan, but no CC or "revolving" debt, but my cash is basically earning no interest.
3. Yes, though right this minute would not be optimum.
4. I usually answer this by telling people where I used to w*rk, rather than trying to explain what I do... But, once FIREd, I'll likely answer with some wisecrack...

My car loan will be gone in 1.5 years; only financed because they gave me the loan for nearly nothing, which allowed me to keep a larger cash cushion at very low cost. Mortgage will likely never be paid off completely until I sell to move to an old hippie's home, but my PITI is less than I could rent a 1BR apartment. Portfolio plus SS plus a scrawny pension will allow me a lifestyle very similar to my current one, certainly not rich, but comfortable, but SS is 3.5+ years away.

 

[Rambler]

LOL... I had something similar with Creditkarma.... they dropped my score after we paid off our car loan and our mortgage was 'paid off' because we were refinancing... the new mortgage did not show up... these, along with the credit checks because of the refi lowered my score a lot... seems pretty dumb to me...

I don't understand the credit karma stuff either. We just bought a new truck to be able to pull the oversized travel trailer. Wanted to pay cash for it, but got a discount of $1000 if we financed it on a 36 mo term, which we can pay off after the 3rd payment and still keep the discount. Anyway, Credit karma gave me a score of 792 and DW a score of 810. Mind you, we've been married for almost 29 years, everything we own is joint, credit cards are all joint, we never carry a balance on the cc's, have no mortgage or other loan of any kind, I've been fully employed until 12/12, and DW has not had a compensated job in 20 years. Also, we've never had a late payment on anything in those 29 years.

:headscratch:

R

 

[Rambler]

I'm not wealthy - I spend all day doing my own yard work, etc. If I was wealthy, I'd have a gardener and other servants.

By the chart, I guess I would be considered wealthy. That said, I can't bring myself to hire people to do things I can do for myself...in terms of either time and/or talent. Does this make me not wealthy? For me to hire someone to do such things, I would need to have probably two to three times as much wealth as I have, AND have other things I wanted to do more than mow the lawn or build a shed, which, BTW, I enjoy doing. Then consider, since I enjoy doing them, and have the time to do them, does this make me wealthy? Are you confused yet as to whether Rambler is wealthy or not? (I am...). Does it even matter?

R

 

[yakers]

In top 5% only if I use the full NPV of our pensions, without it not in the top half even with our paid off California house & portfolio. Unfortunately the pension is not an inheritable asset, so yakers junior are definitely not starting life wealthy.

 

[David1961]

Sorry, Sir Paul McCartney, you must not be wealthy. Your known occupation is musician.

 

[Amethyst]

Yeah, just hated it when I lost my "Credit Guru" badge for the very same reason

A.

I feel about as bad as when my Creditkarma score drops because I'm picking up $400 in bonus money by signing up for a new card

 

[Sue J]

1 - Do you make payments on your house or car?
Nope.

2 - Does your interest income exceed what you pay in interest?
We pay no interest and have a little interest income from a couple of those juicy PenFed 5% CDs.

3 - Can you keep what you have without actually working?
Yes. DH is fully retired and his pension covers all our expenses. We occasionally have a garage sale just to declutter, but certainly not to cover necessities.

4 - You are at a cocktail party and a stranger asks: “What do you do?”
DH would answer that he's retired. My answer is that I'm a School Crossing Guard and a Concert Venue Usher. It's fun stuff that I do so that I can contribute to a Roth IRA.

So the answer is that according to the Asset Builder test, it looks like we are wealthy. I don't feel that way as we don't have a huge portfolio of assets. But DH is retired almost 3 years and so far it's all going very well.

So.... I guess we are "wealthy" enough.

 

[FIREd]

We are in the top 1% for our age group and in the top 5% for all age groups so we are well off, although you'd never know it.

 

[Andre1969]

I am in the top 10%.... but did poorly on the test...

I owe on our house.... I will probably buy our next car with a loan (if it is still very low).....

I still say what I do when asked...

I'm in the same boat. Top 10% for my age group. But, I owe on the house. However, when asked what I do, I usually say "Sit in front of a computer and go brain dead all day!" rather than my actual job title. So, maybe I'm getting there!

 

[xyz]

Since I retired I really don't care how I stack up. I have met my financial goals and now I am moving on to a more exciting life. It's really great to have the time to swim outside every day and go for a bike ride whenever I feel like it. ...Wealthy .. who cares? FI is the real test.