Dad are we rich?

[Sunset]

......

There's someone here who says that he's not a rich man, he's a poor man with money. That's the way I feel.

+1
The two of us are taking a $10K Europe holiday. I struggled with doing this as it's such a "waste of money" the little poor man voice in my head says.

 

[Bestwifeever]

The main issue for us is that in Chicago the public schools are not so good and the teachers are striking, or threatening to, often. I also went to public school and turned out fine. Actually private wasn't even an option in the rural Alabama town where I grew up. But, my wife always went private and when we started to look at the differences in what were offered and visited both there was a clear difference. But, I agree with you all that my child will miss a little bit of the world view that not everyone is well off.

I think my grandchildren might go to that other expensive Chicago school (just a bit less per year? and these grandparents are not contributing to it ); there are decent private options but when they were looking at the public options for their kids, they felt they had no choice but to go private as they are planted in the city. They make enough to afford the tuition but are not wealthy. The kids are in activities at neighborhood centers that have quite a diverse population, and there are a lot of scholarship kids at their school, so they at least are getting a bit of the world view.

A lot of their friends have moved back to our suburb to raise their kids and are getting no world view whatsoever here.

 

[brokrken]

Good point, bestwifeever, her activities certainly introduce here to a broader group of backgrounds and there are a decent number of scholarship kids (wish ours was one, haha!) But, I agree, suburbs are out of the question for us. Before we moved here, we had never experienced what a walking lifestyle was. Now that we've had it for 5 years, we can't imagine going back to suburban driving. Our first year in Chicago we put 600 miles on our car! Our whole family agrees that the ability to walk to parks, restaurants, museums, the lake, the zoo, all of that far outweighs any negative to city living. Oh, and the fact that I can walk a half a block to the local watering hole (or 3) any time DW wants to watch Real Housewives of ..... certainly helps!

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

my answer would be "no" , if we were rich i would not be working, and if we were rich id send you to Switzerland to boarding school..

 

[dvalley]

my answer would be "no" , if we were rich i would not be working, and if we were rich id send you to Switzerland to boarding school..

You don't have to be rich to not work

 

[FANOFJESUS]

My father told me he was rich on some blocks. I said that is great isn't it? He replied you have not seen the block yet. LOL He explained to me that rich is relative. He believed most of us were rich and poor just set us on different blocks in our city. Looking back I think that is a great answer.

 

[LuckyDog]

I ER'd at age 53 and this question has come up a number of times - from the kids and others. My simple answer was/is: "We don't have to worry about how we will pay the bills."

 

[Winemaker]

Well that sounds a lot better than the baked dry liver, slighty curled up on my plate when Mom would serve us liver, she did cook some onions in a fry pan so we could cover over the dry liver taste as we gnawed on it.

The dog was always happy on liver night

I can remember as a kid going to the butcher shop that my parents bought their annual beef, they had a big glass counter with an electric skillet on top. The skillet had beef or calves liver morsels, with toothpicks, simmering gently with some carameled onion slices. The butcher always invited everyone to try some, and everyone always complimented him and wanted his cooking technique. He always replied to folk that it had to be fresh, and his liver was so fresh, it was still warm when he put it in the skillet.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

You don't have to be rich to not work

He asked what i would say, thats my answer

 

[brewer12345]

He asked what i would say, thats my answer

 

[Koolau]

I just remembered a family gathering (my mom's side of the family). This took place in the early 60's so I was in high school. Dad came from a kind of deprivation I can't even relate to. I'm sure he always felt he had married "up" and I think there were those in mom's family who would have agreed. Oddly enough, mom's side of the family wasn't dramatically better off, but they had opportunity. Realistically, the difference between the two families was that mom's side of the family never missed meals while dad's side did go hungry from time to time. Much of this was during the Great Depression.

At the family gathering, dad managed to work into the conversation that his small business was listed in D&B (Dun and Bradstreet) at $50,000. By the standards of his upbringing, he believed we were rich. I always thought we were "comfortable" but I found out in later years that my older sister had felt "deprived." I think it had to do with comparing ourselves to our peers. I noticed that I was better off than many of my classmates while my sister noticed that there were plenty of classmates much better of than she.

Throughout my formative years, I saw how generous my parents were to those less fortunate. My dad's garden produce was always shared among the neighbors who had very little. My dad's meal blessings always asked for everyone to have food in abundance.

From my family I learned a lot of lessons. "Rich" is more a state of mind and attitude than a numerical definition. To me, having "enough" and having choices and opportunity is the definition of rich. I also learned that giving to others makes one feel richer than personal spending (That's a personal choice and I don't impose that thinking on others and YMMV.)

 

[Mdlerth]

Throughout my formative years, I saw how generous my parents were to those less fortunate...

...From my family I learned a lot of lessons. "Rich" is more a state of mind and attitude than a numerical definition. To me, having "enough" and having choices and opportunity is the definition of rich. I also learned that giving to others makes one feel richer than personal spending (That's a personal choice and I don't impose that thinking on others and YMMV.)

^ I wish I had written this ^

 

[pb4uski]

Our kids never asked the question that I can recall... perhaps it was obvious.

My answer would have been that it is all relative... compared to Bill Gates or Warren Buffett we are poor... compared to the many families struggling to live paycheck-to-paycheck we are rich.

Above all, we are blessed in that we are healthy and have family, a roof over our heads and food on the table and a few luxuries of life.

 

[rayinpenn]

When I think about money I think about a Chinese tradition of asking "have you eaten today?". The prospect of not having food puts things in perspective. My belly is full so I guess I'm rich enough.

 

[kcowan]

I remember having to do a means test for a university scholarship. Dad refused, saying we are not poor. I said, let's just tell the truth and let them decide. I got the scholarships!