Tadpole
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2004
- Messages
- 1,437
My chauffeur drives me to Denny's for the AARP discount.
Lets face it, no one has ever had a meal at Denny's and thought, "Man, that was awesome. I'm coming back tomorrow and having that again."
None of the above. It is a mistake to equate "wealth" with spending. In fact, spending has nothing to do with wealth. Spending only has to do with....spending.
I know there are all kinds of definitions for being wealthy. Things like being in the top 1% (or .01%), or having a certain net worth, or income level. Personally, I like the link to having "no financial constraints on activities." So, what are some specific activities that might indicate a person is wealthy? Some of mine include:
1) Purchase international business class tickets (even if you hunt for the cheaper ones) without hesitation.
2) Never even consider going to Denny's, Sizzler, etc.
3) Never consider staying at Motel 6 or Super 8.
4) Spending $100-$200 on a whim. Want that new Amazon Echo? Just buy it and if it doesn't work out...who cares. It was only $200.
What are some of your indicators?
None of the above. It is a mistake to equate "wealth" with spending. In fact, spending has nothing to do with wealth. Spending only has to do with....spending.
3) The kind of person I'm talking about. One who has enough and will judiciously spend a portion of it. The person who will opt for the $3500 business class seat to Europe instead of the $1200 cattle class. This person knows what it means to spend the extra $2300 and actually thinks that it is a lot of money (it is!). He still chooses to spend it because he has enough and the comfort is worth it. This same person doesn't fret over spending an extra $1000 on a sunroof for his new Toyota 4Runner. Heck, not much difference between $37K and $38K anyway.
You've never met my husband then!
I'm a number 3 and don't want to die rich. So I'm learning how to blow more dough. Yes, I said learning as it is not easy to do after being frugal so long.
Well, good luck on this thread. We had a similar one on another forum and it just ended up being a big bashing of people who spent too much money on frivolous things because they must be up to their neck in debt, all the truly wealthy people were frugal and never talked about their money or displayed their wealth, true wealth was being happy and with family, blah, blah, blah. Anyone who played along was accused of being superficial. Sort of like bling.
A fine line imo using the above qualifiers between wealthy and being a snob. Only a snob would care if someone likes to eat at Denny's, again imo.
My chauffeur drives me to Denny's for the AARP discount.
+1 I agree. You could be buying on credit. I read once that the wealthy pay less than 2% of their NW in income taxes per year.
We decided our price point for good food is about $10 a meal per person. We can get tasty Thai, Vietnamese or Indian lunch specials for that price and have never found anything we felt was tastier or healthier. I had the chance to get some discount tickets to a foodie event in the city last year with chefs from Michelin starred restaurants. The event was a lot of fun and in a skyscraper with pretty views. But we realized the food we thought was best were the Asian dishes and we can get those close to home and without paying much.
So, what are some specific activities that might indicate a person is wealthy?
Fair point and maybe I should not have called out a specific place. My point was to give a typical example of a place where someone might eat just because it is cheap.