What is rich? $5 million and plenty of cash

[jollystomper]

It helps to be content. I think of a college classmate of mine who is worth probably 10-20 million, yet our last reunion wasn't happy because other classmates he deemed not as smart as he had more wealth... so he still had to accumulate more. For him being wealthy wasn't just what you had, but how it compared to what others had, the good old rat race... and a sad reason why some will never feel they are wealthy.

 

[rodi]

OK. Assume they have $5M in investable assets. They move to SF and rent a home appropriate for a family of four who will be considered "wealthy." Will you ever have any income beyond withdrawals from your $1.5M portfolio?

I don't think we really disagree. I'm just pointing out that "wealthy" is a very subjective and relative term. One's personal position on the economic scale is key as to how "wealthy" is interpreted. And life circumstances plays in as well.

To consider myself "wealthy" (my own view of "wealthy") with a net worth of $5M, I'd have to be unencumbered by any expensive family situation or other obligation and living where $150k - $200k annual income is far, far above average.

Yep - rental income (about 10k/year), already started; 2 very small non-cola'd pensions that add up to about 6k/year, starting in 3+ years when I turn 55; plus the usual: SS for me and my husband - he starts in a few months - I have a decade to wait.

 

[HFWR]

I would be "rich" with $5M...

 

[TimSF]

Isn't the definition of rich anyone who has more money than you ??

I thought "rich" defined anyone who spends $1 less than he/she earns.

 

[martyp]

It doesn't matter exactly how much money you have. People's sense of wealth is relative to the other people you know. That is why the research shows that wealthy people are no more happy than the rest of us.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2019628,00.html

The actual research article:

http://wws.princeton.edu/news/Income_Happiness/

 

[bikeknit]

Whenever I start to doubt that I'm rich (with quite a bit less than $5 million) I choose a route home that takes me through a poorer section of town - and I end up feeling very rich indeed. Perspective is everything and those of us with our basic needs plus some taken care of only have to adjust our perspective to be rich.

 

[bondi688]

Wow! NASA Probes See Earth & Moon from Saturn, Mercury


Just saw the images of Earth from space. Kind of put things into perspective.

 

[scrinch]

If you wear old faded jeans, drive a 15-year-old car, and eat homemade sandwiches for lunch, you're probably never going to feel rich even though those are the things that helped you get to $5M. Those are the penta-millionaires on this board. The penta-thousandaires on the leased Porsche discussion boards, on the other hand, probably do feel rich.

 

[obgyn65]

+2

There are so many things that have to be considered: age, marital status, size of family, where you live, your lifestyle, your social circle, that make an absolute number fairly meaningless.

Plus, richness in life is not determined by money alone.

 

[Nemo2]

Whenever I start to doubt that I'm rich (with quite a bit less than $5 million) I choose a route home that takes me through a poorer section of town - and I end up feeling very rich indeed. Perspective is everything and those of us with our basic needs plus some taken care of only have to adjust our perspective to be rich.

+1

 

[pb4uski]

If you wear old faded jeans, drive a 15-year-old car, and eat homemade sandwiches for lunch, you're probably never going to feel rich even though those are the things that helped you get to $5M. Those are the penta-millionaires on this board. The penta-thousandaires on the leased Porsche discussion boards, on the other hand, probably do feel rich.

On one hand you have a lot of what I call "closet" millionaires (or probably penta-millionaires) who live a very modest life style in relation to their wealth. OTOH you have folks who have the appearance of a high lifestyle but very little real wealth as the lifestyle is provided by debt.

I'm a long way from $5 million but if/when I ever get there I doubt my lifestyle will be much different from what it is today other than an occasional splurge here and there.

 

[NC 57]

Being rich does not concern me. My wife and I have enough to live comfortably and travel in our RV. Preservation of capital and the return on that capital does concern me as the savings accumulated through a lifetime of work fund my lifestyle.

If I were to win the lottery and dramatically increase my capital I doubt our lifestyle would change. We'd likely fund the educations of our nieces and nephews and invest the remainder. Accumulating more stuff is of no interest to us as we are consciously simplifying our lives. Watching a waterfall tumble down a gorge is worth more to us than having a new 80 inch television, new car, or second home.

Personally I feel as though I'm wealthy because I have enough to enjoy a comfortable life and I have the freedom and resources to do anything I'd like to do. For some that takes more than $5 million, for others far less. This tells me being rich is more an emotional and mental state of well being than it is a dollar amount once you are above a subsistence standard of living.

 

[HFWR]

Wow! NASA Probes See Earth & Moon from Saturn, Mercury

Just saw the images of Earth from space. Kind of put things into perspective.

Just wait until the probe reaches Uranus...

 

[Major Tom]

I suppose it depends on what the term rich means to you. To me, it means having several multiples of the amount I would require to lead a comfortable lifestyle. My "comfortable lifestyle" amount is around $1M, so using that logic, "rich" for me would be of the order of a few million, say 5, for the sake of giving a figure.

Having said that, although I'm not sure exactly why, I don't really like the word "rich" when used to refer to financial wealth.

 

[Koogie]

Just wait until the probe reaches Uranus...