We feel wealthy, and I guess actually we are, but the funny thing is that we felt wealthy when we had a small fraction of the financial net worth we have today.
About thirty years ago, I was having coffee with a friend who was in very straitened circumstances, some of which was from her own bad money management, but she said something to me that has stuck with me for this long time.
She said, "you know, you are putting WAY too much faith in having savings in the bank. You'd be much better served to spend more time and effort developing skills that are useful to you in life, investing in friendships and relationships and learning to feel secure whether you have money or not. One thing about me, I don't have money, but I know that no matter what happens, my survival skills, my ability to network, my circle of friends and my ability to live cheap if I need to will give me more security than you will have with a big bank balance."
And she was right. I got it right then, in a flash, and have looked at life her way ever since.
We felt abundance in our life when we had very little and we feel abundance in our life now that we have a lot. But that abundant feeling comes more from skills, friends, relationships and knowing how to live frugally than it does from money. Even though at this point, there is little we could not buy, (short of the oceanfront mansion (in this country at least), and hot and cold running servants, etc.)
Yet, I have a mother-in-law who is closing in on her second million in investments, but who buys lottery tickets almost every day, because "you can never have enough". Even when asked what she would do with the money if she won, she really can't come up with anything. She has everything she needs and most everything she wants, but she says, "oh, don't you worry, I'd find something to spend it on". She's 82 years old, in poor health, has no friends and few acquaintances, and kids who spend time with her out of obligation. She lives in poverty and doesn't even know it. And even if she won those many millions, she would still be poor. She is incapable of feeling secure and content with the almost two million she has already.
We could lose most of our money tomorrow, and it wouldn't make all that much difference to us. Sure, I'd rather not HAVE to work again, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if I did. I don't think that could happen at this point unless the entire economy shoots craps, but if it did, I'd put a lot more faith in our useful skills, many close friends, and ability to live on little when necessary. One thing we've always had in our lives is "enough", and that isn't going to change, no matter what our brokerage balance is.
Not that it isn't fun to walk around in stores and realize that we could buy pretty much anything we wanted. We walked by a nice little BMW displayed in a shopping mall recently. It was amusing to realize that we could just write a check and buy that car, if we wanted to, as we walked through the parking lot to our fifteen year old Mazda pickup truck, with over 180,000 miles on him, but still a loyal member of our "family".
How few people really feel "rich" enough to enjoy that?
LooseChickens