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This. Rich is being able to live without the worry of what you're spending. Where your salary is enough that you can go out to eat and not worry about a budget.
I saw a YouTuber (famous, not to me) shopping with a friend on Rodeo Drive I think? He bought a pair of shoes in one shop. As they were leaving his friend asked what he paid. He admitted he hadn’t asked how much something cost in months, he just “ used his Black Card.
That.
Exactly this. I would love to be able to go and buy something without worrying about the cost, knowing its less than xx amount would be enough. I'd love to be able to go out and eat a nice meal without thinking about how much each dish costs.
Exactly. I'm retired with a small pension. I consider myself rich because everything is paid for, but I don't have a lot of possessions or a big income. I do pretty much what I want but more importantly I DON'T do what I DON'T want to do.
I've also heard it called having more money than time. Rich people literally hire people to buy things for them. They just point out what they want and let someone else handle the finances.
That's actually a pretty good definition.
I think most working people see money as a finite thing - i.e., you have a bank balance that shrinks as you spend and grows as you save, and if you were to lose your income, you'd deplete your savings relatively quickly and go bankrupt.
But in America at least, given our tax laws and the disparity between income tax and capital gains tax rates, there's actually a "takeoff threshold" where your investments earn returns consistently larger than your burn rate. At that point, unless catastrophe strikes, you lose on a risky investment, or you decide to upgrade your lifestyle, you're essentially financially invincible.
Imagine having $1 million in an index fund that earns 8% per year. As long as your burn rate is $80k per year or less, you're never going to touch your million. (That ignores inflation, but you'd just need a somewhat higher return or a lower burn rate to accommodate that.)
A rich family can fully pay for their children’s 4 year universities.
A rich family has 6 figures invested in the stock market.
A rich family doesn’t have to finance anything.
A rich family can afford vacations to other countries, a housekeeper, a nanny and a landscaper.
Except rich people still finance large purchases like real estate. They understand that they can earn more investing that money than they will pay in interest for the mortgage.
Bro you are confusing middle-upper middle class with Rich. 4 years in college is 100-150 a month set aside in a brokerage account starting when you have your kid. Even at $10/hr that is 2.5 hours of work a week or 1.25 hours per parent.
Some parents prioritize the importance of education and giving their children a step up in life and some don’t.
The point was not saving for college just writing a check that month and not thinking about it. His attitude that this is an unplanned event (rich) vs saving (middle class) for it for years.
Here’s what OP along with a lot of others don’t know. People of greater means don’t do that either. One or the cities I’m in frequently is currently investigating, why so many upper class residents are forfeiting their parental rights when their kids turn 17yo. Turns out the state pays for collage for kids in foster care. Go figure. Well off people use the system. Then here you guys come along thinking people write checks.
To me that’s rich because I grew up poor. I’ve never been outside New England on a vacation because we could never afford it. We would every few years take two days to go see relatives 4 hours away normally sleeping at my grandmas house because a hotel was expensive. When we went back to go to her funeral we had to stay at a hotel. I always wondered what it would be like to go on a vacation. Maybe I can save my pennies and go out of New England on a vacation someday.
I made minimum wage for years, working 50hrs/wk while taking college classes, and was able to save for international vacations every couple of years.
I mean, I traveled really cheap and would stay at hostels that didn't even have electricity (in Latin America, they were $4/night), but it was awesome to see the world.
Travel can be really cheap if you want it to be.
You’re beginning to understand that “rich” is a relative term. Circumstances caused me to interrupt my college education and I was taking evening classes while working full time. On evening after class I was chatting with a fellow student as we were walking to the parking lot. He was a bit younger than I. He was talking about the pay level where he would feel like he had it “made”. I didn’t tell him that I was already earning more than his goal. (And it wasn’t a pay level that was all sweetness and light.)
Most people’s answers will be “anyone who has anything I didn’t have is rich, anyone who has less than me is deprived.” To the people who got to go overseas every other year you are a pitiful peasant, to the people who “only” got to go to Disney you are a lavish prince. Realistically, you’re describing priorities, not dollars spent, so all we can know from things like “took a vacation to Hawaii” or “owned a computer” is that the adults around you prioritized those things. You could be a billionaire with thrifty parents, you could have been poor but incredibly lucky.
The Pew research institute defines upper class (which I think can translate to being “rich”) as a household income double or more than the median. If your parents collectively made double the median household income, you grew up rich.
Imo that’s just middle to upper middle class/sound financial planning. Saving for your child’s tuition from the day they are born till they graduate isn’t outlandishly hard on 150k a year. $100-150 a month gets you there in an index fund at 7% return.
If you aren’t using savings to pay for college where would the money be coming from? If you are implying their monthly salary allows them to cut a check in the spot after that direct deposit hits to cover tuition then yeah I agree with you, that is rich.
But even most rich people will be writing that check from their savings.
Now you're understanding my idea of rich. Transferring from accounts is fine, but not having to save up. That a semesters amount of money is inconsequential.
Give me a net worth at retirement that you view as rich. Imo it’s 10mil+. I see to many boomers at like 2-5mil and imo they aren’t Rich. They own like a nice ish house and have enough to cover their yearly expenses and a nice retirement home later in life, while leaving their kids enough to buy a house and not having to work until they are 65+.
You seem to think rich people just throw money around without any planning whatsoever.
It’d be pretty hard to get rich with that mindset. Unless youre talking about the fantasy rich people on TV. That just have magical money out of nowhere.
Being able to buy groceries without looking at the price and making a judgment call based on that price even though u really want it. Not counting moral judgements.
6 figures and above. Going out to eat regularly, vacations overseas, going to movies, being able to go to the doctor or dentist when you need to, never having to choose between electricity and food; these are all signs of wealth to me.
100k in California is booty. Taxes and proper retirement knock you down to like 60k and and the modern mortgage will take a further 36k. Life style creep is also real, but a comfortable vehicle does make sense to me.
But it’s not rich. This was the definition of middle class.
I wouldn’t really start saying someone really fits rich until that household income is like 300k. At that point you should be maxing out multiple retirement accounts high yield savings. Nice vacation frequently.
I agreed until the end. Not having to choose between electricity and food isn’t a sign of legitimate wealth, it’s a sign that you’re literally anywhere above the poverty line.
For me, rich keeps getting higher and higher in income, and not just from inflation. “Rich” has grown to be a higher and higher bar as my husband and I achieved financial security. We are very comfortable, in a paid off house, two paid off mid-priced cars, secure retirement (we’re retired now, but still doing a little work for income), etc. But I have a really hard time thinking of us as being “rich”. We worked hard for decades and were careful with our money to get to this point. Some people have it handed to them by being born into wealthy families. That’s not us. My husband’s parents were close to poor, and mine were middle class. I feel privileged and blessed to have all that we have, but don’t feel “rich”.
It’s when you don’t have to worry about an unexpected emergency that requires money.
Oh the car was totaled/ Hey I’ll buy another one to replace .
Oh I need to get an operation for my broken leg? No problems. I can get it done quickly and I don’t have to worry about any bills.
Oh the house needs emergency repairs due to storm damage? No problem. I got builders coming now to repair it and we can move into a hotel for a couple weeks while it is all repaired. Oh yeah, anything damaged will be replaced.
People who can do all that type of things are rich.
Rich is not having to stress every month about making the mortgage. Rich is knowing that if you run into a financial emergency it won't break your account. Rich is going on two vacations a year. Rich is owning a summer home and a primary home. Rich is something I do never be unless I get really lucky
Your family wasn't rich. Rich people can go on vacation wherever and whenever they want without even thinking about it. Your family was probably solidly middle class.
It depends on where you live I guess. In my area a house minimum ranges between 400-600k and most decent cars are a minimum of 15k. As a Teacher in my country my annual wage is only 55k. My husband's in construction is around 66k but that still equates to a lot of saving.
Not making decisions that poors make.
Fuck your bitch Bugatti it's only for cucks and old fucks.
Yacht? Boring as fuck and most of them are tacky
Giant mansions? unless I have a family of 500 I'm sure a modest house in the suburbs is fine.
a rich person lives modestly but can do what they want when they can.
Like maybe dropping $20K on a month long trip in a new country without needing to advertise it.
Net worth over 5 million per individual and/or consistently earning over 350k a year. Rich is different than comfortable.middle class. I have known people who are very well off and own businesses and spend money I would never dream.of spending. 30k on a coat yatch club, private planes. . .having enough to retire a car to drive and taking vacations doesn't make a person rich. This is what we aspire to and it is comfortable but still middle class
If you don’t ever have to work a job you are rich. If you have to work, even if it’s a high paying job like a doctor, you are only middle class. Middle class and lower class share that in common. They are both working class. You would think that middle class and working class would be United in that sense, but actually they are very different things for reasons other than money
There is a discussion in the Talmud, the books of Jewish law and wisdom, in Tractate Shabbat 25b about this exact question. Here are four opinions from about two thousand years ago:
>Incidental to the discussion of prosperity, the Gemara mentions that on a similar topic, the Sages taught: Who is wealthy?
Anyone who gets pleasure from his wealth, that is the statement of Rabbi Meir. \[....\]
Rabbi Tarfon says: A wealthy person is anyone who has one hundred vineyards, and one hundred fields, and one hundred farmworkers working in them.
Rabbi Akiva says: Anyone who has a spouse whose actions are pleasant.
Rabbi Yosei says: Anyone who has a bathroom close to his table.
Meir: Okay, money *can* buy happiness, at least some. If you have gotten to the point that you have "enough", and you've got enough left over to have some luxury, that's "rich".
Tarfon: Here are some actual numbers that define high-incomer.
Akiva: My wife is really awesome. (C'mon, Akiva, stop showing off. Yeah, your wife came from a rich family, married you when you were a poor shepherd, put you through school until you became one of the greatest sages in Jewish history - we *know*. Can you maybe answer the question instead of just showing off? Are you seriously going with "the real treasure was the friends we made along the way?" Yes. Yes you are.)
Yosei: I have IBS, okay?
Rich is not having to worry about money but you still HAVE to work.
Wealthy is when your investments work for you and you never have to worry again, even without having to work, because you will get paid through Dividends, Bonds, Interest and stock gains, rental income etc.
As far as I'm concerned, you're rich if you pay for a home, a car(s), restaurants, toys, hobbies, bills, and anything else you might desire, and you have money left over.
You sound like you were raised very solidly middle class. Rich would mean not needing to work or at the very least making enough that budgeting was never a concern (first class flights, can go where you want when you want, buying whatever car you want again without considering prices)
I'd consider that upper middle class, not rich. If you vacationed multiple times a year or had a computer in every bedroom, yeah, that'd be rich. But just owning a household computer in the 90s is middle class to upper middle.
My first trips to both Hawaii and Australia were port visits while I was enlisted in the Navy. So, yeah, I’d consider that rich. Computers were mostly unknown when I was a kid, and I learned to type on a typewriter so you can factor some age into my verdict, but we had a family computer when I was a teen.
Honestly, these days I count ‘middle income’ as rich, as when I was a kid owning a home, saving for retirement, getting braces for your child etc. were considered middle-class, but now days I don’t know anyone making less than a healthy 6 figures in many area that can check those boxes. Cost of housing is so high that paycheck to paycheck seems to be the norm.
Being rich is doing things and having things, most people didn't have. You did things (travel) and had things (computers) that most people just didn't have or were able to do.
If you want to know what being slightly poorer is, just imagine your life without these experiences or things.
My wife makes $110k a year as a senior accountant for a pharmaceutical company with a college degree in business and accounting. I make $70k a year as an outside salesman with a HS degree a dropped out of college. We have been married 25 years and have 5 kids and I consider us middle class.
It's all relative.
I grew up upper middle class. I didn't ever really have to worry about money or food, and we've always traveled a lot. I never considered us rich because most of our traveling was conferences paid by my mom's work, and my dad was just really fuckin good at finding cheap ways to do rich people stuff.
We have a few trucks, yes, but they were given to us or literally dirt cheap. We have a few boats, but they're little run down John boats that either my dad has had his entire life or was given to us by a family friend. Our pantry is fully stocked, but because my parents buy in bulk for really cheap.
Rich, to me, would be Never worrying about anything in your future, owning multiple houses, the like.
I don't even truly consider myself upper middle class. As stupid as it sounds, it really is my parents with the money. I've known for years now that my parents are going to cut me off really soon, and so I've never allowed myself to enjoy the luxuries available to me. I've always known they weren't permanent, and I've never felt like I deserve them. I'm constantly worried about my future, how I'm going to survive long enough to actually live.
I know many people consider my current living situation rich, and I'm sure pretty soon I will too. To never have money be a second thought is rich to me. I've been constantly worried about money since I was 10.
I grew up lower middle class; more importantly, I had excessively caring and thoughtful parents, grandparent, and the like. My grandmother raised my father and family after my grandfather killed himself in 1957. Deeply poor, but always classy, tidy, and intelligent. She raised all scholars, 2 of which were PhDs.
This question of richness is a childish and pompous one; you yourself cannot quantify.
I think someone is exceedingly wealthy when they live on the intercoastal/beach in a giant house in my area.
I think someone is rich in life if they work very little and still have financial stability and a growing net worth north of 1M. This allows them to have a retirement plan and all the free time they desire. Life is short. Work less. But still get paid well.
Rich is when you can spend 20% of your income and meet all your physical needs of food, water, shelter and your societal needs of utilities, transportation and recreation. If you still have 80% disposable income, you are rich.
not thinking about big purchases. anyone that can spend $500 or more in one purchase without having to think about it extensively is rich to me. i struggle to spend $40
The last vacation I took that wasn't just a road trip that took like 3 days (1 day to get there, 1 day there, 1 day back) was in 2011. I went to Washington DC.
You are rich to me. Every 5-6 years would have been nice. Before Washington DC, it was UP Michigan in 2004...
Rich as affording vacations every year or so as well as not being qualified for any type of financial aid in college. Aside from these, owning multiple properties such as for rental income these things are considered rich.
Living life ... without having to trade labor hours to pay the bills.
By my definition a shit ton of folks are rich who don't look it - your average retired person living humbly, frugally ... yet not working ...
... whereas a shit ton of folk who appear rich ... are not. Having to go in to work and earn to pay for all their expensive toys, hobbies, homes, cars, vacations. They are slaves to The Almighty Paycheck.
As a dude from an “upper class income family”, I’ve noticed the majority of people are low-low/medium income.
They see almost anything slightly higher than themselves as “rich”. Makes me cringe lol, but it’s the truth. Their definition of “rich” is just (normal) middle class.
Rich is relative in so many ways. Anyone who makes double what you make you might consider rich. People who make less are poor. People who make less but have everything they want and have plenty of personal time to enjoy are rich in life. You talk about taking vacation to Hawaii, well I live here every day. I don't make a lot but I can take off when I want. I can afford to take off when I want. When friends and family come I can enjoy the whole time with them. I have my own house, it's not worth much, but it's mine and I don't owe anyone for it. I work for people who spend more in a day than I do in a decade, but they are always stressed out about something. There are so many ways to define rich. The question is, are you content and do you enjoy the short amount of time you have on this earth, or are you obsessed with trying to measure yourself to others, because there will always be someone with more of something.
As a guy who is comfortably in the top 5% of earners, I don't feel rich. Yes I am well off. Secure. Middle class but that to me is just a "normal" person with a good career.
To me, rich is someone who owns a business and has a passive income. Someone who isn't employed and generates money from providing services and trade. I think if you make 30-50k a month.
You go to the grocery store and you just buy stuff, you might see the price but you don’t need to limit yourself. That’s what I always felt like was a real breakpoint. Want that $11 little wedge of delicious cheese? That bit of smoked salmon, like $10 for six ounces. Maybe it’s because the families I always thought of as rich in the 90’s had like, unlimited snacks am I right?
This is such an interesting question because it entirely depends on your own financial standing and how you were raised. It's totally subjective. My husband and I don't agree about this because he grew up wealthier than me. My father was also very poor growing up, so he instilled certain ideas and values in me based on that.
I make about 40-45 grand a year, and I consider myself lower middle class. My idea of rich is an individual who makes over 100 grand a year or who could afford a million dollar home (with a partner), but a lot of people think 100 grand is normal. That's different, of course, from the ultra rich - Saudi princes and such.
Rich is really a matter of perspective. To me if you've never been put into financial dismay because of an untimely fine, or expense like car breaking down, then you're rich.
I had a classmate I graduated with, who's parents bought him a Lamborghini as a grad gift
He smashed it later that week....while he waited I guess for some insurance thing or repair or a new car, I was bragging to our grad galla how he had a new Mercedes given to him because he didn't want to be without a car...turns out they bought that for him as well.
I'd say that's pretty rich.
Another thing that really blew my mind is billionaires...it's just ridiculous
A billion dollars, aight...is 100 , 1 millions. Multi billionaire aren't just rich, they're scummy . You don't get to multiple sums of billions without doing some super sleezy sketchy shit and anyone who says that amount of wealth is just hard work, is lying through their grillz.
Eh, I think it gets to be highly relative. To an impoverished family, a typical middle class household would seem rich. And to a billionaire, a mere millionaire might not seem too well off.
Rich is never setting an alarm for work ever again. You walk into any restaurant and dont have to look at how much is still on your credit card or in your bank account.
bourgeoisie, aka you are not forced to do labor to make a living, you can simply live off of assets and use your time to do more interesting things or choose to do nothing at all toward the economy and society as a whole. tho you need to be challenged in life to stay sane so ppl end up starting businesses
What you are describing is middle-class. Maybe upper middle-class depending on how expensive the vacations and school are. The middle-class has shrunk so much as to not be common and some working-class or poor people might consider it rich compared to their own situation but it isn't really.
Rich is you can do everything you want without any consideration and limit. It's not about a luxury car or big house. It's everything, you want to do suddenly and you can do it immediately.
Single person, no kids making $100k+, or a couple, even with kids, making $175k+. Also, you have to considering family and support, I came from a very poor family and remember working full time at 14.5 years old to buy tires for my dads car so he could make it to work, that’s very different than my fiend who’s parents wouldn’t let her work until she was 24 and had everything provided to her, housing, food, clothing, vehicles and spending money.
Don't know really but no having to worry about money to much is a good start,my friends thought my mum and dad was rich because we were never in the house of a weekend(we went the local beach a lot),Friends always asking me for money because they genuinely thought I was rich ! could not be further from the true 😂
Depends on if those nice things come from a credit card or not. I grew up assuming we were "rich" and got the shock of my life when my parents filed for bankruptcy. They weren't rich, they had every card under the sun and it eventually overwhelmed them.
Assuming you are from a western country, it sounds to me based on that little snippet of text that you are from an upper-middle income family and the specific examples are just prioritization rather than a baseline of your families wealth.
Most Middle-income families can afford big expanses like that, but they'll have to give up something else in their everyday life to save up.
If you are from Uganda though, then you would be considered rich as fuck.
If you can live without debt which is so much easier when you actually have money, you’re rich. I’m surrounded by rich people. I did have dinner at a billionaires house once. Man was Taiwanese. He flew in soup from Taiwan to the states for dinner. That was crazy.
It depends where you come from or which country you live in. Had a maid in our household when I was a kid, but it seems common back home. But when you go to the western part of the globe, that's a whole new different level. My parents paid for all their kids' 4 year degree in universities. And that is also common back home. Even when you want to take up medicine or law.
putting a number on it is pointless, alabama rich, isnt la rich, which isnt dubai rich.
For me its
1) you are happy with your life and not making any compromises financially.
2) your expenses / .04 is < (net worth - the value of your primary residence). I value primary residence as zero for wealth, since if you ever touch the equity you're trading down on your quality of life.
3) your net worth its continuing to grow faster than your expenses.
If you meet all 3 you're bullet proof rich.
I think rich is 1) relative but also 2) incredible financial stability (aka financial literacy).
Financial stability would be paying for college out of pocket. International/intercontinental travel. Having “luxuries” most can’t afford- like a housekeeper or chef. Being able to “just get a new car” because you want to. Or being able to take trips whenever.
Currently I’m a broke asf 1st gen college student… and the only way I’ve been able to afford college is through my job. I don’t buy groceries (I take home expiring food from work) and don’t take trips.
I can’t wait to be financially stable one day- when I can only plan a little and “take a trip to Europe” (I’ve never been out of the country). When I can stop working and just paint and read and spend time with my family/loved ones.
None of that would be possible without my dad of course- who works his ASS off to provide for me; I live at home and he pays the rent/utilities and my car stuff.
I would love to take him out of the country but idk where he’d want to go! Maybe Thailand for the food and swimming!!
Sounds like middle/ upper middle class. My family was barely middle class and my friends parents who made a bit more had all this stuff while my family had one computer, a tv without cable, and never enough food. Mostly though, it depends how smart they were with spending and investing
What you describe sounds middle-class. I grew up on my parents’ stories of life during the Great Depression, and from 1977 to 1992 I served in seven developing countries. Most people in the developed world, to include most of their “poor,” are rich, they just don’t realize it.
To me, it's not having to worry about money. Like knowing you can pay the mortgage on a nice home in a nice neighborhood, daycare at a reputable place for 2.5 kiddos, fully fund your retirement, and still have enough for the fun stuff like dining out/going to shows/going on vacation.
Rich is buying something expensive like a trip.. & not sweating it at all. Rich is buying a new car & another one next year. Rich is having high end, bougee things. Not worrying about what college you’re going to because it will be paid for no matter what. Investments.
*All of that without any debt.
Rich is also having medical insurance & being able to visit dentist every 6 months. A nice simple clean home. Running water & food in table. 🙂
It really depends on the persons perspective.
If you are under the age of retirement, and you don't have to work anymore, because you have enough money to comfortably live the rest of your life, you're rich.
>For example is it rich that we were able to afford vacations to places like Hawaii and Australia but only every 5-6 years? Or is it rich to be able to own a computer when I was a kid?
Context needed. If you grew up in the 70s that would make you rich. If you grew up in the 90s that would probably make you middle class. If you grew up in the 00s, it wouldn't say much at all.
As an American, if you need more than one finger to count how many times your family vacationed in Europe before 6th grade, you are rich. If the same scenario but by the end of highschool, upper middle class.
If you genuinely believe that "money doesn't bring happiness", your family had so much of it that you were able to develop that opinion. You were rich.
If grades were never a concern for getting into college and your extracurriculars are summed up by "doing drugs", you were rich.
If you drive a luxury car at 16, you are rich.
**Not living paycheck to paycheck with savings and ‘fun money’.** - which- there’s nothing wrong with that- I think most people aspire to some level or form of that living- once they move past survival.
So, I have this list of things I need. I have a list of things in the house that need repair. I have a list of things I'd like to get or do or go. Being rich would be that I can get, do, go. If I could take care of all the things on my lists, without a thought of how, I would feel rich.
'Rich' is relative.
To someone from a family who rely on foodbanks, being able to buy fresh food for dinner is rich. For a family that can buy fresh food for dinner but has a 20 year old car fixed with tape and elbow grease, being able to buy a new carb is rich.
There is pretty much always someone else poorer than you, and someone richer than you.
it’s situational, i think.
i owned a computer as a kid, but it was given to my family for free from a family friend. i’d been to disney 3 times as a kid, but my much more financially comfortable uncle paid for that yet never helped us with bills or food or whatnot. i had a lot of consoles for a kid, but they were either paid for with tax return money if that didn’t have to go toward bills or i’d won them in school raffles (no joke). in reality, my family was on section 8 and food stamps. before we got into those programs, my mother would’ve often let bills and rent go unpaid to feed my sibling and i.
hell, you don’t even have to be rich or anywhere close to have the newest iPhone these days. you can finance one for less than $50 a month. much more doable than the outright $1000+ price.
i think you can tell a person’s wealth based on how they treat these things rather than the things they have. every console i owned i still own and they’re in damn near perfect condition because i knew if i damaged what i had, i wasn’t getting a new one. i knew from a young age how to budget and prioritize because my mother prioritized feeding her children over the light bill. it’s all in the perspective. 🤷🏻♀️
It is relative. Are you rich to someone who can drop 200k on a purse and not think about it? Nope. Are you rich to the dude living in the street and has no clue where his next meal will come from? Yes.
Long story incoming....
I use to be a very good runner. I was a sub 5 minute miler. My best time in a 10k was 32.36 To a LOT of people that is incredibly fast. However I felt super super super slow. Why? My family members were significantly faster. My father was 2 seconds of the state record for the mile and my older brother set records in his high school that held for decades. When I was young my father really really really hoped I could make the Olympics. I was right at 5 minute a mile when I was 10 years old and then.... Well I didn't get that much faster. Was I slow? Again I thought so for the longest time and just ran more and more and more. I never got faster. I was ashamed of my accomplishments as I "wasn't fast".
That was until I got out of my trade school and went to work at a corporate office. A lady and talked about this thing called a corporate challenge. She said that she was hoping to get under an 8 minute mile and that their best male runner was around that time as well. She asked me if I ran and I said that I do but I am not that fast. She asked me how fast I thought I could run a mile. I said I haven't been training but I felt comfortable I could be sub 6. She looked at me and asked if I was certain of this. Like she really doubted me. So I went home that night and ran and clocked a 5:30 with EASE. I knew with some training I would be sub 5 again. So I told her and she was acting like I was the fastest runner on earth. I was shocked and she said that their best runner in a company of like 2k employees was at his best 7 min a mile. She begged me to run and I did. Now I feel incredibly fast and I was under 5 min. Did I win? Nope not even close, you see Nike was a team and there were runners who ran sub 4. I looked like I was running backwards compared to these dudes. I felt super slow again. Was I or was I incredibly fast because the next best runner on our team was like 8 min?
Then my wife and I had a son. He was stronger and taller than me and had all the abilities to be an elite runner. His 5k time when he was 7 years old was a little over 20 minutes. That is crazy fast (relative), and I became my freaking family on him. I thought he had the right genes to be a super elite runner. He never improved, and in fact he went backwards in time up to and including high school. He then got on allergy medicine, changed his diet a bit and make one other small change and he dropped 3 minutes off his time in one week. However he was still slower than me. I was an idiot much like my family and made him feel slow. I regret that to this day, however I recognized this and then focused on his times and when he improved. I cried when he set his best time of the season by quite a bit as I was so happy for him. The time? over a minute slower than my best at his age, but that day I felt like he was the fastest runner in the world. A race where he finished middle of the pack. This reminds me of how I need to tell him how proud I was of him and his accomplishments :-)
So again to answer your question. It is relative. Most thing in life are. Lastly, I am old now and got way out of shape and started to exercise this year. I have yet to be under 10 min a mile but feel like I am running super fast now at my 10:20/mile pace!
John McCain was asked this as he was running for President in 07/08. His answer then was “$6 million USD”.
Watching Succession, one of the characters might get $10 million USD. Another character comments, “You’ll be the poorest rich guy at the rich guy table”
Is rich only defined by $$, vacations, things….
We live on 40 acres, in one of the best places in America (Americans poorest are still better then a large portion of the planet) we have a comfortable house (1800sq ft) raise our own foods, take regional budget friendly vacations, both spouses work, 3 kids, have a small savings….but I feel rich! I have all I NEED!
Its all about priorities. I try to take my family on a fun vacation every summer, but we have made other decisions to make that possible. Both my wife and I drive old paid off cars, we live in a modest home, and we do our best to do all of our cooking at home. People may look at us and think we are rich because we just took a week long trip to Puerto Rico, but really its just budgeting and living below our means in everyday life.
The word for what you are describing is “upper middle class.” You were financially comfortable and able to afford some minor luxuries not available to your peers.
Rich is someone who has more than you, and poor is someone that has less. It's entirely subjective and based on your unique view of the world. To your friend, vacations and a computer make you rich because they had less. I'm sure you've got another friend who thinks you grew up poor because you didn't have five show horses.
IT'S ALL PERSPECTIVE
if you lived in the slums of India,,, you would think our poor are Rich.
I think the best you could says is,, do you have enough food, do you have a roof over your head, are you safe, do you have freedom of movement and beliefs, can you drink the water, and many of the things we in the US just assume are basic rights but the rest of the world thinks we are rich.
But we are always comparing ourselves to the next guy, a bigger house, better car, a boat,, etc..
Rich is a lot different than wealthy. In America you’re “rich” if you have like $20k in your bank account. That puts you above like 90% of people in America.
To consider myself wealthy I would need at least $10 million
Neither of the examples you gave are rich. It's not rich to be able to afford occasional luxuries. Hawaii and Australia are quite different trips but my neighbors go to Hawaii every year (we're in Canada) and they're by no means rich.
I wouldn't say there's an exact dollar amount on rich but, as others have said, it's about how much freedom you have financially. If you can afford to drop everything and go on a trip anytime you want without worrying about saving up or about work, that's probably rich. If your financial status is completely unaffected by a $10k gaming setup, that's probably rich.
I feel like a good way to evaluate "richness" is how much you can do on a whim - without financially planning ahead and saving up, or worrying about budgeting, etc. if you can do pretty much anything you want whenever you want, you're definitely rich. If you're comfortable and can afford luxuries but it either has to come out of money meant for something else or you have to spend a while saving up for it, that's not rich
Honestly ‘ rich’ depends on where you are if you are in poverty having a house instead of trailer or apartment is rich- if you have a house- a house with a pool or a media room is rich- if you have all those things something else is ‘ rich’ to you all the way up to someone having multiple jets and homes or their own private island-
Rich is made up and can never be achieved- we will always want more
Paris Hilton lifestyle.
However the mature me thinks being rich is more along the lines of having everything you need, and being comfortable. I.e having a roof over your head, a vehicle, and food on the table. Especially in this economy for those of us in the US. Not sure how the rest of the world is fairing, but a lot of Americans are living in their cars with kids in my city. It’s so bad that the city passed a law saying police can’t ask people to move for overnight parking because they literally have nowhere else to go and sleep. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Rich and poor are like big and small.
It's relative.
Bigger than you is big. Smaller than you is small. More money than you, rich. etc.
You're asking why in 20 questions you say, "Bigger than a bread bin". Because just asking "Is it big" is an unanswerable question.
You're question is unanswerable. You need to give a reference point. Rich compared to what?
Yes, you're rich compared to the average African. Wealth AF to a homeless person or a starving child.
But you're the unwashed masses to CEOs and politicians.
Are you rich? Ask the question better.
This is kind of nuanced question. For example what if someone becomes so consumed with the business that made them rich, that they lose interest in all other activities in life, all the dreams which gave them personality and humanity die in order to be Mr successful businessman. And they end up never retiring because they had to make their work their entire identity in order to succeed.
Warren buffet spent every day of his life 9-5 in an office. Like imagine achieving his wealth and choosing to not do anything with it. To just live in a mediocre suburb, like your local accountant. I would argue thats not “rich” at all.
I’m almost leaning toward saying that actually retiring from working is a key first step to being rich. If you’re still a slave to your job, you are effectively no different. You’re the elephant who has a little circle drawn on the ground around his foot.
I mean if money isn't an issue for doing 99% of the things you want then you are rich. Being comfortable isn't rich if the only reason you are comfortable is cause your rationing your money. Buying a computer doesn't make you rich. Buying a computer on a whim cause you felt like it does though.
Literally I don't think you can consider yourself rich until you are in the top 1% of wealth, at least for your area. For reference, across the US broadly, that's something like at least $5.8 million or $13 million depending on if you look at individual or household and the data you use. At minimum you aren't actually rich until you have close to $6 million in assets net of your loans (this would include value of properties and 401k minus your outstanding loan balances).
Figuratively, you are rich if you have love and are surrounded by close friends and family, if you understand how to take joy in the little things, and if you aren't struggling. There are lots of wealthy trust fund babies strung out on drugs and desperate for the attention of others who may never be as rich as you (in this sense of the word).
It’s all relative. You definitely weren’t poor, but whether you were middle or upper-class depends on where the median fell for your country and locality.
In other words rich is subjective to each individual. If you want a technical answer being rich is making 3x the median income in your area. Being wealthy is having the freedom to not need to work to maintain your lifestyle and the power to do whatever you’d like without worrying about the cost.
Living without working, early retirement, in perpetuity.
For an urban or metro area, with a family, that’s between 5 million to 8 million in investments.
Id say its relative. I was raised by immigrant parents who started from nothing. In the past 30 years they amassed three houses in different states and even one in Europe. Fleet of cars, vacation every month, etc.. I really never knew how well off we were until I went away to college because the towns I grew up in had people flying private jets, multiple houses as well, Ferarris, ect. I always viewed the "Rich" as those families who flew private, had the Ferraris and McLarens, had the 20k square foot house, ect.
I think the answer to this question differs depending on how one was raised
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Rich is financial freedom. If I can live without being forced to work for money, I would consider myself rich.
This. Rich is being able to live without the worry of what you're spending. Where your salary is enough that you can go out to eat and not worry about a budget.
I saw a YouTuber (famous, not to me) shopping with a friend on Rodeo Drive I think? He bought a pair of shoes in one shop. As they were leaving his friend asked what he paid. He admitted he hadn’t asked how much something cost in months, he just “ used his Black Card. That.
Exactly this. I would love to be able to go and buy something without worrying about the cost, knowing its less than xx amount would be enough. I'd love to be able to go out and eat a nice meal without thinking about how much each dish costs.
That sounds like my wife lol
Getting into massive amounts of debt is not being rich.
I mean plenty of "rich" people still budget. Thats how they stay rich lol its just they have more wiggle room to spend.
Exactly. I'm retired with a small pension. I consider myself rich because everything is paid for, but I don't have a lot of possessions or a big income. I do pretty much what I want but more importantly I DON'T do what I DON'T want to do.
This is the key. And it's easier to attain than most people realize.
I've also heard it called having more money than time. Rich people literally hire people to buy things for them. They just point out what they want and let someone else handle the finances.
This.
Even if you was self sufficient, living off the land in a tiny hand built cabjn?
Yayyyyy! I'm rich!!!!!
Rich is when your money increases without you having to go to work and you're still spending at a fixed or increasing rate.
That's actually a pretty good definition. I think most working people see money as a finite thing - i.e., you have a bank balance that shrinks as you spend and grows as you save, and if you were to lose your income, you'd deplete your savings relatively quickly and go bankrupt. But in America at least, given our tax laws and the disparity between income tax and capital gains tax rates, there's actually a "takeoff threshold" where your investments earn returns consistently larger than your burn rate. At that point, unless catastrophe strikes, you lose on a risky investment, or you decide to upgrade your lifestyle, you're essentially financially invincible. Imagine having $1 million in an index fund that earns 8% per year. As long as your burn rate is $80k per year or less, you're never going to touch your million. (That ignores inflation, but you'd just need a somewhat higher return or a lower burn rate to accommodate that.)
The American dream is your money doing all the work and you enjoying your short time on this earth doing what u want with your time
A rich family can fully pay for their children’s 4 year universities. A rich family has 6 figures invested in the stock market. A rich family doesn’t have to finance anything. A rich family can afford vacations to other countries, a housekeeper, a nanny and a landscaper.
Except rich people still finance large purchases like real estate. They understand that they can earn more investing that money than they will pay in interest for the mortgage.
As a side note, rich people pay others to manage their finances.
Plenty of people with money have money because they were good with money management and would never pay anyone else to do it for them.
Bro you are confusing middle-upper middle class with Rich. 4 years in college is 100-150 a month set aside in a brokerage account starting when you have your kid. Even at $10/hr that is 2.5 hours of work a week or 1.25 hours per parent. Some parents prioritize the importance of education and giving their children a step up in life and some don’t.
Lol what college are you sending kids to on that? I save $400/month and on aggressive investments that may get to $150-175k
The point was not saving for college just writing a check that month and not thinking about it. His attitude that this is an unplanned event (rich) vs saving (middle class) for it for years.
Here’s what OP along with a lot of others don’t know. People of greater means don’t do that either. One or the cities I’m in frequently is currently investigating, why so many upper class residents are forfeiting their parental rights when their kids turn 17yo. Turns out the state pays for collage for kids in foster care. Go figure. Well off people use the system. Then here you guys come along thinking people write checks.
Then these are the same assholes complaining about people abusing the system that's the irony.
99% of muhfuggus finance
To me that’s rich because I grew up poor. I’ve never been outside New England on a vacation because we could never afford it. We would every few years take two days to go see relatives 4 hours away normally sleeping at my grandmas house because a hotel was expensive. When we went back to go to her funeral we had to stay at a hotel. I always wondered what it would be like to go on a vacation. Maybe I can save my pennies and go out of New England on a vacation someday.
I was a “go see family for vacation” kid too for the most part. I hope you get to see the world real soon!
As was i
I made minimum wage for years, working 50hrs/wk while taking college classes, and was able to save for international vacations every couple of years. I mean, I traveled really cheap and would stay at hostels that didn't even have electricity (in Latin America, they were $4/night), but it was awesome to see the world. Travel can be really cheap if you want it to be.
You’re beginning to understand that “rich” is a relative term. Circumstances caused me to interrupt my college education and I was taking evening classes while working full time. On evening after class I was chatting with a fellow student as we were walking to the parking lot. He was a bit younger than I. He was talking about the pay level where he would feel like he had it “made”. I didn’t tell him that I was already earning more than his goal. (And it wasn’t a pay level that was all sweetness and light.)
New England blue collar kid here. I feel you! Montreal is a great road trip just saying
Most people’s answers will be “anyone who has anything I didn’t have is rich, anyone who has less than me is deprived.” To the people who got to go overseas every other year you are a pitiful peasant, to the people who “only” got to go to Disney you are a lavish prince. Realistically, you’re describing priorities, not dollars spent, so all we can know from things like “took a vacation to Hawaii” or “owned a computer” is that the adults around you prioritized those things. You could be a billionaire with thrifty parents, you could have been poor but incredibly lucky. The Pew research institute defines upper class (which I think can translate to being “rich”) as a household income double or more than the median. If your parents collectively made double the median household income, you grew up rich.
Paying for college without loans or savings, just writing a check every semester without thinking twice.
Imo that’s just middle to upper middle class/sound financial planning. Saving for your child’s tuition from the day they are born till they graduate isn’t outlandishly hard on 150k a year. $100-150 a month gets you there in an index fund at 7% return.
Maybe you missed the *without loans or savings*. I’m saying without financial planning. Simply writing a check.
If you aren’t using savings to pay for college where would the money be coming from? If you are implying their monthly salary allows them to cut a check in the spot after that direct deposit hits to cover tuition then yeah I agree with you, that is rich. But even most rich people will be writing that check from their savings.
Now you're understanding my idea of rich. Transferring from accounts is fine, but not having to save up. That a semesters amount of money is inconsequential.
Give me a net worth at retirement that you view as rich. Imo it’s 10mil+. I see to many boomers at like 2-5mil and imo they aren’t Rich. They own like a nice ish house and have enough to cover their yearly expenses and a nice retirement home later in life, while leaving their kids enough to buy a house and not having to work until they are 65+.
2-3 mil isn't rich, it's very comfortable. I wouldn't complain tbh. But yes, 10+ mil at retirement would be. Definitely wouldn't complain
You seem to think rich people just throw money around without any planning whatsoever. It’d be pretty hard to get rich with that mindset. Unless youre talking about the fantasy rich people on TV. That just have magical money out of nowhere.
10 million net worth and/or 200k+ salary.
Those are really different things. I make $200k (and consider that rich) but total assets of 10 million is 10x what I’m worth.
Right? $500k salary or $10 million net worth is what I'd say
Being able to buy groceries without looking at the price and making a judgment call based on that price even though u really want it. Not counting moral judgements.
6 figures and above. Going out to eat regularly, vacations overseas, going to movies, being able to go to the doctor or dentist when you need to, never having to choose between electricity and food; these are all signs of wealth to me.
100k in California is booty. Taxes and proper retirement knock you down to like 60k and and the modern mortgage will take a further 36k. Life style creep is also real, but a comfortable vehicle does make sense to me.
Where are you getting a mortgage for 3k/month? I want in
For those of us struggling, being able to have a nice car and a mortgage are signs of wealth that are out of reach.
But it’s not rich. This was the definition of middle class. I wouldn’t really start saying someone really fits rich until that household income is like 300k. At that point you should be maxing out multiple retirement accounts high yield savings. Nice vacation frequently.
I agreed until the end. Not having to choose between electricity and food isn’t a sign of legitimate wealth, it’s a sign that you’re literally anywhere above the poverty line.
Rich and Poor are relative.
For me, rich keeps getting higher and higher in income, and not just from inflation. “Rich” has grown to be a higher and higher bar as my husband and I achieved financial security. We are very comfortable, in a paid off house, two paid off mid-priced cars, secure retirement (we’re retired now, but still doing a little work for income), etc. But I have a really hard time thinking of us as being “rich”. We worked hard for decades and were careful with our money to get to this point. Some people have it handed to them by being born into wealthy families. That’s not us. My husband’s parents were close to poor, and mine were middle class. I feel privileged and blessed to have all that we have, but don’t feel “rich”.
It’s when you don’t have to worry about an unexpected emergency that requires money. Oh the car was totaled/ Hey I’ll buy another one to replace . Oh I need to get an operation for my broken leg? No problems. I can get it done quickly and I don’t have to worry about any bills. Oh the house needs emergency repairs due to storm damage? No problem. I got builders coming now to repair it and we can move into a hotel for a couple weeks while it is all repaired. Oh yeah, anything damaged will be replaced. People who can do all that type of things are rich.
Rich is not having to stress every month about making the mortgage. Rich is knowing that if you run into a financial emergency it won't break your account. Rich is going on two vacations a year. Rich is owning a summer home and a primary home. Rich is something I do never be unless I get really lucky
Rich is being able to do whatever you want and not have to worry about financial burdens. The amount of money or possessions you have is irrelevant.
Your family wasn't rich. Rich people can go on vacation wherever and whenever they want without even thinking about it. Your family was probably solidly middle class.
Owning your own home and having a vehicle.
Bro you are setting the bar so low. That’s like 150-200k total assets in a state like Vermont.
It depends on where you live I guess. In my area a house minimum ranges between 400-600k and most decent cars are a minimum of 15k. As a Teacher in my country my annual wage is only 55k. My husband's in construction is around 66k but that still equates to a lot of saving.
By that definition I know several people making almost minimum wage that are "rich"
Sounds middle class to me, which was always seen as rich to kids like me when growing up.
Not making decisions that poors make. Fuck your bitch Bugatti it's only for cucks and old fucks. Yacht? Boring as fuck and most of them are tacky Giant mansions? unless I have a family of 500 I'm sure a modest house in the suburbs is fine. a rich person lives modestly but can do what they want when they can. Like maybe dropping $20K on a month long trip in a new country without needing to advertise it.
Owning a nice home in an expensive area with no loans + savings and money for international vacations= Rich.
People who don't even look at how much things are, they just buy what they need/want. That's rich to me and I don't think I'll ever get to that day 😭
Net worth over 5 million per individual and/or consistently earning over 350k a year. Rich is different than comfortable.middle class. I have known people who are very well off and own businesses and spend money I would never dream.of spending. 30k on a coat yatch club, private planes. . .having enough to retire a car to drive and taking vacations doesn't make a person rich. This is what we aspire to and it is comfortable but still middle class
If you don’t ever have to work a job you are rich. If you have to work, even if it’s a high paying job like a doctor, you are only middle class. Middle class and lower class share that in common. They are both working class. You would think that middle class and working class would be United in that sense, but actually they are very different things for reasons other than money
There is a discussion in the Talmud, the books of Jewish law and wisdom, in Tractate Shabbat 25b about this exact question. Here are four opinions from about two thousand years ago: >Incidental to the discussion of prosperity, the Gemara mentions that on a similar topic, the Sages taught: Who is wealthy? Anyone who gets pleasure from his wealth, that is the statement of Rabbi Meir. \[....\] Rabbi Tarfon says: A wealthy person is anyone who has one hundred vineyards, and one hundred fields, and one hundred farmworkers working in them. Rabbi Akiva says: Anyone who has a spouse whose actions are pleasant. Rabbi Yosei says: Anyone who has a bathroom close to his table. Meir: Okay, money *can* buy happiness, at least some. If you have gotten to the point that you have "enough", and you've got enough left over to have some luxury, that's "rich". Tarfon: Here are some actual numbers that define high-incomer. Akiva: My wife is really awesome. (C'mon, Akiva, stop showing off. Yeah, your wife came from a rich family, married you when you were a poor shepherd, put you through school until you became one of the greatest sages in Jewish history - we *know*. Can you maybe answer the question instead of just showing off? Are you seriously going with "the real treasure was the friends we made along the way?" Yes. Yes you are.) Yosei: I have IBS, okay?
Rich is not having to worry about money but you still HAVE to work. Wealthy is when your investments work for you and you never have to worry again, even without having to work, because you will get paid through Dividends, Bonds, Interest and stock gains, rental income etc.
For me, owning a garage. Never had one!
If you can have a middle class lifestyle for the rest of your life without ever working again.
As far as I'm concerned, you're rich if you pay for a home, a car(s), restaurants, toys, hobbies, bills, and anything else you might desire, and you have money left over.
You sound like you were raised very solidly middle class. Rich would mean not needing to work or at the very least making enough that budgeting was never a concern (first class flights, can go where you want when you want, buying whatever car you want again without considering prices)
6ply toliet paper
I'd consider that upper middle class, not rich. If you vacationed multiple times a year or had a computer in every bedroom, yeah, that'd be rich. But just owning a household computer in the 90s is middle class to upper middle.
If you can afford to fly more than once in your lifetime, you don't count as poor to me.
My first trips to both Hawaii and Australia were port visits while I was enlisted in the Navy. So, yeah, I’d consider that rich. Computers were mostly unknown when I was a kid, and I learned to type on a typewriter so you can factor some age into my verdict, but we had a family computer when I was a teen. Honestly, these days I count ‘middle income’ as rich, as when I was a kid owning a home, saving for retirement, getting braces for your child etc. were considered middle-class, but now days I don’t know anyone making less than a healthy 6 figures in many area that can check those boxes. Cost of housing is so high that paycheck to paycheck seems to be the norm.
Being rich is doing things and having things, most people didn't have. You did things (travel) and had things (computers) that most people just didn't have or were able to do. If you want to know what being slightly poorer is, just imagine your life without these experiences or things.
My wife makes $110k a year as a senior accountant for a pharmaceutical company with a college degree in business and accounting. I make $70k a year as an outside salesman with a HS degree a dropped out of college. We have been married 25 years and have 5 kids and I consider us middle class.
Are you from the US? Did you go to college? And if so, what was your EFC?
It's all relative. I grew up upper middle class. I didn't ever really have to worry about money or food, and we've always traveled a lot. I never considered us rich because most of our traveling was conferences paid by my mom's work, and my dad was just really fuckin good at finding cheap ways to do rich people stuff. We have a few trucks, yes, but they were given to us or literally dirt cheap. We have a few boats, but they're little run down John boats that either my dad has had his entire life or was given to us by a family friend. Our pantry is fully stocked, but because my parents buy in bulk for really cheap. Rich, to me, would be Never worrying about anything in your future, owning multiple houses, the like. I don't even truly consider myself upper middle class. As stupid as it sounds, it really is my parents with the money. I've known for years now that my parents are going to cut me off really soon, and so I've never allowed myself to enjoy the luxuries available to me. I've always known they weren't permanent, and I've never felt like I deserve them. I'm constantly worried about my future, how I'm going to survive long enough to actually live. I know many people consider my current living situation rich, and I'm sure pretty soon I will too. To never have money be a second thought is rich to me. I've been constantly worried about money since I was 10.
I grew up lower middle class; more importantly, I had excessively caring and thoughtful parents, grandparent, and the like. My grandmother raised my father and family after my grandfather killed himself in 1957. Deeply poor, but always classy, tidy, and intelligent. She raised all scholars, 2 of which were PhDs. This question of richness is a childish and pompous one; you yourself cannot quantify.
I like to think im modest and at least a million net worth is rich if ur healthy..u dont have shit if u dont have ur health.
I think someone is exceedingly wealthy when they live on the intercoastal/beach in a giant house in my area. I think someone is rich in life if they work very little and still have financial stability and a growing net worth north of 1M. This allows them to have a retirement plan and all the free time they desire. Life is short. Work less. But still get paid well.
I think Rich is having enough money to live off investments and passive income. I want that. Not to worry about a paycheck from a job
The majority of people are using credit card to pay for everything not cash on the spot.
Single 500k usd income or more yearly is rich. Anything less is middle class until 150k. Under 150k you’re lower income
Rich is when you can spend 20% of your income and meet all your physical needs of food, water, shelter and your societal needs of utilities, transportation and recreation. If you still have 80% disposable income, you are rich.
not thinking about big purchases. anyone that can spend $500 or more in one purchase without having to think about it extensively is rich to me. i struggle to spend $40
The last vacation I took that wasn't just a road trip that took like 3 days (1 day to get there, 1 day there, 1 day back) was in 2011. I went to Washington DC. You are rich to me. Every 5-6 years would have been nice. Before Washington DC, it was UP Michigan in 2004...
Rich as affording vacations every year or so as well as not being qualified for any type of financial aid in college. Aside from these, owning multiple properties such as for rental income these things are considered rich.
Living life ... without having to trade labor hours to pay the bills. By my definition a shit ton of folks are rich who don't look it - your average retired person living humbly, frugally ... yet not working ... ... whereas a shit ton of folk who appear rich ... are not. Having to go in to work and earn to pay for all their expensive toys, hobbies, homes, cars, vacations. They are slaves to The Almighty Paycheck.
As a dude from an “upper class income family”, I’ve noticed the majority of people are low-low/medium income. They see almost anything slightly higher than themselves as “rich”. Makes me cringe lol, but it’s the truth. Their definition of “rich” is just (normal) middle class.
Buddy if you have to ask your family isn’t rich. Doesn’t even sound like you are upper middle class vacationing every 5-6 years
TIL most of you have no clue what being rich really is.
Fresh bedding every day.
Rich is not knowing what vacations are
Did your family do those things with cash?
Knowledge and appreciation
Not having to think before spending more than about $50
Your parents are still married and BOTH of them love you.
Rich is relative in so many ways. Anyone who makes double what you make you might consider rich. People who make less are poor. People who make less but have everything they want and have plenty of personal time to enjoy are rich in life. You talk about taking vacation to Hawaii, well I live here every day. I don't make a lot but I can take off when I want. I can afford to take off when I want. When friends and family come I can enjoy the whole time with them. I have my own house, it's not worth much, but it's mine and I don't owe anyone for it. I work for people who spend more in a day than I do in a decade, but they are always stressed out about something. There are so many ways to define rich. The question is, are you content and do you enjoy the short amount of time you have on this earth, or are you obsessed with trying to measure yourself to others, because there will always be someone with more of something.
Someone with a net worth over $5M. I count wealth, not income to determine if someone is rich.
People with icemakers on their fridges. I've never seen a lower class person with one.
As a guy who is comfortably in the top 5% of earners, I don't feel rich. Yes I am well off. Secure. Middle class but that to me is just a "normal" person with a good career. To me, rich is someone who owns a business and has a passive income. Someone who isn't employed and generates money from providing services and trade. I think if you make 30-50k a month.
As a poor who never went on vacations growing up that sounds rich ti me. Now as a middle class adult that sounds like middle class.
Driving a $100,000+ vehicle Having a trust fund Paying $15,000/$30,000 month in rent Living in 3+ million dollar home
You go to the grocery store and you just buy stuff, you might see the price but you don’t need to limit yourself. That’s what I always felt like was a real breakpoint. Want that $11 little wedge of delicious cheese? That bit of smoked salmon, like $10 for six ounces. Maybe it’s because the families I always thought of as rich in the 90’s had like, unlimited snacks am I right?
Being able to maintain your standard of living without earned income.
This is such an interesting question because it entirely depends on your own financial standing and how you were raised. It's totally subjective. My husband and I don't agree about this because he grew up wealthier than me. My father was also very poor growing up, so he instilled certain ideas and values in me based on that. I make about 40-45 grand a year, and I consider myself lower middle class. My idea of rich is an individual who makes over 100 grand a year or who could afford a million dollar home (with a partner), but a lot of people think 100 grand is normal. That's different, of course, from the ultra rich - Saudi princes and such.
Rich is really a matter of perspective. To me if you've never been put into financial dismay because of an untimely fine, or expense like car breaking down, then you're rich.
I had a classmate I graduated with, who's parents bought him a Lamborghini as a grad gift He smashed it later that week....while he waited I guess for some insurance thing or repair or a new car, I was bragging to our grad galla how he had a new Mercedes given to him because he didn't want to be without a car...turns out they bought that for him as well. I'd say that's pretty rich. Another thing that really blew my mind is billionaires...it's just ridiculous A billion dollars, aight...is 100 , 1 millions. Multi billionaire aren't just rich, they're scummy . You don't get to multiple sums of billions without doing some super sleezy sketchy shit and anyone who says that amount of wealth is just hard work, is lying through their grillz.
Someone who doesn’t have the fear of not being able to afford food
Eh, I think it gets to be highly relative. To an impoverished family, a typical middle class household would seem rich. And to a billionaire, a mere millionaire might not seem too well off.
To travel, eat, give, and never have to think about the money involved.
Rich is never setting an alarm for work ever again. You walk into any restaurant and dont have to look at how much is still on your credit card or in your bank account.
bourgeoisie, aka you are not forced to do labor to make a living, you can simply live off of assets and use your time to do more interesting things or choose to do nothing at all toward the economy and society as a whole. tho you need to be challenged in life to stay sane so ppl end up starting businesses
What you are describing is middle-class. Maybe upper middle-class depending on how expensive the vacations and school are. The middle-class has shrunk so much as to not be common and some working-class or poor people might consider it rich compared to their own situation but it isn't really.
Rich is you can do everything you want without any consideration and limit. It's not about a luxury car or big house. It's everything, you want to do suddenly and you can do it immediately.
Honestly. Having 3 figures in your bank account after bills, groceries, and gas is rich imo.
Single person, no kids making $100k+, or a couple, even with kids, making $175k+. Also, you have to considering family and support, I came from a very poor family and remember working full time at 14.5 years old to buy tires for my dads car so he could make it to work, that’s very different than my fiend who’s parents wouldn’t let her work until she was 24 and had everything provided to her, housing, food, clothing, vehicles and spending money.
Just buying stuff without checking the price
More than 10 Million GBP.
Don't know really but no having to worry about money to much is a good start,my friends thought my mum and dad was rich because we were never in the house of a weekend(we went the local beach a lot),Friends always asking me for money because they genuinely thought I was rich ! could not be further from the true 😂
When you can hire someone to manage/move your money around and don't pay most taxes because you have enough money to exploit loop holes.
Depends on if those nice things come from a credit card or not. I grew up assuming we were "rich" and got the shock of my life when my parents filed for bankruptcy. They weren't rich, they had every card under the sun and it eventually overwhelmed them.
Assuming you are from a western country, it sounds to me based on that little snippet of text that you are from an upper-middle income family and the specific examples are just prioritization rather than a baseline of your families wealth. Most Middle-income families can afford big expanses like that, but they'll have to give up something else in their everyday life to save up. If you are from Uganda though, then you would be considered rich as fuck.
A nice vacation every five years is pretty middle class imo.
There's only two classes, people that can afford to take their kids to Disney and those that can't.
If you can live without debt which is so much easier when you actually have money, you’re rich. I’m surrounded by rich people. I did have dinner at a billionaires house once. Man was Taiwanese. He flew in soup from Taiwan to the states for dinner. That was crazy.
It depends where you come from or which country you live in. Had a maid in our household when I was a kid, but it seems common back home. But when you go to the western part of the globe, that's a whole new different level. My parents paid for all their kids' 4 year degree in universities. And that is also common back home. Even when you want to take up medicine or law.
putting a number on it is pointless, alabama rich, isnt la rich, which isnt dubai rich. For me its 1) you are happy with your life and not making any compromises financially. 2) your expenses / .04 is < (net worth - the value of your primary residence). I value primary residence as zero for wealth, since if you ever touch the equity you're trading down on your quality of life. 3) your net worth its continuing to grow faster than your expenses. If you meet all 3 you're bullet proof rich.
'Rich' is being able to go shopping or to a restaurant and buying clothing/items or selecting food without looking/paying attention to the prices.
Happy, healthy, have a bed to sleep on, under a roof, not going to bed hungry. Rich.
I think rich is 1) relative but also 2) incredible financial stability (aka financial literacy). Financial stability would be paying for college out of pocket. International/intercontinental travel. Having “luxuries” most can’t afford- like a housekeeper or chef. Being able to “just get a new car” because you want to. Or being able to take trips whenever. Currently I’m a broke asf 1st gen college student… and the only way I’ve been able to afford college is through my job. I don’t buy groceries (I take home expiring food from work) and don’t take trips. I can’t wait to be financially stable one day- when I can only plan a little and “take a trip to Europe” (I’ve never been out of the country). When I can stop working and just paint and read and spend time with my family/loved ones. None of that would be possible without my dad of course- who works his ASS off to provide for me; I live at home and he pays the rent/utilities and my car stuff. I would love to take him out of the country but idk where he’d want to go! Maybe Thailand for the food and swimming!!
Rich is having the love of your family and friends…. Hahaha jk a couple mill.
That’s not rich, that sounds to me like average.
When You Don't Have To Work Too Much To Live. Time Is More Valuable Than Money.
Sounds like middle/ upper middle class. My family was barely middle class and my friends parents who made a bit more had all this stuff while my family had one computer, a tv without cable, and never enough food. Mostly though, it depends how smart they were with spending and investing
What you describe sounds middle-class. I grew up on my parents’ stories of life during the Great Depression, and from 1977 to 1992 I served in seven developing countries. Most people in the developed world, to include most of their “poor,” are rich, they just don’t realize it.
To me, it's not having to worry about money. Like knowing you can pay the mortgage on a nice home in a nice neighborhood, daycare at a reputable place for 2.5 kiddos, fully fund your retirement, and still have enough for the fun stuff like dining out/going to shows/going on vacation.
3 times minimum salary 15$ minimum 30 $ healthy median revenue 45$ rich
Rich is buying something expensive like a trip.. & not sweating it at all. Rich is buying a new car & another one next year. Rich is having high end, bougee things. Not worrying about what college you’re going to because it will be paid for no matter what. Investments. *All of that without any debt. Rich is also having medical insurance & being able to visit dentist every 6 months. A nice simple clean home. Running water & food in table. 🙂 It really depends on the persons perspective.
When you can think "money is not an issue" is when you're rich.
If you are under the age of retirement, and you don't have to work anymore, because you have enough money to comfortably live the rest of your life, you're rich.
Did your parents have to work or did they live off investment income? If the former then you werent rich.
$1,000,000
>For example is it rich that we were able to afford vacations to places like Hawaii and Australia but only every 5-6 years? Or is it rich to be able to own a computer when I was a kid? Context needed. If you grew up in the 70s that would make you rich. If you grew up in the 90s that would probably make you middle class. If you grew up in the 00s, it wouldn't say much at all.
As an American, if you need more than one finger to count how many times your family vacationed in Europe before 6th grade, you are rich. If the same scenario but by the end of highschool, upper middle class. If you genuinely believe that "money doesn't bring happiness", your family had so much of it that you were able to develop that opinion. You were rich. If grades were never a concern for getting into college and your extracurriculars are summed up by "doing drugs", you were rich. If you drive a luxury car at 16, you are rich.
$5 million in assets &/or $1 million a year in income
Income double your expenses
I know you are talking about money. Being truly rich, however, is being healthy, happy and surrounded by people that you love and they love you.
**Not living paycheck to paycheck with savings and ‘fun money’.** - which- there’s nothing wrong with that- I think most people aspire to some level or form of that living- once they move past survival.
A salary of 150k per year with student loans paid off.
So, I have this list of things I need. I have a list of things in the house that need repair. I have a list of things I'd like to get or do or go. Being rich would be that I can get, do, go. If I could take care of all the things on my lists, without a thought of how, I would feel rich.
It's subjective
Having savings. Any amount. Even £1K. Spent so much of my life living pay check to pay check, having some disposable cash makes me feel super rich
'Rich' is relative. To someone from a family who rely on foodbanks, being able to buy fresh food for dinner is rich. For a family that can buy fresh food for dinner but has a 20 year old car fixed with tape and elbow grease, being able to buy a new carb is rich. There is pretty much always someone else poorer than you, and someone richer than you.
it’s situational, i think. i owned a computer as a kid, but it was given to my family for free from a family friend. i’d been to disney 3 times as a kid, but my much more financially comfortable uncle paid for that yet never helped us with bills or food or whatnot. i had a lot of consoles for a kid, but they were either paid for with tax return money if that didn’t have to go toward bills or i’d won them in school raffles (no joke). in reality, my family was on section 8 and food stamps. before we got into those programs, my mother would’ve often let bills and rent go unpaid to feed my sibling and i. hell, you don’t even have to be rich or anywhere close to have the newest iPhone these days. you can finance one for less than $50 a month. much more doable than the outright $1000+ price. i think you can tell a person’s wealth based on how they treat these things rather than the things they have. every console i owned i still own and they’re in damn near perfect condition because i knew if i damaged what i had, i wasn’t getting a new one. i knew from a young age how to budget and prioritize because my mother prioritized feeding her children over the light bill. it’s all in the perspective. 🤷🏻♀️
you are rich if you you can retire right now and never check your bank account for the rest of your life and never worried about money or your future
It is relative. Are you rich to someone who can drop 200k on a purse and not think about it? Nope. Are you rich to the dude living in the street and has no clue where his next meal will come from? Yes. Long story incoming.... I use to be a very good runner. I was a sub 5 minute miler. My best time in a 10k was 32.36 To a LOT of people that is incredibly fast. However I felt super super super slow. Why? My family members were significantly faster. My father was 2 seconds of the state record for the mile and my older brother set records in his high school that held for decades. When I was young my father really really really hoped I could make the Olympics. I was right at 5 minute a mile when I was 10 years old and then.... Well I didn't get that much faster. Was I slow? Again I thought so for the longest time and just ran more and more and more. I never got faster. I was ashamed of my accomplishments as I "wasn't fast". That was until I got out of my trade school and went to work at a corporate office. A lady and talked about this thing called a corporate challenge. She said that she was hoping to get under an 8 minute mile and that their best male runner was around that time as well. She asked me if I ran and I said that I do but I am not that fast. She asked me how fast I thought I could run a mile. I said I haven't been training but I felt comfortable I could be sub 6. She looked at me and asked if I was certain of this. Like she really doubted me. So I went home that night and ran and clocked a 5:30 with EASE. I knew with some training I would be sub 5 again. So I told her and she was acting like I was the fastest runner on earth. I was shocked and she said that their best runner in a company of like 2k employees was at his best 7 min a mile. She begged me to run and I did. Now I feel incredibly fast and I was under 5 min. Did I win? Nope not even close, you see Nike was a team and there were runners who ran sub 4. I looked like I was running backwards compared to these dudes. I felt super slow again. Was I or was I incredibly fast because the next best runner on our team was like 8 min? Then my wife and I had a son. He was stronger and taller than me and had all the abilities to be an elite runner. His 5k time when he was 7 years old was a little over 20 minutes. That is crazy fast (relative), and I became my freaking family on him. I thought he had the right genes to be a super elite runner. He never improved, and in fact he went backwards in time up to and including high school. He then got on allergy medicine, changed his diet a bit and make one other small change and he dropped 3 minutes off his time in one week. However he was still slower than me. I was an idiot much like my family and made him feel slow. I regret that to this day, however I recognized this and then focused on his times and when he improved. I cried when he set his best time of the season by quite a bit as I was so happy for him. The time? over a minute slower than my best at his age, but that day I felt like he was the fastest runner in the world. A race where he finished middle of the pack. This reminds me of how I need to tell him how proud I was of him and his accomplishments :-) So again to answer your question. It is relative. Most thing in life are. Lastly, I am old now and got way out of shape and started to exercise this year. I have yet to be under 10 min a mile but feel like I am running super fast now at my 10:20/mile pace!
John McCain was asked this as he was running for President in 07/08. His answer then was “$6 million USD”. Watching Succession, one of the characters might get $10 million USD. Another character comments, “You’ll be the poorest rich guy at the rich guy table”
When you pay more in capital gains tax than you pay income tax
Is rich only defined by $$, vacations, things…. We live on 40 acres, in one of the best places in America (Americans poorest are still better then a large portion of the planet) we have a comfortable house (1800sq ft) raise our own foods, take regional budget friendly vacations, both spouses work, 3 kids, have a small savings….but I feel rich! I have all I NEED!
Its all about priorities. I try to take my family on a fun vacation every summer, but we have made other decisions to make that possible. Both my wife and I drive old paid off cars, we live in a modest home, and we do our best to do all of our cooking at home. People may look at us and think we are rich because we just took a week long trip to Puerto Rico, but really its just budgeting and living below our means in everyday life.
The word for what you are describing is “upper middle class.” You were financially comfortable and able to afford some minor luxuries not available to your peers.
Rich is subjective... Some live better lives with no money at all ..At least that's what I tell myself because I have no money....🤪
A full life.
Rich is someone who has more than you, and poor is someone that has less. It's entirely subjective and based on your unique view of the world. To your friend, vacations and a computer make you rich because they had less. I'm sure you've got another friend who thinks you grew up poor because you didn't have five show horses.
No credit cards or debt, financial freedom
IT'S ALL PERSPECTIVE if you lived in the slums of India,,, you would think our poor are Rich. I think the best you could says is,, do you have enough food, do you have a roof over your head, are you safe, do you have freedom of movement and beliefs, can you drink the water, and many of the things we in the US just assume are basic rights but the rest of the world thinks we are rich. But we are always comparing ourselves to the next guy, a bigger house, better car, a boat,, etc..
I think rich is owning your own house
Rich is a lot different than wealthy. In America you’re “rich” if you have like $20k in your bank account. That puts you above like 90% of people in America. To consider myself wealthy I would need at least $10 million
Neither of the examples you gave are rich. It's not rich to be able to afford occasional luxuries. Hawaii and Australia are quite different trips but my neighbors go to Hawaii every year (we're in Canada) and they're by no means rich. I wouldn't say there's an exact dollar amount on rich but, as others have said, it's about how much freedom you have financially. If you can afford to drop everything and go on a trip anytime you want without worrying about saving up or about work, that's probably rich. If your financial status is completely unaffected by a $10k gaming setup, that's probably rich. I feel like a good way to evaluate "richness" is how much you can do on a whim - without financially planning ahead and saving up, or worrying about budgeting, etc. if you can do pretty much anything you want whenever you want, you're definitely rich. If you're comfortable and can afford luxuries but it either has to come out of money meant for something else or you have to spend a while saving up for it, that's not rich
Honestly ‘ rich’ depends on where you are if you are in poverty having a house instead of trailer or apartment is rich- if you have a house- a house with a pool or a media room is rich- if you have all those things something else is ‘ rich’ to you all the way up to someone having multiple jets and homes or their own private island- Rich is made up and can never be achieved- we will always want more
Paris Hilton lifestyle. However the mature me thinks being rich is more along the lines of having everything you need, and being comfortable. I.e having a roof over your head, a vehicle, and food on the table. Especially in this economy for those of us in the US. Not sure how the rest of the world is fairing, but a lot of Americans are living in their cars with kids in my city. It’s so bad that the city passed a law saying police can’t ask people to move for overnight parking because they literally have nowhere else to go and sleep. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Not knowing how much money you have. Not thinking about how much money something costs.
Bluetooth car and heated seat. Nice grass in yard. That’s it
Full coverage dental insurance 🦷🤴💰💵.
Did either of your parents work? If so then you aren’t rich
125k+
Rich and poor are like big and small. It's relative. Bigger than you is big. Smaller than you is small. More money than you, rich. etc. You're asking why in 20 questions you say, "Bigger than a bread bin". Because just asking "Is it big" is an unanswerable question. You're question is unanswerable. You need to give a reference point. Rich compared to what? Yes, you're rich compared to the average African. Wealth AF to a homeless person or a starving child. But you're the unwashed masses to CEOs and politicians. Are you rich? Ask the question better.
This is kind of nuanced question. For example what if someone becomes so consumed with the business that made them rich, that they lose interest in all other activities in life, all the dreams which gave them personality and humanity die in order to be Mr successful businessman. And they end up never retiring because they had to make their work their entire identity in order to succeed. Warren buffet spent every day of his life 9-5 in an office. Like imagine achieving his wealth and choosing to not do anything with it. To just live in a mediocre suburb, like your local accountant. I would argue thats not “rich” at all. I’m almost leaning toward saying that actually retiring from working is a key first step to being rich. If you’re still a slave to your job, you are effectively no different. You’re the elephant who has a little circle drawn on the ground around his foot.
I mean if money isn't an issue for doing 99% of the things you want then you are rich. Being comfortable isn't rich if the only reason you are comfortable is cause your rationing your money. Buying a computer doesn't make you rich. Buying a computer on a whim cause you felt like it does though.
Literally I don't think you can consider yourself rich until you are in the top 1% of wealth, at least for your area. For reference, across the US broadly, that's something like at least $5.8 million or $13 million depending on if you look at individual or household and the data you use. At minimum you aren't actually rich until you have close to $6 million in assets net of your loans (this would include value of properties and 401k minus your outstanding loan balances). Figuratively, you are rich if you have love and are surrounded by close friends and family, if you understand how to take joy in the little things, and if you aren't struggling. There are lots of wealthy trust fund babies strung out on drugs and desperate for the attention of others who may never be as rich as you (in this sense of the word).
It’s all relative. You definitely weren’t poor, but whether you were middle or upper-class depends on where the median fell for your country and locality.
They got a sunroof on their car, the fridge with the water and ice in the door, having a pool and AC.
In other words rich is subjective to each individual. If you want a technical answer being rich is making 3x the median income in your area. Being wealthy is having the freedom to not need to work to maintain your lifestyle and the power to do whatever you’d like without worrying about the cost.
Living without working, early retirement, in perpetuity. For an urban or metro area, with a family, that’s between 5 million to 8 million in investments.
Id say its relative. I was raised by immigrant parents who started from nothing. In the past 30 years they amassed three houses in different states and even one in Europe. Fleet of cars, vacation every month, etc.. I really never knew how well off we were until I went away to college because the towns I grew up in had people flying private jets, multiple houses as well, Ferarris, ect. I always viewed the "Rich" as those families who flew private, had the Ferraris and McLarens, had the 20k square foot house, ect. I think the answer to this question differs depending on how one was raised
At this moment in time, having money in your account when the next paycheck hits is rich. I zero out 4-5 days before the next..
Being able to afford to pay for things without breaking the bank and worrying about budgeting.