What does it take in terms of assets, abilities, and/or income for you to consider them wealthy?
There are two thresholds that matter: “rich” is where you no longer have to really think much about money on a day to day basis, and “wealthy” is where you no longer have to work for a living. Both thresholds depend on your expenses and the lifestyle you’re looking for, I guess
I’d be a slight exception… I’m VERY MUCH not rich but I never think about money. I can’t afford a house and I would really love to have my own house…. I don’t buy many things, but when I do, I don’t think about it. I put everything on a credit card that gives me money back and I pay it off every month. I used to put 5USD of gurl in my car, and now I’m very thankful that I don’t think about filling my entire tank or going out for sushi.
Maybe someday I’ll have a house.
I was about to type something very similar, but switching words. “Wealthy” to me implies having enough wealth to not really worry. “Rich” makes me think of Lamborghinis and yachts and mountains of cocaine.
You’re not really wealthy until you can raise your own legion.
Anybody who doesn’t have to work for the rest of their life because it’s voluntary + they don’t really have to look at the price tags of the things they want.
So would that include retired people?
Few retired people I know can ignore the price tags off stuff…
I think a lot of people retire with more than just social security to live on.
What if you have enough to live the rest of your life without working but can’t do that if you buy a Ferrari?
As long as they keep their standard of living the same as before they retired, a lot of them can ignore prices. Doesn’t mean they’re buying a new car every month…
If you could retire and have enough to keep you comfortably housed and insured until you’re 90, that’s wealth enough.
Second house is immediately qualifying.
Second?
I know where you’re coming from, but my mortgage-having peers are often little better off than I am. Though I suppose neither of us technically own a house.
not having to work and still get to live comfortably and afford most of the things you desire
I liked it back when the aristocracy was just called the “leisure” class. At least they didn’t spend their time playing at being an executive and pretending they earned what they have.
Someone for whom the normal and inevitable experiences of suffering (illness, death in the family, natural disaster, etc) have no real economic consequences.
Bezos is not wealthy. He just has a lot of money. I can’t imagine he’s found any real happiness with it. Sure a brand new Ferrari every week can buy you some happiness, but that’s short lived.
The man has a serious mental illness that will not be addressed, because he has too much money and power for anyone to be allowed to tell him he’s ill.
Billionaires are a danger to themselves and others. They should be admitted into a mental hospital against their will and they should be treated until they are cured.
This isn’t even a “CEO bad” joke. I honestly believe it’s a mentally disorder. Or maybe a specific mix of different disorders and unfortunate environments, circumstances and enablers.
What’s your take on Elon…I know mental illness, but I saw somewhere that his gaming account that was almost #1 got banned and all I can think is he’s obsessed with being no1
I’m not sure it’s quite the same level of blatant disregard for human life, or life in general, that Bezos has. Elon has different issues than Bezos, but definitely something unhealthy and dangerous about his behaviour as well.
You can cure rich with a weekend in Vegas, Wealth is terminal.
Shit, for the obscenely rich, a green plumber can cure that.
If literally running around in a warehouse full of 20 dollar bills collecting all you can with your hands and unlimited bags makes less money, there’s no fucking way your actual work is producing so much value.
Access to a warm fire to dance around, food and libations, and friends to share them with.
$5 million of spare money. Not net total wealth but actually $5 million investable dollars.
At that point, I’d you stick that money in a very conservative and safe brokerage account allocation, 5% return per year is $250k. That is a higher salary than almost anyone needs, meaning you can live very comfortably without working. You can’t buy a yacht but you can be “done” and so can your children and their children if they aren’t stupid.
If you choose to work, then you can just reinvest that $250k and let compound interest do its thing and get richer. Lucky you.
If you can’t afford a yacht on $250k/year (after tax) then you need help budgeting, or it’s just not a priority. You might not be able to afford multiple houses AND a yacht, but a normal house and a yacht should be possible. Or your could replace the yacht with a couple lambos…
Not really the point, but sure, whatever.
With 5% you run a serious risk of running out of money. The general rule is 4% at retirement age, but younger than that with a longer time horizon is even less.
E.g you can look at this FIRE calculator (Financially Independent, Retired) which runs simulations against historical data. It’s all inflation adjusted for the yearly withdrawal.
With $5,000,000 and a $250,000 withdrawal rate, you have a 53.2% chance of making it 45 years and not running out of money. 4% 200k is 79.8%, and 3.5% 175k gets you to 96.3%.
Take that same 5 mil though and do 4% for 25 years with a 65 year retirement age so money until 90, and it’s a 98.4% chance.
Anyone who has strong opinions about new video games or a favourite Tiktoker is wealthy
What?
Well if these pedons ain’t working but wasting their damn time playing video games and jerking off on tiktok, they must be rich
Also, did you know that iPhone costs 1k 🤡
Relative to the globe. What you’ve observed isn’t statistically normal.
$500,000 combined household gross income
