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Far as I know, it all depends on who you ask. A long time ago, I was riding on a bus and asked some of the folks there how to define rich people. Most of them responded with something along the line of being able to pay the rent at the end of the month and have money left over to buy food. This was a commuter bus with folks going to their daily work at the hotels in Waikiki. Later I asked some friends at the yacht club how they defined rich and they said if they could take their private jet to Paris for breakfast whenever they wanted, then they'd be rich. All these folks were living on the same island, yet they had huge differences in how they defined a fairly simple concept.
Other than levels of money, there is also being part of Society and that is usually folks who have rather a lot of money although they may not be super rich. And having scads of money doesn't necessarily get you into Society, either. Kinda like the difference between notoriety and fame.
But, if you're looking for a dollar amount to be 'rich', I dunno as if there is one since everyone's circumstances will be different. And money isn't the only thing that provides riches, if anything it's one of the smaller parts although I suppose it's a pretty useful comparative yardstick.
By your standards, no, $50 Million wouldn't be enough. But the definition of "rich" is a wide-ranging one, encompassing everything from Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, The Saudi Royal family all the way down the spectrum to the guy at local factory retiring after 40 years of work with his pension and social security.
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Having money and things isn't the only definition of rich.
I understand your point, and I agree there is more to life than money -- but at the same time, frequently there is a call by politicians and political activists to "soak the rich" and to "make the rich pay their fair share of taxes." I wager the hypothetical retired factory worker you mention above would not count himself rich if the consequence is to be soaked and admonished to "pay his fair share."
I dare to disagree. OP asked "At what point are you rich in America".
There is a threshold, but what you described is the 0.05% of the super rich in the World.
Please recall you also discussed those outside America:
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Originally Posted by elnina
... with 2 billion people in the world living on less than $2 a day, even $1 million is an inconceivable sum.
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Originally Posted by elnina
The general definition of being rich is defined as someone who has accumulated enough to purchase comfort of a luxurious nature above that of the common people in a group, city, society, or whatever else you want to call it. By definition of money, there certainly is very little that separates those who are rich from those who are wealthy.
I'm not sure where you found that definition. I'm looking in an econ textbook right now, and I don't find anything like that.
Being rich for me would be to have enough money that I'm earning as much as my current salary and more just off the interest and investments.
Since interest rates are so low, it would have to be investment gains only. If I could get 5% a year, I'd need almost 4 million. That wouldn't be any increase in my lifestyle at that point, I would just have more free time. I wouldn't be able to go buy anything I wanted, and I wouldn't be able to buy a multimillion dollar house.
For me to be rich, I'd say 10 million. That would allow me to earn enough off investments to replace my income AND be able to afford nice things in perpetuity.
To the poster with the stuff you could buy that would be filthy rich. I think merely rich would be somewhere in the high 7 to low 8 figures. The best definition that I think most "real" middle class families (household income between 30-120k) would give would be someone who never needs to budget money for anything. It also depends on where your viewing it from. I have friends who bought ocean front houses and luxury cars with cash and retired early. Even though their worth less then 10 mil that's plenty rich for me.
Being rich for me would be to have enough money that I'm earning as much as my current salary and more just off the interest and investments.
Since interest rates are so low, it would have to be investment gains only. If I could get 5% a year, I'd need almost 4 million. That wouldn't be any increase in my lifestyle at that point, I would just have more free time. I wouldn't be able to go buy anything I wanted, and I wouldn't be able to buy a multimillion dollar house.
For me to be rich, I'd say 10 million. That would allow me to earn enough off investments to replace my income AND be able to afford nice things in perpetuity.
I'd have to agree with this one. Above this level you just at a different kind of rich.
People who haven't traveled outside of America have no idea how rich we all are. Someone once told me that if you have some extra money, shelter, food, clothing and people who care about you then you are among the world's richest people.
Not only that but we have a gazillion social programs to help us out.
After the basics it's just a matter of degree.
One afternoon I sat on a shady balcony in a tropical country. It was nearly hundred-degree weather by three o'clock. And I watched skinny kids who came to work on bicycles (two and three to a bike) shovel rocks in the hot sun all day from eight in the morning until six-thirty in the afternoon. They had a half-hour lunch break and sat among weeds in the jungle shade.
At one point their foreman left and I thought they'd slow down. But they didn't; they kept up their regular pace unsupervised. And they smiled, laughed and joked as they worked.
That's the kind of work you do when you really need a job to survive. Or perhaps others are depending on you. Or maybe there's a line just waiting for you to quit.
I thought to myself, "Every person in this country who complains they don't have enough should have the chance to see this."
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