Do you consider a net worth of 2.5 million "rich?"

[Anonymous]

NP here, what is wrong with flipping homes.
I never did but geez I wish I did.
Why would that be wrong?

DS has a friend, his parents don't work. They flip homes, 17 so far. Last one just sold at 4.8 million.

They are obviously doing something right.
I wish I could do what they did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I promise I'm not trying to be offensive. It's just that around here, and it seems especially on DCUM, there's a tremendous amount of wealth. I'm not saying I'm not, but with 3 small kids, we're planing to keep on working for the next 20 years, at least. We still have expenses to cover that investment income doesn't cover. The point is, it seems like wealth is everywhere here.

It is not rich. Rich would mean that, in addition to being able to stop working and live off of your investments, you could also send those 3 small kids to whatever school you would chose through college (and maybe even grad school). Well, you would spend down most of your money just to put 3 small kids through private school. Assume $30k+ per child for even 10 years. That's almost 1mm right there and you haven't even paid for college yet. Sad as it sounds, you are comfortable, not rich.

OP here again. Your response summarizes my point. Even though we're not planning on private schools for our kids, we definitely watch our spending carefully. On paper, we may seem "rich" to many people, but in reality, we're living a middle class lifestyle. I appreciate everyone's perspectives.

I am wondering what kind of lifestyle we must be living, then, having many times less money?

Working poor? Having no expectation of ever being able to retire, or to contribute meaningfully to the expense of your childrens' college educations?

Huh? I can retire right now (at 40) by merely moving back to my home country (which is thriving). College education there is basically free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here, what is wrong with flipping homes.
I never did but geez I wish I did.
Why would that be wrong?

DS has a friend, his parents don't work. They flip homes, 17 so far. Last one just sold at 4.8 million.

They are obviously doing something right.
I wish I could do what they did.

There is nothing wrong with it, but i am a college professor and dont care to do manual or contractor work. Different strokes for different folks. dont assume that everyone "who didnt make it" would want your life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here, what is wrong with flipping homes.
I never did but geez I wish I did.
Why would that be wrong?

DS has a friend, his parents don't work. They flip homes, 17 so far. Last one just sold at 4.8 million.

They are obviously doing something right.
I wish I could do what they did.

There is nothing wrong with it, but i am a college professor and dont care to do manual or contractor work. Different strokes for different folks. dont assume that everyone "who didnt make it" would want your life.

They didnt do any manual work, they contracted out their homes.
I havent done this.
However, sure bets working as a prof doesnt it?
Do you have 5 mil in the bank while living in stunning homes?

[Anonymous]

Hey OP,

Punch your salary into the Global Rich List (http://www.globalrichlist.com/) and you will see that you are the 2,636,712th richest person in the world. Doesn't sound great, but as a percentage of the global population, you are in the top .04%. In other words, you should probably not have this conversation with 99.96% of the world's population, as that would just be AWKWARD!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here, what is wrong with flipping homes.
I never did but geez I wish I did.
Why would that be wrong?

DS has a friend, his parents don't work. They flip homes, 17 so far. Last one just sold at 4.8 million.

They are obviously doing something right.
I wish I could do what they did.

There is nothing wrong with it, but i am a college professor and dont care to do manual or contractor work. Different strokes for different folks. dont assume that everyone "who didnt make it" would want your life.

They didnt do any manual work, they contracted out their homes.
I havent done this.
However, sure bets working as a prof doesnt it?
Do you have 5 mil in the bank while living in stunning homes?

To me it doesn't - i wouldnt change my life for the world and a profession is not something one can really buy. I dont live in a 5 mil home, but that was never my goal in life.

[Anonymous]

OP here. All your comments have been so interesting. I don't consider myself a shrewd real estate investor- it is true that we just got lucky. My point remains that while 2.5 million is a lot of money (regardless of how we acquired it), we live a middle class lifestyle. Ie: older cars, use coupons, shop at target and buy things on sale/clearance, minimal eating old, use hand-me-downs, 1 modest vacation/year, kids in public schools, the list goes on.

I'm not saying we don't have more money saved than others here, but our lifestyle is middle class. We will keep working until our youngest is done with college. So we're not living much differently than most people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. All your comments have been so interesting. I don't consider myself a shrewd real estate investor- it is true that we just got lucky. My point remains that while 2.5 million is a lot of money (regardless of how we acquired it), we live a middle class lifestyle. Ie: older cars, use coupons, shop at target and buy things on sale/clearance, minimal eating old, use hand-me-downs, 1 modest vacation/year, kids in public schools, the list goes on.

I'm not saying we don't have more money saved than others here, but our lifestyle is middle class. We will keep working until our youngest is done with college. So we're not living much differently than most people.

Well, OP, there is your answer. Ask 10 other people and you'd have 20 different answers. Can we close the conversation now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. All your comments have been so interesting. I don't consider myself a shrewd real estate investor- it is true that we just got lucky. My point remains that while 2.5 million is a lot of money (regardless of how we acquired it), we live a middle class lifestyle. Ie: older cars, use coupons, shop at target and buy things on sale/clearance, minimal eating old, use hand-me-downs, 1 modest vacation/year, kids in public schools, the list goes on.

I'm not saying we don't have more money saved than others here, but our lifestyle is middle class. We will keep working until our youngest is done with college. So we're not living much differently than most people.

Your lifestyle is your choice and I don't see what that has to do with whether you are rich. By your logic, you could have a billion in savings but for as long as you still shop at target you wouldn't be rich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here, what is wrong with flipping homes.
I never did but geez I wish I did.
Why would that be wrong?

DS has a friend, his parents don't work. They flip homes, 17 so far. Last one just sold at 4.8 million.

They are obviously doing something right.
I wish I could do what they did.

There is nothing wrong with it, but i am a college professor and dont care to do manual or contractor work. Different strokes for different folks. dont assume that everyone "who didnt make it" would want your life.

Why are you so jealous if you are really a college professor? Go into industry and leave teaching and you too can be rich. Although perhaps you could be rich right where you are. My college chemistry professor just left $3 million to the college in his will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. All your comments have been so interesting. I don't consider myself a shrewd real estate investor- it is true that we just got lucky. My point remains that while 2.5 million is a lot of money (regardless of how we acquired it), we live a middle class lifestyle. Ie: older cars, use coupons, shop at target and buy things on sale/clearance, minimal eating old, use hand-me-downs, 1 modest vacation/year, kids in public schools, the list goes on.

I'm not saying we don't have more money saved than others here, but our lifestyle is middle class. We will keep working until our youngest is done with college. So we're not living much differently than most people.

So there's your answer.

I don't get why people are not counting equity, retirement etc. they're part of the definition of net worth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here, what is wrong with flipping homes.
I never did but geez I wish I did.
Why would that be wrong?

DS has a friend, his parents don't work. They flip homes, 17 so far. Last one just sold at 4.8 million.

They are obviously doing something right.
I wish I could do what they did.

There is nothing wrong with it, but i am a college professor and dont care to do manual or contractor work. Different strokes for different folks. dont assume that everyone "who didnt make it" would want your life.

Why are you so jealous if you are really a college professor? Go into industry and leave teaching and you too can be rich. Although perhaps you could be rich right where you are. My college chemistry professor just left $3 million to the college in his will.

What makes you think I was jealous? What makes you think I want more money? Why would I want to leave 3 mil to a college or, for that matter, even my own kids? I live a comfortable life, and that's good enough for me (money wise).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If that's not rich, what is? Not being snarky, genuinely curious what that would be?

Polls show that a majority of respondents say 5 mil plus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If that's not rich, what is? Not being snarky, genuinely curious what that would be?

Polls show that a majority of respondents say 5 mil plus.

Mine is 6 mil (inheritance) but that includes 1 mil home and 1.5 mil retirement.

[Anonymous]

We are 32 with the same net worth. No debt. I feel like we are doing "well" but not rich yet. We will probably get there though. We are good savers.