I have $2M and consider myself rich.

Hi am 35 off the boat immigrant from developing country.
I inherited a piece of 500k usd worth commercial property which generating about 3k a month from my mother. ( it is in my name but my mom is in charge if the income and the management. She has 5 of them altogether) .

I just start my professional career 8 months ago ,earning 200k yearly.
Husband (also off the boat) will start earning >500k yearly in the next few months. He also inherited residential land from his family back home about 300k( not generating income)

Until we both can have a self made net worth of 3 mil, I will never consider ourselves rich.

"You guys think we are poor?"

Ok enough about what's wealthy. What about at the other end. DCUM has decreed that HHI under $100k (or perhaps 150k) is "poor". (I disagree, but whatever). What about people with that HHI but relatively high net worth. Are they still "poor" if they have a net worth of $500k? $1m? $1.5m? $2m?

The posters claiming that $10m is not wealthy are delusional. We find ourselves very comfortable on less than $100k HHI, with significant (relatively) net worth.

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Anonymous wrote:I'd say 7-10 million without considering home equity and retirement. We have about 3 million after those things and I don't feel wealthy. We still have to go to work (HHI is 1.3M) since we couldn't live for the next 50 years on our 3 million in investments. We are cash rich, but not wealthy.

I know how the PP feels. Even at 10M, at least in this area, it's not enough to be materially wealthy.

We recently had vacation with a friend in the midwest. We could see $10M as wealthy there.

Come now. $10M without retirement savings or home equity is not wealthy? What a fascinating point of view.

Exactly. The "without retirement savings or home equity" is the silly part. I can totally get someone who has a several million dollar net worth saying they don't feel wealthy on a day-to-day basis because it is all in retirement and home equity. If you have millions in investments separate from your retirement savings and you don't feel wealthy, spend some of your money.

My retirement savings is only something like $500k. Add in home equity of $2M, and that's $12.5M. $10M and $12.5M is similar on the "how wealthy one feels" scale. I'd wager very few people, even the higher income ones, have significantly more retirement savings or home equity to the point that it tilts the balance the other way. The key point is that even $10M of non-retirement non-primary-home-equity money isn't enough to make one feel materially wealthy.

I think you need to define what "wealthy" means. This screams wealthy to me.

+100 WTF. You have $10M PLUS retirement savings and your home and you don't feel wealthy?? Your perspective is completely screwed up.

*shrug* as someone who has gone from negative net worth to where I am at today, and through each stage in between, I'd say I have more experience in perspective than someone who has not gone through my degree of transition. You can guess all you want; I know what I know.

Sadly, you understand very little.

FYI, the age statistic quoted earlier is being taken out of context. "Age" includes children, not just head of household.

So, to get 37, it looks like 57yo Mom, 57yo Dad, 17yo son, 17yo daughter. And that is the family that has the net worth they mentioned (hypothetically). Not some 37 year old dude.

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Anonymous wrote:I'd say 7-10 million without considering home equity and retirement. We have about 3 million after those things and I don't feel wealthy. We still have to go to work (HHI is 1.3M) since we couldn't live for the next 50 years on our 3 million in investments. We are cash rich, but not wealthy.

I know how the PP feels. Even at 10M, at least in this area, it's not enough to be materially wealthy.

We recently had vacation with a friend in the midwest. We could see $10M as wealthy there.

Come now. $10M without retirement savings or home equity is not wealthy? What a fascinating point of view.

Exactly. The "without retirement savings or home equity" is the silly part. I can totally get someone who has a several million dollar net worth saying they don't feel wealthy on a day-to-day basis because it is all in retirement and home equity. If you have millions in investments separate from your retirement savings and you don't feel wealthy, spend some of your money.

My retirement savings is only something like $500k. Add in home equity of $2M, and that's $12.5M. $10M and $12.5M is similar on the "how wealthy one feels" scale. I'd wager very few people, even the higher income ones, have significantly more retirement savings or home equity to the point that it tilts the balance the other way. The key point is that even $10M of non-retirement non-primary-home-equity money isn't enough to make one feel materially wealthy.

I think you need to define what "wealthy" means. This screams wealthy to me.

Wealthy to me means being able to maintain my current lifestyle in step with inflation from passive income only. I need $500k a year in today's money to maintain my current lifestyle. That requires 5% low risk cashflow on $10M, which is a tough proposition currently.

Do you not even comprehend that spending $500K per year is a "wealthy" lifestyle? Yes, you need more money to maintain it -- because you spend a heck of a lot of money every year! 10x more than the median household income in the US. Enjoy it but appreciate that you are living the lifestyle of a wealthy person. You could quit work tomorrow if you could be comfortable living more modestly. It's fine to not want that, clearly you can afford the lifestyle you are living. But that doesn't mean you aren't wealthy.

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Anonymous wrote:I'd say 7-10 million without considering home equity and retirement. We have about 3 million after those things and I don't feel wealthy. We still have to go to work (HHI is 1.3M) since we couldn't live for the next 50 years on our 3 million in investments. We are cash rich, but not wealthy.

I know how the PP feels. Even at 10M, at least in this area, it's not enough to be materially wealthy.

We recently had vacation with a friend in the midwest. We could see $10M as wealthy there.

Come now. $10M without retirement savings or home equity is not wealthy? What a fascinating point of view.

Exactly. The "without retirement savings or home equity" is the silly part. I can totally get someone who has a several million dollar net worth saying they don't feel wealthy on a day-to-day basis because it is all in retirement and home equity. If you have millions in investments separate from your retirement savings and you don't feel wealthy, spend some of your money.

My retirement savings is only something like $500k. Add in home equity of $2M, and that's $12.5M. $10M and $12.5M is similar on the "how wealthy one feels" scale. I'd wager very few people, even the higher income ones, have significantly more retirement savings or home equity to the point that it tilts the balance the other way. The key point is that even $10M of non-retirement non-primary-home-equity money isn't enough to make one feel materially wealthy.

I think you need to define what "wealthy" means. This screams wealthy to me.

+100 WTF. You have $10M PLUS retirement savings and your home and you don't feel wealthy?? Your perspective is completely screwed up.

*shrug* as someone who has gone from negative net worth to where I am at today, and through each stage in between, I'd say I have more experience in perspective than someone who has not gone through my degree of transition. You can guess all you want; I know what I know.

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Anonymous wrote:I'd say 7-10 million without considering home equity and retirement. We have about 3 million after those things and I don't feel wealthy. We still have to go to work (HHI is 1.3M) since we couldn't live for the next 50 years on our 3 million in investments. We are cash rich, but not wealthy.

I know how the PP feels. Even at 10M, at least in this area, it's not enough to be materially wealthy.

We recently had vacation with a friend in the midwest. We could see $10M as wealthy there.

Come now. $10M without retirement savings or home equity is not wealthy? What a fascinating point of view.

Exactly. The "without retirement savings or home equity" is the silly part. I can totally get someone who has a several million dollar net worth saying they don't feel wealthy on a day-to-day basis because it is all in retirement and home equity. If you have millions in investments separate from your retirement savings and you don't feel wealthy, spend some of your money.

My retirement savings is only something like $500k. Add in home equity of $2M, and that's $12.5M. $10M and $12.5M is similar on the "how wealthy one feels" scale. I'd wager very few people, even the higher income ones, have significantly more retirement savings or home equity to the point that it tilts the balance the other way. The key point is that even $10M of non-retirement non-primary-home-equity money isn't enough to make one feel materially wealthy.

I think you need to define what "wealthy" means. This screams wealthy to me.

Wealthy to me means being able to maintain my current lifestyle in step with inflation from passive income only. I need $500k a year in today's money to maintain my current lifestyle. That requires 5% low risk cashflow on $10M, which is a tough proposition currently.

Median net worth, per person, in the US is substantially under $50K:

http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/11/news/economy/middle-class-wealth/

Anonymous wrote:I was just working with national data on net worth. Only 8% of Americans have a net worth over $1 million. Including all assets. (excluding home equity and retirement from your "net worth" is ridiculous. Net worth should reflect all assets and liabilities). So, PP who doesn't feel rich with $3M plus home equity and retirement is thoroughly out of touch with reality. Yes, you could in fact live on your current investments if you wanted to. You just want to spend a boatload of money every year for the next 50 years. Which is fine, but own the fact that you are rich far beyond the means of most Americans.

If you are 60 years old and have $3M in this area, there is no way you could be considered rich. You are doing well, no doubt, but not even close to rich.

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Anonymous wrote:I'd say 7-10 million without considering home equity and retirement. We have about 3 million after those things and I don't feel wealthy. We still have to go to work (HHI is 1.3M) since we couldn't live for the next 50 years on our 3 million in investments. We are cash rich, but not wealthy.

I know how the PP feels. Even at 10M, at least in this area, it's not enough to be materially wealthy.

We recently had vacation with a friend in the midwest. We could see $10M as wealthy there.

Come now. $10M without retirement savings or home equity is not wealthy? What a fascinating point of view.

Exactly. The "without retirement savings or home equity" is the silly part. I can totally get someone who has a several million dollar net worth saying they don't feel wealthy on a day-to-day basis because it is all in retirement and home equity. If you have millions in investments separate from your retirement savings and you don't feel wealthy, spend some of your money.

My retirement savings is only something like $500k. Add in home equity of $2M, and that's $12.5M. $10M and $12.5M is similar on the "how wealthy one feels" scale. I'd wager very few people, even the higher income ones, have significantly more retirement savings or home equity to the point that it tilts the balance the other way. The key point is that even $10M of non-retirement non-primary-home-equity money isn't enough to make one feel materially wealthy.

I think you need to define what "wealthy" means. This screams wealthy to me.

+100 WTF. You have $10M PLUS retirement savings and your home and you don't feel wealthy?? Your perspective is completely screwed up.

Wealthy to me means you could never work another day and still maintain your current QOL.

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Anonymous wrote:I'd say 7-10 million without considering home equity and retirement. We have about 3 million after those things and I don't feel wealthy. We still have to go to work (HHI is 1.3M) since we couldn't live for the next 50 years on our 3 million in investments. We are cash rich, but not wealthy.

I know how the PP feels. Even at 10M, at least in this area, it's not enough to be materially wealthy.

We recently had vacation with a friend in the midwest. We could see $10M as wealthy there.

Come now. $10M without retirement savings or home equity is not wealthy? What a fascinating point of view.

Exactly. The "without retirement savings or home equity" is the silly part. I can totally get someone who has a several million dollar net worth saying they don't feel wealthy on a day-to-day basis because it is all in retirement and home equity. If you have millions in investments separate from your retirement savings and you don't feel wealthy, spend some of your money.

My retirement savings is only something like $500k. Add in home equity of $2M, and that's $12.5M. $10M and $12.5M is similar on the "how wealthy one feels" scale. I'd wager very few people, even the higher income ones, have significantly more retirement savings or home equity to the point that it tilts the balance the other way. The key point is that even $10M of non-retirement non-primary-home-equity money isn't enough to make one feel materially wealthy.

I think you need to define what "wealthy" means. This screams wealthy to me.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I'd say 7-10 million without considering home equity and retirement. We have about 3 million after those things and I don't feel wealthy. We still have to go to work (HHI is 1.3M) since we couldn't live for the next 50 years on our 3 million in investments. We are cash rich, but not wealthy.

I know how the PP feels. Even at 10M, at least in this area, it's not enough to be materially wealthy.

We recently had vacation with a friend in the midwest. We could see $10M as wealthy there.

Come now. $10M without retirement savings or home equity is not wealthy? What a fascinating point of view.

Exactly. The "without retirement savings or home equity" is the silly part. I can totally get someone who has a several million dollar net worth saying they don't feel wealthy on a day-to-day basis because it is all in retirement and home equity. If you have millions in investments separate from your retirement savings and you don't feel wealthy, spend some of your money.

My retirement savings is only something like $500k. Add in home equity of $2M, and that's $12.5M. $10M and $12.5M is similar on the "how wealthy one feels" scale. I'd wager very few people, even the higher income ones, have significantly more retirement savings or home equity to the point that it tilts the balance the other way. The key point is that even $10M of non-retirement non-primary-home-equity money isn't enough to make one feel materially wealthy.