What is your standard of “wealth” and being “rich”?

If you're working for money, you're not rich and your economic interests lie with those lower on the ladder than you, no matter your salary. When you're rich, your money works for you.

That's a good way to put it. ^^

I agree...living totally on passive income from investments, trusts, etc is what I would consider rich...working, but extremely well-off is what I call wealthy. Guess there's probably no steadfast definition.

Not having to even think about buying a house or car, not even knowing what stuff costs. And as R1 says, not needing to work for money

I am a long way from being rich. I do live in an area with a lot of rich people, in a shared home, but have a 20 year old car which I fix myself

You can both work for your money and have your money work for you, r1. That's what any sensible person does and it's in fact what most people with some money do (e.g. pensions, investments).

Upper middle class is a working professional like a MD, lawyer, or small business owner. They would be considered "one percent" and would have up to 5 or 6 million in assets. Once you start getting beyond 10 million, I think that qualifies as rich. I've seen these threads often. How this is classified also depends on how/where you grew up.

Joan Rivers made a joke that rich was having a live in housekeeper where as upper middle class had a housekeeper who went home at the end of the day. Upper middle class kids are like in purgatory. Not rich enough to never work, but wealthy enough to be in social circles where they have friends who don't.

According to a 2017 survey by Schwab, it takes an average of $2.4 million to be considered wealth in the United States. Of course, that’s the national average — the figure varies widely from city to city and state to state. In Charlotte, NC, $1.8 million was considered enough to be wealthy by respondents. However, you needed $4.2 million to be considered wealthy in San Francisco.

Maybe good health and enough money & intelligence to prioritize maintaining your health. (Health insurance, doctors, dentists, knowledge about nutrition.) Not saying you can't ever have a junk food binge, though.

Good mental health. Being able to walk away from squabbles. Not blowing your temper and creating a dangerous situation for yourself and others.

When I was young I had a friend whose family seemed to do really well and had a very nice house. I thought having a car with a sunroof was the ULTIMATE sign of luxury, lol. Little 1990s upper-middle class status symbols like that, two bathrooms in the house, a cordless home phone, etc.

I grew up quite poor, obviously everyone's standard is different from each other. Whenever I get into a car with a sunroof these days I still think i'm living it up.

Having large supplies of everyday items. (Being able to afford that, having a vehicle to transport that to your house.) I was feeling kind of silly about having somewhat large supplies, then Covid hit and I was really glad I wasn't in desperate need of anything right away.

R9 it’s funny the way it is relative. I grew up above average middle class in a Cleveland, Ohio suburb and the poor kids (apartments & tiny or mobile homes) from school thought my family was insanely rich, because we always had fairly new cars and a four bedroom house, they’d make comments about it. The really rich & wealthy kids would make fun of me because my parents drove GM cars, not Mercedes or Jaguars, or we didn’t have a maid or a pool, and they’d say we were poor.

R6 is correct

$200,000 and up is rich, as is owning property valued at more than $500,000. I hate rich people on the low end of the scale who vehemently deny that they are rich. At least the most wealthy people acknowledge that they are indeed rich. I'm all for soaking with higher taxes the people making above $200,000 a year, especially those making less than a million since they lie about being rich.

R12 talk about missing the forest for the trees. What an idiot.

Those people deny they’re rich because the super wealthy that you obviously envy and revere tell them they’re not rich.

See R11

Way back, when I was a kid...if someone had color TV and a remote, I thought they were rich...lol. Back in grammer school, there was a custodian who pinned a dollar bill on his shirt, on St. Patrick's Day...showing green. I was so impressed by that.

[quote]Those people deny they’re rich because the super wealthy that you obviously envy

You're a moron who has a trouble reading. I said I want to soak all the wealthy with higher taxes, including the wealthy making above $200,000.

R15 yes I read that but you have a weird disdain for upper middle class people who “won’t admit they’re rich”? Strange.

Rich people who won't admit they are rich are despicable, period.

R17 maybe they don’t think they’re rich. What a weird hang up. Obviously you’re mentally ill.

Our family avoided talking about money and showing wealth. Such as, we never bought new cars but we always dressed well and learned our manners. Showing off was discouraged. I'd consider us as being wealthy, having the means to keep the money in the family from one generation to the next. "Rich" people, buying extra large homes, expensive cars, and other flashy items actually is a big turn off and to this day I avoid those who brag about how much they make and spend. I know "rich" people who have asked how much I earn and even ask about my investments.

While I generally agree with r1's definition - I would modify that by saying if you NEED to work for an income to support you lifestyle.

The Waltons run Walmart. Bezos and Gates were CEOs of their respective companies.

Since the late 90s and the first round of internet millionaires and billionaires were created many very rich people continue to work.

Someday, r18, you and other wealthy people will be forced finally to pay your fair share.

Good question OP - because we have completely lost sight of how lucky we are. With a constant barrage of fear tactics saying you need $2 million in your 401k and being bombarded with images of extreme wealth everywhere -, it’s good to remember if you have over $100,000 you are very lucky. Most don’t.

All depends where you are. $5 million anywhere - even LA/NY. $1 million in middle America. But even $100-$500k, you should feel very fortunate.

People have different feelings about money. A long time ago, my financial planner had me do a quiz to determine risk aversion. He told me that, for a young person, I was really risk-averse.

I knew someone who won a large personal injury settlement. I asked him how much money he needed in savings (100% liquid) in order to feel "safe." He said he usually had $1 million in savings. (His PI claim was not frivolous, he struggled physically with basic life stuff.)

There are some people who choose to just live “comfortably” off their investments (because it’s enough for their lifestyle) and then there are people who did work for all their money but it’s significantly north of the first person’s wealth - so is that second person really less “wealthy” because he or she works for it? It’s a lot more complicated than that.

Even those who could in theory live off passive income, I would say most of those people today still work, either because they want to, or because they want to live a bit more extravagantly and don’t feel comfortable spending investment income on things they see as more “frivolous.” I think a lot of people here are picturing some old money WASP member of the leisure class who lives off trusts and passive income - a model that’s practically extinct.

2018 #s but based on Income, the 1% need to earn $422K+ but on avg earn $1.3 million. But it varies a lot by state.

In New York for example:

Annual income required to be in the top 1 percent: $550,174 Average annual income of the top 1 percent: $2.20 million

I'm not sure income is right metric though. Net worth excluding real estate might be better

Here are some net worth #s

The top one percent of household net worth begins at approximately $10,000,000. Ranking by net worth is a more useful way to determine the top one percent than using household income.

1%. Net worth: $10.4 million 0.1% Net worth: $43 million

Being in the 1% of wage earners doesn't make you wealthy or rich. It means you earn a lot of money.

As long as someone else can FIRE you and deprive you of the means of maintaining your lifestyle, you aren't rich or wealthy. If someone else can tell you what to do, where to go, and when to be there or you risk losing your livelihood, you aren't wealthy.

You aren't wealthy with all the money in the world, if you have bad health, that doctors can't help...or serious mental problems.

R27 what if you make a ton of money running your own company, but ultimately it’s at the whim of the market? Any major stock market crash of the past has wiped out some legitimately wealthy individuals, families and companies. Where do you draw the line I guess is what I’m asking, since almost all wealth is “dependent” on something.,..

No one is truly free, but let’s not get so existential we lose track here.

[quote] $200,000 and up is rich, as is owning property valued at more than $500,000. I hate rich people on the low end of the scale who vehemently deny that they are rich. At least the most wealthy people acknowledge that they are indeed rich. I'm all for soaking with higher taxes the people making above $200,000 a year, especially those making less than a million since they lie about being rich.

This argument is so annoying and not true. DL is obsessed with this topic and it gets cycled through often.

I was raised not to talk about money.

R32, I understand. We weren’t allowed to speak around rich people either.

As it should be, peasants. In fact talking around rich people is probably not invited nor encouraged. Stay in your lanes R32 and R33.