[Income] How much $ / year is your definition of "Rich"?

There is no dollar figure to being rich. It's like saying "what size is big?" Being rich is more about economic freedom than anything. A man with a small online business that provides him with around $250k of passive income will experience more of the perks of being rich than a corporate manager making $500k. It does not cost millions to take multiple vacations or go to exclusive events...it takes time.

 

I would consider myself rich if I did not have to work to maintain my current lifestyle.

 

This is the answer.

 

I have slept in enough culverts, overpasses, alley ways and staircases to know that what ever I do know will ALWAYS be considered rich.

 

Living comfortably is making your ends meet, as in having enough to pay your bills and putting money away for your nest egg (IRA, HSA, ESA, etc).

 

These two guys get it. I'm surprised more people don't understand it; it's not a difficult concept.

That corporate manager is likely working 60-80 hour weeks, has to travel for business 30-50% of the year, and is rarely 100% "away" from the job mentally. Doesn't leave much time to actually enjoy all the dough he's making. If he has a girlfriend, spouse, kids...his routine can lead to problems there too. (That said, there are jobs out there who pay high salaries and still allow for a good work/life balance...but they are rare.)

People who are very well-off got that way because of time, wisely managing and investing their existing money/assets, and (for some people) inheritance. Yearly active income is less important. This is why there are people out there with modest jobs (salary-wise) who have high net worth...and usually those people don't NEED those jobs; they work them because they actually enjoy doing the work or just want to do something to be productive in society. A nice active income ($100K+/yr) makes it easier to live comfortably and not worry so much about money, but even then that depends on lifestyle, where you live, single/married, whether you have kids, and money management ability.

I think it is smart to have a source of income outside of your main job (i.e. passive income). Employment is volatile and in many cases can be taken away from you at any moment. Even if your job performance is good.

 

The rich know how to use debt to improve their returns.

 

Okay, so when you say making more money than you need makes you rich...and you say that living comfortably is making ends meet, paying bills and putting money away....then you're saying that living comfortably = rich. Right?

 

Making ends meet -> income is equal to expenditures, no savings
Living comfortably -> income is greater than expenditures, savings less than IRS limits for retirement accounts
Rich -> Income is greater than expenditures, savings greater than IRS limits for retirement accounts.

 

I would consider myself rich if I had more than enough money to live off the passive income indefinitely. Given my lifestyle and spending habits, that would probably take about $1 million and a paid off house.

 

Royce White?

 

Some people are so poor that all they have is money.

 

Repped. I like this quote and have used it before.

 

Here comes a Sactown rant, but there are some serious nuggets of wisdom here, maybe a light bulb will go off for at least 1 of you:

While money isn't everything, there are a lot of threads on clutchfans talking about it, and for the most part it's all talk and very little understanding. We have a new thread in the hangout tonight about a 25 year old who's looking for something to do on the weekends "other than drink and go to bars". We have another thread asking about taking on a ridiculous $600+ dollar car payment and then you have this thread asking how much is rich.

Let me tell you guys a secret. The majority of the millionaires and truly rich people in this country who made it on their own were not hanging around bars and clubs every weekend at the age of 25 and weren't taking out financially irresponsible car notes. They were building something, they were building a business, building wealth, building a skillset, mastering something. Mastery is the word. While everyone else is off goofing around and trying to impress the jones' with new car notes, you master your art and then you profit.

http://www.amazon.com/Mastery-Rober...e=UTF8&qid=1391403526&sr=8-1&keywords=mastery

Here is a perfect example of a girl who sat at home and learned how to write novels and publish them to the kindle, she sold the books for $2.99 each and as you can see in this case study thread she started, her series blew up and the last she reported one of her books sold 8000 copies in one month. So this chick basically made over 20k in one month while writing Kindle books in her pajamas sitting at home while Outlier was out at the bars drinking cheap beer. She mastered her art which happened to be kindle publishing, no overhead at all:

http://www.thefastlaneforum.com/com...ished-fiction-ebooks.47885/page-5#post-327825

 

You're not rich until you don't have to worry about the following things.

Economic Cycles
Not having work
Political Changes
Business Competition

 

SacTown, you're a douchebag as always.

 

Fyi, i started with nothing in 2013, coming back to america from a third world country. Now i have a good job, my own place, my own car with no car note. No student loan, no debt. All this from scratch. I'm only beginning. You don't know me at all.

 

From my observations, your posts paint the picture of somebody who is moderately successful financially, but has lived a pretty unhappy life, and you do all you can to convince yourself that you lived your life "the proper way". There's always a lot of bitterness disguised as helpfulness.

It's some amateur psychology, but would you agree/admit that there's at least some truth to that?

 

If anything, wealthy people worry about this more because small businesses likely fit some niche market that can be subjected to any of these forces. An employee on a modest salary usually has a lot more security and on average is much less informed on all of the above topics.

 

Agreed! And the people who talk most about the "lack of social mobility" are usually the ones that take on the crazy car payment and hang out at bars on the weekend.