I think about this a lot. Where I live, a small Hispanic village, I am considered "rich". I have a regular job, a car, a telephone and enough money to buy wood and propane to get through the winter. Sometimes I imagine I'm on a small hacienda in Mexico...then I would be REALLY rich with my hot running water, adobe chicken coop and an income. Back here in the states I am at the economic level that allows me to take a low-income deductible on my income tax, but I still feel very "well-off".
I could go in to the riches of having dear friends, my health, an education etc. but in this case, I'm more interested in what financial levels constitute wealth.
I worked my way through college in the UC system, right at the end of affordable tuition, 1974-78. I was always struggling, but it was doable. I paid $250 a quarter for a full load, could rent an apartment from 150-250 dollars, and had a choice of work-study jobs, plus the usual pizza-joint/ hamburger jobs. I came out with no debt, which was great b/c I then started my next 10 year career choice of waitressing, which does not produce much excess income.
Nobody came around with great credit card deals, cheap mortgages or any other financial teases in the 80's. I couldn't get a credit card if my life depended on it. My sister, on the other hand, 9 years younger than me, got a Mervyn's credit card in High School! And I have watched her be the victim of credit cards for the last 20 years.
Fast forward to me getting my R.N. license. All of a sudden, I was the darling of every credit card company in business- I was given credit lines of $30,000 right out the gate b/c now I had a profession.Everybody wanted a piece of the action.
As an odd aside, the New Mexico Board of Nursing refuses to accept personal checks from nurses when renewing their licenses- too many wrote bad checks. Go figure.
A regular paycheck was a new thing for me- an absolutely solid chunk of money every 2 weeks, by which you could begin to make plans...I had bought my property at that point and proceeded to aggressively pay it down- voila, 8 years later, I had no mortgage...it was the first time in my life that I had any "excess". That monthly nut for a place to live was gone and money could actually accumulate.
Because I had lived "poor" for the last 16 years, my first focus was to build up a "cushion", b/c there are so many choices that come up that involve either the car repair or the vet bill or the collapsed ceiling. I hated the feeling of being victimized by my own poverty.
Then came the question of how much (cushion) is enough? This a very personal number as a dear friend pointed out- my number was around $3,000. That seemed like it could cover most contingencies. Her number was around $10,000 dollars. These were our amounts that would allow some sense of security- if only in our own minds- but I had never had that level of security before, and I truly enjoyed being farther from the edge than I had ever been, definitely good for your health.
Because I own my home, BECAUSE I HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE, because I have a market desirable profession, I feel very "rich", but even now, as I look around at the current state of the economy, I know I'm not invulnerable...that would take millions.
So to me, being "wealthy" has a lot to do with feeling secure enough to weather various storms and not go under, being able to be generous, be able to grocery shop without a calculator, and maybe even fix all the feral cats that have wandered into a little piece of "Kitty Heaven".
I'm wondering what rich means to other folks out there...