<p>For most of us, these are pretty abstract terms anyway, especially those of us who don’t have nearly such assets and are happily struggling to get our kids through college with their UG degrees, often without any merit or FAid. Nice if you can slice & dice definitions & know people for whom they apply.</p>
<p>Wealthy>rich.</p>
<p>Shaq is rich.</p>
<p>The owner of the Lakers is wealthy.</p>
<p>Ok, Will never be wealthy either</p>
<p>You don’t need to be…</p>
<p>Is 1 million really affluent? An abundance of money?</p>
<p>Perhaps not. It depends on the circumstances. Somebody who has accumulated a million and is planning on retiring is probably somebody who made significantly more per year than they’re going to be able to draw out each year in retirement. Unless they live fairly frugally, they’ll be in trouble.</p>
<p>Depends on the needs of the individual and expenses. For folks who live simply, 1 million is a LOT of money, on which they could live comfortably for a very, very long time. For others, it would be blown through in no time flat. In HI, you could probably buy a decent home in a good area and have a LITTLE spare change.</p>
<p>If the person above has a million in assets to invest as well as a pension that pays for most expenses, then a million is a lot. If it’s for all their expenses and they aren’t bringing in any income, perhaps not so much.</p>
<p>If we use the 4% rule which in today’s climate is probably optimistic, 40k per year from the 1 million going forwards is not comfortable living unless you live in a very inexpensive place.</p>
<p>The rule of 4% withdrawals is flawed…one spends more in the first few years of retirement, then in the next 10… And i will agree 40k is not a lot, but considering few people have accumulated enough to withdraw that much, it is MUCH better then having nothing…</p>
<p>I don’t completely agree with your statement about spending more in the first few years. It depends a lot on your health. Healthcare costs go up as you get older, a lot of your taxes go up much faster than inflation (property taxes for example) and your federal taxes are going to go up a lot more going forward.</p>
<p>It also depends on whether you have to pay for housing or whether your mortgage (if you own) has already been paid off. Depends on whether you are paying down loans for any number of things, whether you have fully-paid vehicles, other sources of income, adequate insurance for auto, home, medical, etc. There are folks who live comfortably on varying amounts, including 40K. $1M or $40K/year is still MUCH more than many people expect to have in retirement, as many have no pension and far fewer assets.</p>
<p>Are you affluent if you have a mortgage that you can’t cover easily with other assets?</p>
<p>If you at least have a mortgage, that means you OWN something. It can be leased/rented (in whole or part) or re-sold and net you with something. There are lots of folks with McMansions and high payments. Many, many people in Hawaii have high property values but much of their assets are tied up in the value of the land and dwelling. Property taxes can also be extremely high.</p>
<p>$40K + SS, or maybe 2 x SS, is not so bad. If you’ve saved $1 million, you have probably maxed out on SS, which would give you $24K/year or more. Add a spouse, that’s not so bad.</p>
<p>Rich = makes a lot of money
Wealthy = has a lot of money, don’t need to work</p>
<p>Interesting article at the Washington Post about defense companies working on the legal requirements of doing mass layoff notices. There’s a requirement to notify 90 days before mass layoffs which I think would push things into early October. We’re talking 100s of thousands up to a million.</p>
<p>We need a bunch of miracles to avoid a lot of bad news in September and October.</p>
<p>Wow, had not heard/read about that. Lots of folks are retiring at H’s federal workplace, so they won’t have to be laid off, though they were given $25K incentives to leave & some took it. Will have to see how things shake out. S is employed by the federal government but hasn’t mentioned any looming layoffs. Hmmm–something to add more excitement to the summer & fall. :(</p>
<p>[Dumb</a> Money: Hedge Funds Can’t Even Beat Bond Funds - CNBC](<a href=“Dumb Money: Hedge Funds Can't Even Beat Bond Funds”>Dumb Money: Hedge Funds Can't Even Beat Bond Funds)</p>
<p>Filthy rich > $250 Million</p>
<p>Nice link Dstark, thanks. Remember earlier in the thread you linked to a graph showing the P/E for the whole market right before the 2008 crash - how it peaked mightily nd then dumped? Do you have a current chart like that - where do you go for your day to day on that one?</p>
<p>Can somebody tell me why the “market” thinks that there will soon be QE both here and abroad? GDP was better than first anticipated and I expect that the jobs number on Friday will show little change. It doesn’t seem like QE is in the cards anytime soon to me and I think the market is going to sell off this week.</p>