<p>If you have what you NEED, you are rich. It’s a struggle for me to remember this at times, especially since I have a number of friends who earn a whole lot more than I will ever earn. But the truth is, most of the world has far less than those of us who have what we need. </p>
<p>As far as what “class” is what, I have noticed that it doesn’t necessarily take any class to be rich … and you can exude class even if you are poor. ;)</p>
<p>Lol, Oldfort, “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere.” </p>
<p>As has been pointed out, rich and poor are relative terms. I spent July in sub - Saharan Africa. Leaving the airport in Capetown, there were shanty “towns” on the way to the center of the city. “Wow - these people are really poor”, I said to myself. Then we went to Zambia. The people and schools made those South African shanty towns seem luxurious. Then traveling through Arusha in Tanzania, where most of the roads are dirt, where there isn’t electricity, running water etc., I couldn’t believe how poor these people were even though the area was supposedly middle class. Finally, on the way to the Serengeti, I spent time in a Masai village. I entered one of their cow dung huts that sleeps at least 4 people, is half the size of my kitchen with a fire in the center for light, cooking and warmth. They spend most of their time, walking miles to find water for their animals and themselves. So it is all relative. Even the poor in the US compared to much of the rest of the world are well off.</p>
<p>“Even the poor in the US compared to much of the rest of the world are well off.” </p>
<p>Umm. Not what Mother Therese said when she visited parts of the Bronx. </p>
<p>I’ve visited those parts of the Bronx - there is no comparison - particularly today since over the last 10 - 20 years, there have been vast improvements in the South Bronx.</p>
<p>But are we talking about relative poverty and wealth throughout the world or are we talking about income, wealth and class in the U.S.?</p>
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<p>Some people seem to be able to spend almost any amount of wealth to nothing.
<a href=“http://www.sfgate.com/sports/slideshow/Athletes-who-went-broke-60424.php”>http://www.sfgate.com/sports/slideshow/Athletes-who-went-broke-60424.php</a></p>
<p>My dividing line is the length of time you can go without a paycheck. </p>
<p>Wealthy: they don’t have to work
Rich: up to a year
Middle class: no more than a month</p>
<p>Poor: payday lenders.</p>
<p>I feel to be more realistic they need to add one more class entitled top .01% as this is a dramatically different class than top 1%.</p>
<p>Rich = Passive income exceeds expenses + the cost of all the things you want/have to do.</p>
<p>If you don’t want the airplane, yacht and family vacation compound and your income (for which you do not ‘work’) exceeds what you wish to spend, IMO you’re rich. The secret to this formula is controlling the ‘wants’.</p>
<p>
This is probably one of the most ignorant statements I have read on CC in years. Words fail me.</p>
<p>Does living in a tent that gets thrown away regularly count as “living in your own home”? That’s where quite a few of the houseless in our state do. A number of them came with one-way tickets to Hawaii and found it is WAY more expensive to live here than they ever expected, others are working but still can’t afford to rent or own a place. We have highest (or one of the highest) costs of living in the nation, especially housing, food and transportation. The poor I know do NOT own any cars and walk or catch the bus, if they are lucky.</p>
<p>… or the homeless people sleeping in parks or on benches or under bridge overpasses. Wait, maybe when a homeless shelter takes them in to feed them or provide shelter from the bitter elements, that counts as having a “home”? b-( </p>
<p>I’ll play. From a midwestern perspective on income only.
$3000,000 and up is very rich
$100,000 - $300,000 is rich
$75,000 - $100,000 is upper middle class
$50,000 - $75,000 is middle class
$30,000 - $50,000 is lower middle class
<$30,000 is poor (unless you are single than maybe, just maybe you could call yourself lower middle class. </p>
<p>If you have a million in assets you are north of plain old middle class for sure. If you have any assets at all you aren’t poor. And there are plenty of people who are rich but have no class - as my father would say, they are ill bred conspicuous consumptors.</p>
<p>It’s not really important what you make but what you have. The analogy of how long you can go without a paycheck is good. We could personally go probably over a year without a paycheck but my brother probably couldn’t go more than a month - and he easily makes 4x what we make in the same area. He just lives much more lavishly!</p>
<p>I don’t think dollar amounts are a good measure. My husband and I are both employed, and we make a fair amount of money. Where we live, we don’t feel rich at all. But in other parts of the country or even state our money would go much further. </p>
<p>“I don’t think dollar amounts are a good measure. My husband and I are both employed, and we make a fair amount of money. Where we live, we don’t feel rich at all. But in other parts of the country or even state our money would go much further”</p>
<p>I agree about the dollar amounts being a poor measure. How about income after taxes, adjusted for number of people in the family and area of the country? I often think it’s not how much you make, but how much you save. If you have a ton of debt and high taxes, you may end up with less at the end of the month than someone who makes half your salary.</p>
<p>Part of this is how liquid the individual is, if they have say significant assets in illiquid assets like real estate, how does that affect things? There are folks who have nearly all their assets tied up in the dwelling where they reside. On paper, they may have a lot of assets but unless they move, take out a LOC or downsize, they really can’t access that equity very easily.</p>
<p>To me, if your expenses are lower than your income, you are doing well. If you can save a significant chunk of your income, better still. If you spend more than you make (no matter how high that is), you really need to reassess and figure out if there are any adjustments that can be made. You can be expanded to “your household.”</p>
<p>I agree that most folks think, “The guy who has more than me is RICH,” I’m just middle class."</p>
<p>At the risk of getting bashed up here I’m going to defend Miami’s perception of American poverty since a 12 year old who just returned from a mission trip to Guatemala made the same comment to me a few weeks ago. To quote her, “Our poverty is nothing like their poverty.” Of course, we have homeless people usually do to mental health and drug and alcohol issues but if you spend any time in your average poor neighborhood you will notice an abundance of cars, big screen TV’s, and no short supply of smartphones, either. I think this is what she was referring to. In other words, not the truly destitute. Rather, the poor. </p>