Rich is when $65k is a rounding error in your annual income.
“Inheriting the wealth is the easiest way…”
I dunno, @dstark, for many that would entail getting adopted into the right family as an adult. Not the easiest thing to pull off…or I guess you could marry into it."
I go with neither as the easiest way. Someone you love might have to die for it to be inherited, and you might have to put up with someone you don’t love to marry into it. And the in laws.
How about winning the lottery (anonymously) as the easiest way!
We have a nice (not jaw dropping ) house, nice cars, sent/sendng kids to private colleges (no FA or loans), have good insurance and retirement savings. We have never had to worry about affording necessities and can afford luxuries such as cleaning service, travel, etc.
Compared to most people in this world and even in the U.S. we are rich. I feel very fortunate,.
It’s all about perspective. In 1973 when I got my first job, I earned $6800 a year…and boy did I feel rich. I loved in a very low cost of living area, and earned enough money to do anything I wanted to do. I earned more than either of my parents. I had my own apartment, a car, new clothes, and could take a few trips a year. I saved money too.
To be honest. I’m not rich now…but I’m comfortably upper middle class…we have no financial worries…and that is how we gauge it.
In many cases, it depends on the speaker/writer.
A speaker/writer commonly self-defines himself/herself as “middle class”. Anyone with significantly more money is “rich”. Anyone with significantly less money is “poor”.
Over a year ago, I shared my personal taxonomy, and it still applies to me:
Wealthy have at least one jet
Very Rich have a Netjets card and use it liberally, seldom flying commercial
Rich will fly private if they are going in a group, but still need to rationalize it
Very Comfortable fly Business Class, occasionally First Class, never Coach
Comfortable flies Coach, but often upgrades for longer flights
For the record, we are comfortable.
@busdriver11 I’ve been trying the lottery route but it hasn’t panned out yet.
@thumper1 Reading your post in #23, made me think of Mary Tyler Moore in That Girl 
I was thinking how fortunate I was this week because we had an unexpected house repair that was many thousands of $$. Did it suck because there are so many things I’d rather spend that money on that would give me more joy? You bet! But I felt fortunate that I could incur the expense without a panic and I know that isn’t true for the majority of people.
@IxnayBob I’m Comfortable but Comfortable Yankee Frugal (known to some as cheap) so its Coach for me. 
@doschicos, I have never forgotten the manager of one of my kids’ hockey teams who couldn’t scrape together $1000 to fix her van and had to be picked up enroute to a tournament. Two adults working, two kids in public HS, free hockey for the kids (because she was a manager), but a lifetime of bad decisions.
@IxnayBob I think its my lifelong fear of never wanting to be that ^ person that has made me live below my means and a saver/investor. To live one unexpected bill away from a financial meltdown would stress me out. BUt, I’ve also been fortunate to have parents who invested in my education and gave me a strong work ethic and I have benefitted from decent health and a supportive spouse. That’s kind of like winning the lottery, right?
What did I miss…I thought Marlo Thomas was in That Girl.
Oh, you’re right. I guess the Mary Tyler Moore show then. You know, young professional living in the city. I guess they both work for what I was picturing.
At my first job, I netted $185 every two weeks. My rent was $180 a month. I did not feel rich.
"Over a year ago, I shared my personal taxonomy, and it still applies to me:
Wealthy have at least one jet
Very Rich have a Netjets card and use it liberally, seldom flying commercial
Rich will fly private if they are going in a group, but still need to rationalize it
Very Comfortable fly Business Class, occasionally First Class, never Coach
Comfortable flies Coach, but often upgrades for longer flights"
I don’t know about classifying people in that way. You can buy an Eclipse jet for as little as 600K. A friend of ours was a test pilot on the Eclipse, and said they are a lot of fun to fly. Don’t know if that would mean you’re wealthy, just interested more in aviation than in getting a fancy boat or a vacation home.
I almost always fly first class (business when going overseas), but only because someone else is paying, I get an upgrade, or it’s a very small amount of money to pay for the difference. I like luxury, but only if it’s either at a bargain rate or if it’s free to me.
And even if I was in your category of wealthy or very rich, I’d still prefer to fly commercial over private jet. Flying on large jets/major carriers is far safer.
Comfortable is a nice place to be–not worrying if one major unexpected repair or bill of 4 figures will put a severe crimp in your budget for months or not.
Making sound financial choices and living well below your means for a while can help you get to comfortable.
I don’t know people with private jets or who fly in them. I used to fly 1st class when we had amazing deals on them and basically didn’t pay much more than coach, but that was 10-15+ years ago. I like economy plus but generally can handle economy as well. I am fortunate that I am frequently upgraded.
I know two billionaires personally, and none of them owns a private jet. In fact, one of them drives 2007 Honda Pilot.
I do not think having $100k/year in income and $500,000 in assets is rich.
Especially, for assets, $500,000 may be not enough if he/she is within a couple of years of his/her retirement age (say, 63-64 yo.) I think a couple need close to one million before they could possibly be considered by most as moderately rich (assuming that they will have the social security income but no pensions here.)
The annual salary for my first job was about $34,000 to $35,000 (before tax.) This was in 1983. I guess I was doing more than fine back then. However, the assets of my family of two was very low, maybe only about $3000 (half of it in my car.) Right before I got the first job, we basically were living in an almost empty apartment (provided by the school) which was for the married grad student family. We even slept on the floor (but it was not that bad because it was in a warm California area), and had no furniture. No wonder we felt quite “rich” when I got that job. I think we bought our first bed two months after I had started on that job.
We chose the college of our child regardless of its price tag. (We were considered as a full pay family for his first two years, mostly due to our assets. So we had been working hard to accumulate the assets over 20 years and the assets was significantly reduced after having paid for many (8) years of our child’s education expenses.)
What is the percentage of households in this country that are rich?
I guess I am not comfortable. I fly coach when I fly. I have never upgraded.
I don’t have this big need to upgrade. Maybe I am smaller than the rest of you.
The average American does not get on ANY plane during the course of a given year, and may only fly once or twice in his life if at all.
But those people are invisible to you all, priding yourselves on how “middle class” you are by only flying coach.
I’m not middle class.