We’re rich. We travel (not to exclusive places) and we watch shows on Pivot and Link (TV channels). Plenty of kids at my school are on free or reduced lunch. We’re definitely rich, so we do what we can to help others both locally and with smaller organizations in the world. It’s a significant part of our budget, but we seldom give to large organizations as I rarely like how much of our $$ goes to the people at the top.
Oh… we earn <100K. It’s more than the median income in my county, so yes, we’re rich. Plenty around me would like our income.
In my fantasy world we’d win one of those huge lotteries and spend the rest of our lives making a difference in the world, but considering we rarely play the lottery, it’s even more of a dream than those who play it often as finding the winning ticket has even lower odds than buying it.
Even knowing my fantasy will never come true, we’re pretty darn content with our lives. Leaving the rat race helped with that. Wandering the world can put a bit into perspective, even if a lot of the wandering is on certain TV channels.
Felling insecure about your financial position doesn’t mean you’re not wealthy. There are millions of people in this country near retirement age who haven’t accumulated significant net worth and aren’t secure in their jobs either. It would take most of them a decade to earn what a 1%er earns in a year. At the college where I work there are people nearing retirement age who would need 20 years to earn what a 1%er earns in one. Not feeling wealthy doesn’t mean they’re not.
I have never understood this. We were never near the 1%, though maybe for a few years 5%. We full-paid two college educations. Perhaps we could because beyond college tuition, we lived more like the 50%.
If you can’t full-pay on a 1% income, you’ve made other choices. Which is fine. But to say that most in the 1% can’t full-pay without blinking seems farfetched. (according to that site linked above, the US top 1% is now over 400K.)
@garland When I wrote that post, I didn’t realize how much in salary it really took to be in the top 1%. For some reason, I thought it was closer to 150-200K. I think its these families who feel they are in the “donut hole.” By the way, I don’t agree and don’t like that attitude at all.
The only reason I can see a 1% family feeling this way would be if the salary increase is relatively new. They may not have had any time to build up savings. Maybe for a decade, they have been pouring every extra penny into starting and growing a business. In that case, there might not be 70k per year, per kid set aside for college.
I like the articles that suggest that net worth is a far better measure. However, if your net worth is tied up in the value of your family business, it isn’t really available for things like college tuition. I can see a family that, on paper, is worth 10million still not feeling rich. Espeically if that family is working 12 hours a day to keep the business afloat.
If a certain long-gone poster was still here, he’d say he was “dirt poor” despite his 6 figure + salary, deferred compensation, investments, private bankers, expensive meals, vacations, wines, higher end car purchases, etc. Sometimes it’s all relative.
We are" 1% ers " Completely self made. Actually sandwich generation so don’t feel “rich” as we take full care of parents and kids. Have assisted parents since I was 35. I’m 54. But we can so we do.
Know many who do better financially. I guess they are the top .01%. I think about this a lot. Yes I would like to have their wealth (so I could retire, volunteer more, etc.) but I’m definitely not willing to do what they did to get that wealth. Yes some inherited, but most I know have worked quite hard for it. 100 hour weeks for a long time. Constant travel for years on end. Many corporate moves.
I don’t think many without understand what it takes to get to that level. It’s a combination of intellect, intensity, drive, timing, good fortune. I used to have that drive and was on my way. But once I got to a certain level (own my own business) , I wanted to trade my time and effort for enjoying my family, going to kid’s events, being present, etc. Very hard to do both well.
Objectively, we live way more similarly to our middle class friends than our affluent ones. Have a nice house, pay full cost private college and have taken some nice trips but on a day-to-day basis, basically the same. No nanny, no cleaning service, no fancy cars, no frivolous spending.
I’m not sure what percentage my parents are in, but they’re up there. Dad grew up in a tiny town in southwest Texas. They didn’t have electricity until he was 9 or so. He was the first kid in his whole family to go to college. He worked his tail off and became an international authority in his field. Along with being a professor at UT for 52 years, he consulted for many, many companies. He is very thankful for their wealth and tends to give a lot of it away. My sister’s family has struggled over the years, through no fault of their own, and he has been very generous with them. I am thrilled that he and Mom are traveling a lot. Sometimes he tells me that they’re spending my inheritance and I say, “Good! Have fun!” Of course, I benefit, too - after our trip to South Africa with them last summer, they are taking me to London next summer, the week of my birthday.
This bears repeating. Some people didn’t always make 1-5 percent money. It’s easy to say , hey they make 300k they have made other choices that’s why they can’t pay. It’s not that simple.
We didn’t make serious money until our second was in college and we had to dig out of a hole first. There is a difference between making 300k in your 20s than not making that type of money until your forties.
We “only” had maybe “top 5%” income for about eight years, starting when oldest was in high school, ending when youngest was midway through college. Were in high educational debt before that.
So I still don’t get it, I guess. seriously can’t imagine 300k in any decade, I’ll never see that, yet I still know that I am better off than most people. Imagining i’m not because of insecurities would be churlish on my part.
Right now, our household income is, according to an above post, less than one fifth of New Jersey 1% level. But that still puts us above 60% of state median. So I know that most others have less. How can I fret about my income knowing that?
This is us. Leaving the rat race and desire for “things” was the best thing we ever did in hindsight. Being able to feel content is incredibly stress lowering. We’ve loved all the family time we had growing up and our kids have told us (now that they are post college) that they’re thankful for the choices we made. I was concerned that they would feel deprived once they met their wealthier classmates - compared to here where they are relatively wealthy - but no. They told us many of their wealthier classmates feel jealous of them for all the things we did together (and still do when we can) as a family.
We have enough income (at < 100K) to do that with what expenses we feel are necessary. I feel considerable compassion for those whose birth lottery haven’t let them make such a decision - hence - we try to support them as much as we can with our extra. I’ll admit to being thrilled that our lads share our priorities and aren’t chasing the almighty dollar with their plans in life. Enough to live comfortably, yes, but I suppose the definition of comfortable varies.
Wife’s grandmother, holocaust survivor, lives very frugally “why go out to espensive restaurants when i can make it better at home” type of person. She and her husband owned a liquor store for 40 years, (worked 6 days a week) and live/own a 8 unit apartment complex in West LA (they bought it “cheap” in the early 1980’s.). They never owned a traditional home their whole life, drove old used cars, used coupons frequently, etc. their only splurge was giving money to their family as needed for education and donations to their temple. Her net worth is 1% and you would never know it. I’m absolutely sure she feels blessed but certainly not rich.
We are probably the 1.5% and NOT completely self made. A lot of people, schools, organizations, and Tufts made my husband’s success possible. They saw a very bright and focussed poor Latino boy and invested time and money into him.
We had a discussion inside another thread a few months ago about the concept of “enough.” Once you can say you have “enough” you are rich. For some people it is never. I think @Creekland further up this page would probably say they have “enough”.
edited: whoops this started a new page. Creekland is the page before
edited again: We pay a truckload of state tax but that is ok. This state made it possible for the son of a migrant worker to achieve the American Dream. Just paying it forward to the state and to the charities is fine by us.
However, if someone who had previously been earning $70k recently got a pay increase to $400k, but continues to live a <$70k lifestyle, wouldn’t s/he be able to easily fund even a full pay college because the extra $330k per year (even after taxes) will cover the full pay college with plenty left over.
Rich to me means living the lifestyle you want off the assets you have without dwindling them down. And you don’t have to worry about it. Then when you die, your kids inherit. That is wealthy to me.
We are grateful to be financially comfortable enough that I donate my time and energy to nonprofits to help others. It is wonderful to be able to give back and help others.
We have always lived below our income — when there is more income, it’s a lot more comfortable and we gave more to share and spread around.
Compared to many people we’d be considered rich, but not wealthy. We’ve always been surrounded by people who have much more, or who at least have spent a whole lot more, but haven’t felt envious. Curious at times, I admit, about how or why they spend the way they do.
“Rich to me means living the lifestyle you want off the assets you have without dwindling them down. And you don’t have to worry about it. Then when you die, your kids inherit.”
And I will add, "And the IRS gets nothing or next to nothing. "
