Rich Life Stories – Defining Wealth by Income, Net Worth & Lifestyle (P3)

Rich Life Stories – Defining Wealth by Income, Net Worth & Lifestyle (P3)

If you pick any 10 people at random off the street and ask them all whether they’d like to be rich, chances are all 10 will say yes. But if you ask those same 10 people what they mean by “rich,” you’re likely to get 10 different answers.

One person, perhaps, would say that a million dollars is enough to make you rich, while another would say that it takes 10 million. Still others would give answers that weren’t expressed in dollar terms at all. They’d say that wealth means having a big house, a boat, and a private jet – or maybe just a comfortable home and good health insurance.

But the truth is, we don’t all know what “rich” means, because it means different things to different people. And if becoming wealthy is one of your personal financial goals, it’s important to think about exactly what wealth means to you. You need to have a clear idea of what your dream of wealth looks like – what kind of rich person you want to be – before you can come up with a plan to make that dream a reality.

Wealth as Life Satisfaction

It appears that, for the millionaires surveyed by UBS and Spectrem, wealth isn’t just about how much money you have, or even about what you do with it. Income, net worth, and lifestyle are all ways of measuring wealth, but they aren’t the essence of wealth. The real point of wealth is the freedom it can bring you. Wealth means being able to spend your days the way you choose, rather than working to earn more money or worrying about how much you have already.

Looked at in this way, wealth means life satisfaction – the ability to live the kind of life that makes you happy. The most important thing about this kind of wealth is that you don’t have to be a millionaire to achieve it – rather, you only have to have enough to meet your personal needs. If you can live a life that satisfies you on an income of just $15,000 a year, then $15,000 a year is all it takes to make you rich.

It’s even possible that in some cases, having too much money can actually make it harder to live a life of contentment. In the Spectrem survey, for instance, about one-third of respondents said that a rich person’s life is “carefree,” but an even higher number – closer to 40% – described it as “complicated.” And while 28% said that wealth brings “more happiness,” an equal number said that it meant “more responsibility” – and only 20% said that wealth brings “more fun.”

For some people, perhaps, the whole process of making money, investing money, and keeping track of how much they have turns into an end in itself. They get so absorbed in it that they lose sight of the real purpose of wealth, which is to bring you satisfaction.

One rich person who clearly hasn’t fallen into this trap is – once again – Warren Buffet, who once said in an interview that “the ultimate luxury [is] really getting to do what you love to do everyday.” In other words, you don’t have to be a millionaire to be rich – you just have to be living the life that you choose.

Final Word

As you can see, wealth has many different meanings. So if you aspire to be rich, you need to start by figuring out just what “rich” means to you. Once you know that, you can figure out the best way to work toward that goal.

If your ideal of wealth is to bring in a specific amount of income, you can look for jobs that bring in that amount of income, and then determine what you need to do to qualify for those jobs. You can also look at ways to bring in additional income through investments or by starting a side business. If your object is to have a specific level of net worth, start crunching some numbers – figure out how much you need to save each month, and how much you need to earn on your investments, to reach that goal in a specific time.

If your dream is to live the lifestyle of a rich person, think about what aspects of that life appeal to you most. Home in on what specific trappings of wealth you want – owning a big house or a boat, dressing in high-fashion clothes, or being able to spend months traveling around the world. Then start searching for information on how you can live that dream on a reasonable personal budget. Clothes, travel, and even houses can be yours for less if you know where to look.

Finally, if your dream of wealth is a dream of freedom – of living the life that really matters to you, free from worries about money – then start by figuring out just what your ideal life looks like. For example, if you have a dream job, but it doesn’t bring in much money, maybe you can still have that job if you can just figure out a way to cut your living expenses down to a bare-bones level. Perhaps for you, living a truly rich life means spending less, not more.

What does your dream of wealth look like?