I am rich all ready and this is why. At sixty-six years of age, I am still working as a professional educator. I do not take one medication. I have a lovely two-bedroom/two full-bath apartment that looks out between lovely tall pine trees onto a beautiful golf course.

My children and grandchildren are well and fully contributing to society as honorable people. I sing with a wonderful group of 150 singers for God and country. I love God through Jesus Christ more than anything, and His faithfulness to me is worth more than all the money and possessions the world can offer.

What makes one rich? In living a life of honor and high integrity, leaving the "stuff" and "possessions" aside, giving of yourself to help and care for others, and being a gift to this troubled world yields a rich and full life that is beyond compare.

One of the signs of being rich is that I can place my head on my pillow at night, knowing that I am loved by the God of the universe through Jesus Christ—the one who gave His life for me, and by knowing that each day I have done well. And for those days I have not done right or may have slipped and fallen, that He has more than enough forgiveness for me—and for you!

I pray that you will seek the richness only God can give you.

To me being rich means having more than enough money to cover all of your needs, and some of the wants. Having freedom from financial worries.
The excess funds, can be reinvested to grow and/ to help family, friends, and those in need. To be able to positively impact others.(I know you can volunteer or donate ones talents as well).

This to me is my definition of being rich.

Minhthe Luu --

That's only if you are still working. Most people that have a paid off house is also retired. So having a paid for home and no income but a pension. You can be poor. House rich and cash poor.

But as you said. It's not a dollar amount. As long as I have active income streams that support the basics and my lifestyle, with no crazy debt lingering. I am rich.

We may want to separate Rich and Comfortable in terms of amounts. I think you need $10M and up to be considered rich universally. Now to be comfortable, I think about $1M could get you there but you need a job to maintain your lifestyle in that case.

To me Rich means you can do anything you want without thinking too much of the amount it cost.

I liked Jeremy's post. I know it's kind of a shift of perspective from the question in discussion, but I think the issue with "rich" is twofold: How you would feel if you were rich, and how you regard other people you think of as rich. As to other people, I kind of have to keep my focus on myself (or it makes me covetous and a little nuts). For myself, my own attitude greatly affects my ideas about being rich.

Along those lines, something that has been very useful to me over the years is realizing that I can pretty much always say truthfully, "I have more than I need." I say this a lot. I try to spend money where I think it will be appreciated (i.e., local mom-and-pops instead of big-box superstores if possible, self-published musicians, making a "donation" to shareware developers) and to make donations when I can to organizations that work on problems I think are important. I started loaning a little money on Kiva (www.kiva.org), which is a micro-loan website catering to individual entrepreneurs in the third world. That sort of thing. But I also don't worry about money too much, because it doesn't help anything, and not-worrying helps so much.

Done the math.

Assumes:
Long-term 5% yield
Paying off balance of mortage at retirement
S/S remains solvent enough to pay the committed amount

I was a lot closer when the dow was at 14!

I have a net worth of app 3.2 million dollars and do not consider myself rich. I believe a net worth of app 5 miilion would fit my definition of rich .BTW I drive a toyota corolla.

does "staff" mean what i think it means? if so, this thread is funny. if not, i'm confused.

the term "wealthy" for me means that i have enough money right now that i can have an extremely high quality of life without the need to work a single day for the rest of my life. as far as objective meaning... who knows (or cares)... top .1%?

To be rich (I agree with Alex) I need 100 Million

To live comfortably, i would like:

1. my house paid off
2. my summer house in LBI paid off
3. my winter house in Vermont paid off
4. 1M in the bank