Poll: How much would you have to make a year to be "rich"?

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: Thegonagle

Originally posted by: Ameesh
being rich has nothing to do with how you spend it, if you are making 300K and spending it all every year your are still wealthy but maybe not fiscally smart.

No! Income and wealth are not synonymous. If you take home $300K per year, and spend $299,999 per year on crap, you are not wealthy. You have no wealth except for one small green portrait of George Washington.

who knows what the hypothetical guy is spending it on, maybe he's buying rare coins or realestate or whatever, the point is he/she spent 300K where other people couldnt because they didnt have it to spend in the first place.

i think we are gonna have to agree to disagree on this one.

 

[Thegonagle]

Originally posted by: Ameesh

Originally posted by: Thegonagle

Originally posted by: Ameesh
being rich has nothing to do with how you spend it, if you are making 300K and spending it all every year your are still wealthy but maybe not fiscally smart.

No! Income and wealth are not synonymous. If you take home $300K per year, and spend $299,999 per year on crap, you are not wealthy. You have no wealth except for one small green portrait of George Washington.

who knows what the hypothetical guy is spending it on, maybe he's buying rare coins or realestate or whatever, the point is he/she spent 300K where other people couldnt because they didnt have it to spend in the first place.

i think we are gonna have to agree to disagree on this one.

Well, I didn't think you were talking about "spending" on real-estate or rare coins, which I would actually consider investing, because it appreciates in value.

Now here's the deal: Wealth = value of assets (liquid, investment, pot of gold buried in Montana, the resale value of everything in the house if you want to get nit-picky, etc.) minus
liabilities, AKA debt.

And income is just income. Nothing less, nothing more. You can use that income wisely to help build wealth, or you can, as you say, "enjoy it."

So of course I see your point. But in the hypothetical case that someone spends every penny (potentially on payments for $100,000 cars, a huge house, a huge lake "cabin," a gigantic powerboat, a Harley or whatever, a pair of jet-skis, credit cards, etc.), once that income is spent, there is no wealth if the liabilities exceed the value of the assets. Zero, nada, zip!

 

[blahblah99]

It depends on where you live.

$100K income in California means a lot less than $100K in income in central US.

And $100K income (US dollars) in Vietnam means you're rich.

 

[DorkBoy]

$150,000-$199,999

 

[UNCjigga]

Originally posted by: Riprorin

Originally posted by: Jigga
By the time I'm 30, I'd imagine $100,000 a year would be the average 'good' salary of someone my age with a college degree. So in a dual-income home, I'd peg $200,000 annually as the new benchmark for 'upper-middle class'...if there is such a thing anymore.

Just wondering what you are going to be doing at age 30 to earn 100K.

There's a thousand different things I could be doing. In my case, most likely some mid-level marketing exec position in a big city.

 

[NogginBoink]

I second the Millionaire Next Door as recommended reading for everyone here.