by Ken Vincent, Featured Contributor
THERE ARE A LOT of ways that one can be rich. Many friends, supporting family, health, and a dozen others. But, when the term “rich” surfaces, most people immediately think in terms of economics. High income, and high net worth type of rich.
When I was a kid, rich was pretty easily defined. A millionaire was rich by anyone’s standards. Of course we didn’t know any millionaires, but we assumed there were some out there.
Today it isn’t so simple. Some idiot has come up with the definition that to be rich one has to have $1 million that can be invested to earn a return. That is exclusive of house, cars, furniture, etc. That makes no sense to me. If one has that amount invested but their house is under water by $600,000 then they are not a millionaire, much less rich.
Of course the terms “rich” and “poor” are relative terms. Rich compared to what? When I was a kid we had no central heat, no running water, and an outhouse. Pretty poor by most standards. However, we always had food on the table, so to someone that didn’t eat regularly we were pretty rich.
How do you define rich today? Is a millionaire rich? How do you even define a millionaire today? Do you know some millionaires, and if so do they think they are rich?
