Your definition of being “rich”
Comments(0) When i was growing up I considered myself poor. I realized i wasn’t the poorest kid in the world, but I wasn’t provided with alot of the things some of my friends and classmates were. I grew up in rented houses or trailers, my parents had used rusted beaters for the primary car, some years we didn’t have a phone or cable, I never had the newest stuff, or name brand clothes.
Kmart lay-away was a good thing, as if something was put on law-away, I just new that eventually I would get it, if my parents ever paid it off. Money was always tight, especially towards the end of my mom’s pay period. Every other Friday was payday, so by the end of that 2nd week, food was tight and payday was like Christmas - that meant groceries and maybe a few bucks for me and my brother to do as we please.
I used to think my friends or people I knew were “rich” if they had the most popular clothes and toys, their parents lived in nice houses in subdivisions and drove rust-free cars that were brand new. I always wanted to be able to buy the baseball cards, or bike, or just have a phone, or just be given a few bucks when asked, or just be taken to school or practice in a nice car that didn’t announce its presence because of a hole in the muffler. Anyway, you get the point. As a kid, I just wanted to have what I perceived all my friends and kids I wanted to be like had. Just new and nice stuff.
The amazing thing now is that I realize that the majority of those things I thought I always wanted, because it would mean that I was “rich”, well, for the most part, I don’t really care if I have them. Don’t get me wrong, I live a good life and have nice, new possessions. But, I also realize that now, the majority of my friends and people I know, have the exact same thing also.
The sad part to me is that I realize most people buy these possessions to be like their friends, or like their co-workers, to live a similar life as their neighbors, or as people they know, regardless of how much money they actually have. I mean, isn’t this the basis for the current mortgate crisis and isn’t that why people don’t save anything? People make $100, they spend $200. They buy that house and those cars, essentially to be like the others - and that’s exactly what happens, they become like everyone else, in debt with tons of financial obligations. Just because people have a nice house, and the new cars, and go on these nice trips, and “appear” to be “rich” - they aren’t. They are in debt, they are one mishap away from being financially screwed and needing to buy more debt to survive. All they have bought, is more years worth of stressful working to pay these bills. They will never get ahead, but, they will live as good a life as the next person.
I wonder what % of the people I thought were “rich” when I was a kid, actually had money. I now know those possessions don’t equal wealth. For the majority of americans, those possessions equal debt. But hey, that’s the american way.
Personally, I will feel like I am “rich” when my net wealth grows at a pace that not only sustains a life style for myself that gives me all I would ever want, but also grows itself, to ensure that I only get “wealthier”. So I won’t work because I have to to sustain my lifestyle, I work because it’s something that I choose to do. Based on where I am at today, I have already reached the hopes I had when I was a kid, I have everything I thought I always wanted. So, I have had to re-issue new goals, I don’t want to be on the hook to anyone for anything. Once I am at that place, well, then I will be rich.
