What does it feel like to be rich?

Feels good

Think about never having to worry about bills. Just set up automatic pay and forget about it. Hire a staff, a personal cook, a driver. It would be nice. Damn nice. Not to mention all the places you could visit.

Money may not buy you happiness, but at least you can be miserable in comfort!

The mindset of many wealthy folks is such that they are miserable whining creatures who are useless in a pinch and who can do no real hard work themselves.
Most of the wealthy people I know have mental issues which would make you guess at autism or asperger’s.

Rich how? There are a lot of ways to measure wealth.

I know many wealthy people who are happy, funny, generous and hate to get dirty. I love to get dirty. Wealthy is not a lifestyle I am interested in. I can be happy, funny, giving and muddy without a big bank account.

I’m working on it. I will let you know.

STRESS-free & much more fun. The world is much more an oyster with endless possibilities.

I feel money.

It will just make you more of who you already are.

@Dan_Lyons Sounds like you may know the rich from afar. I certainly wouldn’t get too close to you knowing how negative you view those with money.

okey dokey pokey

It depends on what is your definition of “rich” is.

I don’t consider a net worth of $5 million as “rich”.

$100 million is definitely getting in or about the “rich” ball park. And I have no idea how that might feel like. HA!

@Dan_Lyons Trust me, those two are genetic things not related to wealth, nor acquirable, You’re either born that way or you’re not. I didn’t become the way I am from being a billionaire.

Some non-rich are financially secure while some rich people are far from financially stable. So it really varies from person to person. However, the wealthy are a bit more likely to be out of touch with the common person, even if they used to be a common person themselves. But that speaks more to bad memory and lack of empathy, both of which are also found at lower economic brackets, that I wouldn’t say that rich people are utterly detached, especially since there are plenty of them who are quite altruistic.

I know a man (married with children) who struck good with a business that enabled him to purchase huge mansion, pool, multiple foreign autos, vacations, and luxurious amenities all around. On the surface, he is king of the world.

In reality, he and the entire family are at wits end. He called my friend last December to apologize for not having the extra cash enough to purchase a Christmas present for the new baby nephew. Couldn’t buy a gift for a baby because he was expecting a massive spring pool cleaning bill.
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I know woman who lives in a mansion and drives anything she wants a month at a time before trading it in for the newest latest greatest auto toy. She complains at every opportunity about how expensive “the little people” are for her styling and personal shopping. She is a terror to her employees, to the point of psychological abuse, and always finds a clever way of shortchanging their yearly bonus… just before leaving on vacation.
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I know a woman who lives in the best part of town and sends her children to private school. She wants for nothing. But it’s a struggle being in her presence because she constantly makes shit talk about people’s bad teeth and crooked noses. “Why don’t they take care of that”?.
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All of my clients are multi millionaires.

A small percentage of them seem to be genuinely satisfied with life. Most act like buddies when they need me. Most never act like real lifelong trustworthy friends. Some have.

Being rich makes you feel smarter and better than the rest of the world, and that feels good.

I don’t want to ever feel like that. Shamefully though, at times, I have. Even in times of financial struggle. But I was younger then. So I don’t necessarily think it’s a “rich” person thing.

@jerv ”...the wealthy are a bit more likely to be out of touch with the common person, even if they used to be a common person themselves…”

A dog always returns to its vomit

@gondwanalon It depends on what is your definition of “rich” is.
Rich:
(A) When you can earn 10 times more when you are sleeping than you can spend while you are awake.
(B) When you have so much money you cannot count it.
(C) If you had all the money you have it would not fit in the place you are living if cobbled into $1,000 dollar bricks of $100 dollar bills.
(D) If you don’t have it, it is because you choose not to own it, or had no time to go purchase it.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Those aren’t rich people; they’re common people with lots of money. The mindset is completely different. Common people tend to run into issues when they have more money than they’re used to, and thus sometimes wind up back where they were after a year-long shopping spree, but unlike the truly rich, they’re at least aware that not everybody can afford the things that a millionaire could buy with relative pocket change. They don’t get that, to those living paycheck to paycheck by necessity, buying a $15,000 certified used car instead of a $1,500 Craigslist car simply isn’t an option, and truly don’t get what it’s like to choose between rent or food. And I’ve even seen previously poor people that worked their way up lose touch.

Like when you were a kid & never concerned yourself where stuff came from, food/cars/holidays/household goods/gifts…that shit was just a given & greatly enjoyed

You find yourself around people always asking you for money, talking about how tough times are for them and dropping hints that you could help them, and always assuming you’ll pick up the tab.

I agree, single digit millions is not rich.

I’ve only truly “known” one rich guy, and he was a workaholic, control freak whose wife and one of his kids left him because all he cared about was his business. His other kid stayed behind because she’s just like him and hopes to inherit the business someday.

”single digit millions is not rich.”

@GloPro: I’d be willing to give it a shot. :^)

According to this financial advisor, making $500k a year is considered rich. When he breaks everything down, however, it amounts to having $7,000 a month for travel, food, entertainment, etc.

That’s one First Class ticket from the USA to Australia. If you were truly rich I don’t think you’d bat an eye at spending $14,000 on two plane tickets.

@Dan_Lyons: Wow.

Rich is a VERY relative state of mind. My foray into the realm of the top 10% was instructive on several fronts. For example, I didn’t even realize that I had arrived to inhabit so cushy a neighborhood. It had to be pointed out to me by others that we were “well off”. It was a peculiar situation, being in a position of not having to worry about money, and believe me, there are great lessons to be derived from the experience. It was in the heyday of the Reagan administration, and it took little reflection to realize what a chump I had been all of those years struggling to get by on a meager workaday paycheck. I came to see that the game is rigged, and decidedly fixed against those “on the ground working for a living”. The bitterness resulting from that little tidbit was tempered by the gradual realization of all the “need’ around me submerged in a sea of enormous wealth. For the first time in my life I understood the parable of the rich man, the camel and the needle. It was truly depressing to understand that the only way to possibly die with an enormous fortune, would be by ignoring the untold suffering of so many others. Then came the discovery that so many of the roads to riches, including my own, involve perfectly legal methods of harming others. Be careful what you wish for.

We are not rich, but have enough income that we do not have to worry about meeting our monthly bills, can afford to travel every year and we replace one of our two cars every four or five years, paying in full each time. If we were rich, we would donate larger amounts than we can now, and would set up a foundation to provide scholarships for local students wanting to go to college but have limited means.

@stanleybmanly Quite so. Fortunately, there’s this thing called “philanthropy”. That’s why Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are cool despite their wealth. Okay, maybe it’s out of altruism rather than an attempt to buy off the bad karma associated with the things one does along the road to riches, but it’s still enough to prove that just being wealthy doesn’t automatically make you a bad person.

@Bill1939 One of the biggest arguments in favor of our current “trickle up” economics is that all rich people are as charitable as you would be if you had greater means to do so. The flaw there is that they assume most people are as nice as you. In that respect, you’re richer than many even if you don’t have the disposable income to set up a scholarship fund.

oNe guy who won a HUGE lawsuit has been totally changed into a paranoid, bored rich ahole. Very sad.

Different set of problems, more control over the solutions. Broader menu of solutions, as well. Just working toward accumulating wealth with no other objective seems a bit droll to me.

I think a person would find it difficult to maintain impetus if there were nothing more interesting in the the life journey.

I think a better plan would be to find something you enjoy doing, study the said art, craft, or science, become qualified, and make it your occupation, You should do well, and I think it is a better recipe for happiness. If you make good investments with your discretionary capital (a home, tow year-old cars instead of new ones—or no car at all, buy quality items that last) you should be quite comfortable in a few years. We are fortunate that we live in countries with stable economies and we should take full advantage of that.