What does "rich" mean?

[xiphias]

It is a truism that almost nobody considers themselves rich. Mitt Romney doesn't think he's rich. Warren Buffet does know that he's rich, but he's an exception -- an unusually self-aware person who has pointed out that he's rich because he's very good at what he does -- but also because he had the unearned good fortune to be born in a time and place that financially VALUES the thing that he's very good at, under circumstances that allowed him to benefit from his skill.

But one practical definition of "rich", or at least, "rich enough", might be something like, "not worried about one's basic needs or security, AND having the wherewithal to deal with the unexpected without significant suffering."

Lis and me? We're in that category. Our car needs repairs. The money for those repairs is already in the bank. We had some annoyances on a recent trip that required money to fix. That money was easily available.

We have no kids, so our expenses are far lower than a lot of yours. Our house has two rentable apartments -- which reminds me, the downstairs is empty right now, so if you know anybody who wants to live in a two-room apartment in Melrose, MA, let us know -- which significantly defrays our mortgage expenses. Our net worth trends upward over time, mostly -- not EVERY month, but MOSTLY.

By MY definitions, we're rich. Or at least, rich enough. More money would let us do more stuff, true. We could go on vacations, go on cruises, things like that. We could give more to charity. We could buy cooler electronics -- upgrade Lis's laptop every year, for instance. Get a second car -- actually, we probably COULD get a second car if we really WANTED to. Buy a new bed, since our current one is about fifteen years old -- I got it after college -- and Lis isn't really that happy with it. Maybe get rid of the vinyl siding on our house and replace it with something nicer; build a wrought iron spiral staircase in the back to replace the current ugly fire escape; re-work how stuff is vented in the house to add enough width in our chimney stack to make the first floor fireplace actually usable; or, my REAL dream -- cover the car park in back with a big deck, maybe even one that was strong enough to turn into an above-ground LAWN -- THAT would be cool.

But we've got an appointment tomorrow to talk to someone about replacing our gutters, and our front yard is coming together, and I've got a raised-bed garden in which I can grow vegetables.

We don't NEED any of that extra stuff. We actually can pay for all the stuff we need, including unexpected emergencies. And THAT, to me, counts as "rich". Or, at least, "rich enough".

Comments

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

hear, hear!