At What Point Do You Consider Yourself to Be Rich?

All this talk about being rich has made me wonder what does it truly mean to be rich (strictly from a monetary standpoint)? I myself will say or hear other people say phrases like "I wish I were rich like [insert name]" or "If I were rich, I would..." but what does that really mean though? Do you measure wealth through net worth, amount of cash one has access to, which tax bracket a person is in, or how much a person spends a day/week/month? Just exactly what dollar amount does one need to cross before society can consider him or her to be one of the high class? Are you middle class when you have a net worth of $999,999.99, but move up to high class when you reach $1,000,000? Since this blog is about me moving my way from rags to riches, I think I'd better get a precise definition of what it really means to be rich, that way I know what I'm aiming for. Of course, this definition will differ from person to person, but I'll try to layout mine in the most detailed way possible.

(Keep in mind that this post is written from pure spontaneous thought; I haven't given this question any previous thought. In fact, prior to writing this post, I've never even heard this question. )

Ok, I'm going to start off with a broad, messy definition, and see if I can't whittle it down into something nice, narrow, and neat. Let's start with:

To be rich means that I will have a lot of money.

So far so good. Hmm, I think that the words 'a lot of money' is too arbitrary. Let's change it something that is a bit more tangible/measurable. 'Will be able to purchase whatever I'd like' seems like a good replacement, but the thing is, people who have access to credit cards can pretty much buy whatever they'd like (although they shouldn't), but they're not necessarily rich. So, I'd better tack on some words that'll eliminate that bit of unclarity. I thinking tacking on 'with my own cash' will seperate me from people who have high credit limits. So thus far we have:

To be rich means that I will be able to purchase whatever I'd like with my own cash.

We've made quite a bit of progress right there. I think now is a good time for a break. 10 minutes should be good enough, no? Go ahead, use the bathroom or grab a bite to eat or whatever, I can wait. We still have a long way to go.

[Waits]

Ok ready? Let's continue. I've been thinking about replacing the phrase 'purchase whatever I'd like.' There are lots of people who can "purchase whatever they'd like", but they are by no means rich based on their financial statements or by society's standards. I mean, if all a person really likes is toilet paper, and he goes out and purchases toilet paper, then he is technically buying whatever he likes. So, I'm going to remove that phrase and replace it with 'spend over $10,000 at once.' I'll also throw on 'at anytime that I want' and 'without skipping a heart beat' for good measure. After a little bit of grammatical restructuring, we've got:

To be rich means that I will be able to spend over $10,000 of my own cash at anytime that I want without skipping a heartbeat.

I think that definition is pretty good as it covers a lot of aspects that most would consider are limited to the rich only, but I want to take the definition even further. I want a definition that is indisputable from almost every angle, so I'm going to narrow it down even further. What else do wealthy people have in common? Ah ha! I've got it. There are people that are so rich that they don't have to go to work. But then again, there are people who don't work who are most definitely not rich, and there are also people who don't work (they got fired from their jobs) that can spend over $10,000 of their own money at once without missing a heartbeat but won't be able to sustain that lifestyle for too long. I'd better change the wording up to cover all of my bases. Well, I'm a big fan of passive income, but some people would consider managing passive income to be work, so I can't just say passive income outright. I'd better attach something else onto that for a more complete definition. I wonder how this would look:

To be rich means that I will be my own boss for any job or business that I choose to do, if any at all. I will also be able to generate enough passive income that will allow me to spend over $10,000 of my own cash at anytime without skipping a heartbeat.

It's almost there, but not quite. I can technically fulfill this definition, but not be considered a millionaire. I know some people would not consider you to be wealthy unless you were at least a multi-millionaire. If I said I was rich, and they ask "Are you a multi-million/billionaire?" and I would say "No" and they would turn around before I get to give them my definition of a person that is materialistically rich. So, just to please all of you millionaire minded people, I'm going to add on a special conditional sentence just for you.

To be rich means that I will be my own boss for any job or business that I choose to do, if any at all. I will also be able to generate enough passive income that will allow me to spend over $10,000 of my own cash at anytime without skipping a heartbeat. I will at all times maintain a net worth of at least $2 million where at least $1 million of my assets will be strictly cash or checkable deposits.

We have certainly come a long way from our starting point. I think that this description of wealth covers pretty much every reasonable aspect a person can think of when thinking about money. So until further notice, whenever I say rich or wealthy or any variation of those two words, this is what I mean. I don't think that this characterization of wealth is too unreasonable; there are plenty of people who have attained this, or at least have come very close. Well, now that I have a better idea of what I mean when I say I'm trying to make my way from rags to riches, I think I'd better start working harder because I am very far away from being what I call rich.

What do you guys think? How does your definition of wealth (remember, materialistic wealth only) differ from mine? I'd love to read all of your different opinions and see the different point of views out there on what kinds of thresholds that people have to pass before they can consider themselves to be rich.