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Is being rich the same as being wealthy? Nope. Being rich means you have a high income, live well, perhaps lavishly. Being wealthy means you have accumulated growing assets.
You can be rich, but not wealthy and you can be wealthy, but never rich.
The secret to accumulating wealth is accumulating stuff- stuff that grows in value – not luxury cars or designer clothes or even tattoos. My wife’s engagement ring has increased in value ten fold – I don’t count that as wealth though. 😉
Houses fit the bill, other real estate too, stocks and bonds, sometimes precious metals, maybe art for a very few people. Establishing a business can be a winner.
If you are wealthy, your stuff works passively for you as it grows in value or generates income all by itself. We are not necessarily talking billions or even multiple millions of dollars. A persons wealth is relative to means and lifestyle. Some people of modest means have become quite wealthy.
For many people their home is their primary asset growing in value. Over a third of our net worth is our homes. While there are expenses involved is maintaining a home, the value keeps growing. We paid $159,000 for our vacation home in 1987. We did several renovations, but not nearly equal to its current assessed value of $780,000.
How did I accumulate wealth? Nothing spectacular for sure, no special skill, no great job out of college- no degree until I was age 35, no inheritance, no insider information, no extraordinary risk taking. Just plugging away year after year little by little.
If you receive unexpected money – a tax refund, extra OT work, a bonus, inheritance, $0.25 found in the sidewalk-yeah I really do, spare change, etc. invest as much as possible for the future.
I have a friend who started as an electrician and now owns eighty rental properties. A golfing buddy ran multiple businesses over the years and faced several near bankruptcies. He sold he last business two years ago. He has a condo in NJ, a condo in Florida and a house at the Jersey shore. Both these guys are in their 80s.
Contrary to popular opinion, you can build wealth even while working for others. It may not be make the headlines wealthy, but financially secure wealth.
Plan on a long journey, buy a house, start investing even in small increments, save as much as possible. But invest, not just save. Invest in what you understand like the large companies via index funds. Reinvest all distributions – dividends, interest, capital gains.
Be patient.🤑
The last line is very important. Someone said, “patience is a virtue”. And that’s true in accumulating wealth. Like a fisherman, the joy of waiting for the next big catch is rewarding. But the waiting game could be long and exhausting.
Hmm another thread that depends on the OP’s individual assignment of semantic meaning. I’ll not bite thanks.
Accumulating wealth has different meaning? Are you making it all too complicated?
No but you’ve led off with your own arbitrary definition of what “rich” is and then opined on what popular opinion is in order to state something that is probably utterly obvious to most readers.
Not an arbitrary definition. I researched the definition from various sources and what I used was common.
Maybe you need to cite sources better.
OED defines rich as a synonym with wealthy.
You might enjoy this article on rich and wealthy. https://www.kiplinger.com/personal-finance/how-much-money-do-you-need-to-be-rich-survey-reveals-wealth-goals?utm_term=B18E0FB0-B936-4482-9238-798712604ED4&lrh=fa01fe4fce11ad34e8ab1f348b38c2bc20ab1204165b1ca186f9159604a8d101&utm_campaign=612C3EA0-A804-46AC-A9B0-4B75E8B9DE17&utm_medium=email&utm_content=8B5B303F-12AA-457D-978E-F765A25EA94A&utm_source=SmartBrief
Silly semantics. Perhaps you should have said without ever living a rich lifestyle instead of without ever being rich.
I don’t think so, if I earned $1 million a year and lived that lifestyle and spent every penny as earned I would be rich by most measures, but I wouldn’t die wealthy. If I earned $80,000 a year was prudent even miserly in spending and invested wisely, I may well die wealthy having never been rich.
I see a very logical difference.
I was simply saying that I think a debate that was muddled by differences in how one defines rich could have been resolved if you had clarified your concept of rich. To state it more clearly, I was suggesting that it would have better to have titled your post You can accumulate wealth without ever living a rich lifestyle.
“Slow and Steady Wins The Race” is derived from Aesop’s fable “The Tortoise and the Hare”, and is guidance for much in life – including the accumulation of retirement savings, or wealth in general.
Sure is, but it seems the rush to have it all now is clouding the view of many people. I sure didn’t have at 35 what I had at 75.
What? Nobody wants to build wealth?