While travelling on the bus back from the city today, Smallsteps asked me how much someone needs to be rich. A pretty common question I suspect from kids who are starting to have a better understanding that everything costs something. However, while common, the answer isn't very simple, because while it might be possible to give a dollar amount on what that might be (for instance Smallsteps asked if a million euros is enough), the idea of "rich" is hard to define at the individual level.
It led to an interesting discussion (for a nine year old) to consider what rich means in terms of life value, with us discussing what it means to have enough. I kicked off the conversation on how different people see money, where for instance, a person with one million euros would be considered rich, but another person with ten million euros might not consider themselves rich, and even a failure. Imagine if Musk was suddenly worth ten million dollars, which would be plenty for the vast majority of people in the world, but for him, he would consider himself a pauper.
And then it was about what kinds of things money can buy, and what people feel brings value to their lives in terms of an apartment, relationships or the ability to do what you want. And then, what you want, is also going to be dictated by how much money you have, because it creates an anchor. Like some people will be happy with a simple car, another with a supercar, another with a jet. But, most people probably wouldn't spend everything they have to satisfy their happiness on an item like a car. If a person has two million dollars, they probably won't spend it all on a two million supercar - they will make concessions. Instead, they will find their happiness in less, perhaps spending 100K on a car instead, and justifying their lower spend as happiness inducing.
Rich can be affected by many factors, and much of it lays outside of any particular dollar amount. Instead, it depends on a persons references to access opportunities they consider richness. It might be as simple as being able to go to dinner at a nice restaurant monthly without it breaking the bank for some people, or to buy the desired equipment and supplies for a particular hobby.
As we were talking and walking together, I sketched a scenario where we had to sell and didn't live in a house and instead had a small apartment. We would have to get rid of most of the things we have, and we would be far more cramped for space daily. Yet, in many ways, it would also improve our living conditions, because we would have less cleaning to do, less overheads, and probably spend more time together instead of each doing maintenance work. In some ways, we would be richer, in some ways, we would be poorer.
We can look at the "rich" of a country as being the top 10%, with the top 1% being very wealthy and the top 0.1% extremely wealthy. And while people can argue that "money doesn't make you happy", the fact of the world is that most of us want to do things that require money to do, whether that be eat good quality food, or travel, or buy our kids a toy they would enjoy. Sure, for most of us, we are pretty limited in our desires, but there are still financial needs, and they are getting harder and harder to meet, the more those wealth gaps keep growing. So, people have to keep lowering their expectations on what is going to make them happy, while wealth at the top becomes more extreme. It is pretty pathetic, really.
Whenever this kind of conversation comes up, a lot of people "auto-respond" with some kind of pithy saying about money not buying love or happiness, or whatever. But, it never really satisfies me as an answer, because at a practical level, that hasn't been my full experience. Not having enough money is hard, and it can become problematic in order to maintain good relationships when it is always driven by compromise and going without. Some people manage this well, many will not, but there is always going to be a variation on the spectrum on how people behave, and feel about themselves, especially if no matter how hard they try, they keep failing to provide for those they care about.
we might not need much to be happy, but we all need something and it just doesn't work in the current world we have been conditioned to be part of in particular ways, to say "be happy with less" when it is always becoming less. We are collectors at heart, and the weight of loss weighs twice that of gain, so when we are continually forced into losing, happiness and contentment can be difficult to accomplish, in the moment, or in the future.
At the end of the day, regardless of what happens throughout our life, the only thing we can really claim is our own, is our character. And the thing with character is, it has to hold up under pressure, otherwise, it is not character, it is just an act.
Acting rich, doesn't make it so.
What is your number?
Taraz
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