It’s much more “fun” to watch the stock market go up when you’re retired than go down.
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True, and although I’m not retired, it definitely is not fun watching stocks (or at least growth stocks) take a beating lately. But of course, at my age, that’s probably why I’m in growth stocks and retirees shouldn’t be! 
I think “a lot of money” is the greater of 2 million dollars or triple what you have.
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That is based on this survey: https://content.schwab.com/web/retail/public/about-schwab/charles-schwab-modern-wealth-survey-2021-factsheet_san-francisco-bay-area.pdf
Was a definition for “net worth” given for that SF article? I also looked in the pdf but didn’t how net worth was defined, but I might have missed it. Would home equity be included in that amount or not?
I wonder where home equity falls in that too, although many in the Bay Area can’t even afford to own homes but do have a lot of assets.
I am kind of surprised about those numbers though because considering how expensive that area is to live, if I lived there, I wouldn’t consider those amounts to be wealthy. I know what my son paid to live per month in a tiny studio and he’s single. Clearly having a few million is a lot of money but I don’t think I would feel wealthy if I had that. I guess I would have to look at that survey more specifically to see who the participants are and the avg age etc because if it’s 22 then yes, at 22 many people would consider that amount to be wealthy. So I guess it could be relative.
How much more money does someone have to have to be considered rich as opposed to wealthy? I’ve always wondered about that also. Do people generally consider wealthy = rich?
Since it was a survey, the money amounts were presumably what the survey respondents thought should be included in them, rather than a strictly defined calculation of net worth or something like that.
Since they did some demographic balancing, they probably included some lower and middle income people, whose ideas of how much money it takes for “wealthy”, “financial happiness”, and “financially comfortable” may differ from the predominant (high income) demographic of these forums.
The demographic balancing is a good point and makes sense.
I’m certainly not a high income earner and I get the impression that many people in the groups I’m in here have kids on financial aid or loans so they’re not either. My issue is just when I try to do the math and what one needs to live on I guess I don’t see how that is considered wealthy but when considering your point about diversity of demographics it does make more sense.
I don’t live a frivolous lifestyle at all and I guess I don’t really know what I would consider wealthy. I suppose maybe not having to worry about living paycheck to paycheck or having to go into my savings to cover monthly expenses on a regular basis and instead being able to accumulate wealth.
It’s all relative and there’s a big difference between feeling wealthy vs. being comfortable. We’re comfortable. I define that as we can basically do whatever we want (within reason). We continue to work because we think we should but that will change in a few years. I like the idea of doing a lot of European travel in retirement. We could and hopefully will do that. Still, I don’t see myself flying first class and staying in 5 star resorts. We probably could but that doesn’t fit in the mode of comfortable to me.
i consider older brother wealthy as he can and does do what I just mentioned (pre covid of course). Has about 5x what we have in terms of liquid net worth. He doesn’t consider himself wealthy as that’s for the guy who has 5x of him. It’s all relative.
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A friend in La Jolla said one needs $50M to be wealthy. His number keeps getting higher.
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We are definitely savers/plan for a rainy day people by nature. The only thing we ever financed are our houses. When H’s mom died young (early 60s) it shook us up a bit to try to have a bit more balance and not save all our trips/vacation until after retirement. Too many people don’t get that chance.
That said, I do worry about having enough if we do live a long time, need a caregiver, etc… It’s hard to know what’s enough! If I had a crystal ball and knew how long we’d live it would be much easier.
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I know someone worth more than 4 billion. I think most of us would be comfortable with that amount. 
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But most billionaires are workaholics and aren’t going to stop and enjoy just being “comfortable”. And then they may well end up divorced as a result (see Bill Gates) - a friend sent me a spreadsheet of the 10 wealthiest people and they now have 13 divorces between them (counting Buffett’s wife who left him but never got officially divorced). Personally I’ve seen that too - the friend who made hundreds of millions from a dotcom got divorced soon after.
So perhaps there’s a happy medium in the amount you need!
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Yep, money doesn’t equate to happiness or happy marriages!
@Twoin18 Buffett’s wife had a very good friend (best friend) who kind of became like his spouse - and his wife was fine with it. IDK if the two gals kept tabs. It was all a bit strange.
To me kind of crazy that the Gates will continue with their philanthropy together but not stay married - the marriage and keeping that going strong is a lot more important for them and their 3 children IMHO than working together on the philanthropy.
I know many situations where a marriage could not be saved because one spouse totally went off the rails - like deciding on another person (gosh another billionaire Jeff Bezos).
Just celebrated 42 years of marriage. We both have found internal happiness and treat each other pretty well. We do plenty of things separately; he is passionate about hobby and electronics. I focus on other things but come to his ‘big events’ and am supportive of what he is doing in his free time. He didn’t want to ever go on a cruise - ever, and when we were married 10 years I actually was on a cruise with my single GF who also wanted to go on a cruise. One cruise was it for me but it was fulfilling. Sadly single GF died young of a brain hemorrhage - she survived the initial brain bleed but in the window of caution she had another that did her in, on my birthday.
We are in a scary time it seems, but was reminded of the calamity of the 14th century with a world plunged into chaos. I purchased the book “A Distant Mirror The Calamitous 14th Century” by Barbara Tuchman (published 1978).
All I can say is, hang in, be watchful of paradigm shifts and how to keep the boat afloat.
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It is at least possible that people who divorce could stay cordial enough to do business, even though they may no longer want to be married to each other. Note that colleges that require the CSS Noncustodial Profile expect this, even though it may not be attainable for many.
@ucbalumnus unfortunately there is a point of no return it seems - and to me it takes a lot of work to prevent getting to that point. Once at that point, I would see it very difficult to put on any kind of ‘public face’ and any kind of ‘working together’. Certainly joint things for important things with the children.
Divorce is so harmful to children. Of course there are marriages with so much conflict between the parents that the kids do want out from that. Harmful from many angles. And not just my opinion - there is a book that has children of divorce telling their stories – and people who have read that book have said they would have worked harder in their marriage. Some have read the book and worked to save their marriage. “Primal Loss The Now Adult Children of Divorce Speak” Edited by Leila Miller (2017).
The breakdown of Marriages is a big force in the breakdown of many things in our lives - culture, social, financial, etc.
There are plenty of divorced people who can remain civil to each other. They do so as adults, good people and for the sake of their children.
Could we move on from this topic?
If we want to talk about divorce, we already have a post about the Gateses marriage dissolving
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“Healthcare is really the question mark for us.” - That could perhaps be the theme song for this thread.
When we planned for retirement 3+ + decades ago, we questioned whether SS would still be around when we retired. It is. But the expected pension (with medical coverage) is mostly gone.
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