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Your Take: What Does Rich Mean To You?

Posted By Jim On 08/15/2008 @ 12:13 pm In Your Take | 19 Comments

I listen to the American Public Media’s Marketplace [3] shows almost every day (this was before Lynnae, Steve and I were on last week [4], which was really cool!) and a few months ago there was a personal finance segment [5], in which a caller asked about annuities in their IRA. About halfway through the answer, the personal finance expert, Chris Farrell, describes “rich” as someone who has maxed out their IRAs ($5,000/yr) and their 401(k)/403(b)s ($15,500/yr) and still has discretionary income to contribute towards investments.

I thought it was a great definition of financially rich because it was both concrete (gives a set dollar amount and criteria) and financially responsible in its message (meaning rich people should max out their IRAs and defined contribution plans). Of course, rich is a much broader word than dollars and cents and I would extend that definition to include some comments about happiness, family/loved ones, and fulfillment (basically fulfillment of Maslow’s entire Hierarchy of Needs, in a sense), but I want to leave that out of the discussion for now).

I asked some bloggers earlier this week what it meant to them and here’s what they said:

I’d like to know, how much is “rich” to you?

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[1] Tweet: http://twitter.com/share

[2] Email: mailto:?subject=http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/your-take-what-does-rich-mean-to-you.html

[3] American Public Media’s Marketplace: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/

[4] Lynnae, Steve and I were on last week: http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/welcome-marketplace-money-listeners.html

[5] personal finance segment: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/05/09/getting_personal/

[6] Plonkee: http://plonkee.com/2007/03/29/what-does-being-rich-mean/

[7] One Caveman’s Financial Journey: http://www.thatonecaveman.com/2008/08/are-you-rich.html

[8] MoneyNing: http://moneyning.com/personal/would-we-really-choose-to-fulfill-our-dreams-once-we-reach-our-goal/

[9] Bible Money Matters: http://www.biblemoneymatters.com/2008/07/how-rich-are-you.html

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