A recent post at Budgets Are Sexy (how rich are you?) passed along a link to an interesting site: Global Rich List.
On the site, you simply type in your annual salary, along with the country you live in, and it shows you where you rank in terms of money earned in the whole world. It’s a cool little tool with an accompanying site with lots of interesting facts about finances from around the world.
A scary little stat on rich people:
The world’s 225 richest people now have a combined wealth of $1 trillion. That’s equal to the combined annual income of the world’s 2.5 billion poorest people
Here’s another scary stat from the website:
$2400 could buy you a second generation High Definition TV OR schooling for an entire generation of school children in an Angolan village.
With these two facts in mind, I wanted to ask the Studenomics’ readers– how rich do you want to be?
Do you want enough money to fulfill you every want and desire?
Do you want that 4,000 square foot home with that BMW on the driveway? Do you want to cruise the world on a luxury ship? Do you want to enjoy the finest dining that this world has to offer? If you fall under this category then that’s completely cool. A lot of recent college graduates will likely fall under this category.
Do you want a million dollars or do you want million dollar experiences?
I would probably fall under this category. I often lean more towards new experiences than I do money. Sure I want to have enough money to live comfortably and have all of my bills paid on time. I would rather sacrifice owning expensive items (home, clothing, cars, etc.) to have amazing experiences.
Do you want enough money to pay the bills and live a fulfilling life?
I’ve had discussions with readers that simply want to be debt free and spend life with their loved ones. If you know someone that falls under this category, please never judge them. I must admit that I personally am a bit too greedy to fall under this category. I would love to live a debt free life, but I would want a little more out of life as well.
Now I turn it over to you guys– how rich do you want to be?
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I’ve always thought that if I had a big windfall, I would spend as much time in school as possible. While I would love to have a nice house and car and be able to vacation to exotic places fairly often, I think if that money came without a commitment, I would just go back to school.
That’s an interesting take on it. Most people would say “screw school, I’m rich!” Just curious, what type of courses would you take? Would you enroll in a program your passionate about or a lucrative program?
First I would go and get my MBA preferably from NorthWestern. After that I would complete a Ph.D in Economics. It’s pretty much an extension of my current education but I would take a wide variety of classes from anthropology, physics, and more specialized classes from business and economics that wouldn’t directly help me acquire a graduate degree.
I would definitely like to be comfortable, but I wrote a whole post about why I didn’t want to be rich. “Rich” connotes social responsibilities that I’m not ready to take on. (When we have more money, I will devote some to charity, but when you’re wealthy, people are constantly asking.)
And, honestly, I don’t think I’d want to be rich enough to have every single desire fulfilled. I like to not have to work myself to the bone to reach my goals. But if everything is handed to you, how do you know what’s valuable and what isn’t?
I prefer the idea of having enough money that we can take nice vacations without scrimping too much, having enough money to have a decent size house (3-4 bedrooms plus a mother-in-law suite for my husband’s mom) and spend a little more than we’d like to admit on clothes or other baubles.
I would definitely travel more if I were a little richer. By travel, I mean I would actually go to historic and interesting destinations, as opposed to resorts down south lol.
Although I sometimes think I want to have enough money for my every whim, once I put everything into perspective, (which you’ve also done here very nicely), I would want enough to live comfortably, experience those million dollar moments and maybe have some left over to donate to those less fortunate.
I agree with the notion of giving back. I’ve been pondering ways I could give back more to my community lately.
For retirement, we’re aiming for “enough money to pay the bills and live a fulfilling life” with a splash of “million dollar experiences” every year or two.
That’s how we live now as well, but we have to work to do it. We’re on track for saving enough that our retirement will be exactly how we live now minus the full time job and adding in more hobbies and volunteer work.
I pretty much want to be rich enough to do everything I want within reason. Most often the limiter is not money but time. I have enough time and no matter how much money a millionaire has, he will never have more time than me.
In terms of million dollar experiences, I think it’s no fun to own a plane if you don’t know how to fly it or a mega yacht you don’t know how to sail. In terms of sailing, it is a lot more fun to competently handle a small boat than being ferried around on a big boat; even if you own it.
So in that regard I am more in favor of “1 year” experiences than “1 million dollar experiences”, that is, experiences where it takes a year to learn to enjoy them than experiences where it takes a large sum of money to go as a spectator/passenger.
The “1 year” theory is really interesting. I myself have considered doing this, but am still undecided on what I would do to occupy my time for a full year.
I just want enough to pay my student loans! That’s the first thing I would do. Then pay off rent for awhile and pay off my parent’s mortgage.