When I was a kid, a good friend of my Dad's at MIT was Harold Edgerton, the inventor of the strobe light and lots of other things, (he got a Nobel Prize in physics in the 60'). He was cofounder of the scientific company E,G&G. He was wealthy and always drove a VW van.

Millionaire Next Door describes ordinary millionaires. I believe the Ford Crown Vic is the favored car, because it provides the most weight per dollar.

By the time you hit the nursing home, it's time to start liquidating the capital. Your million would sustain a $9000 monthly for a little over 9 years. Besides, Medicare kicks down some as well.

Let's hope none of us has to live in one of those hell holes for 9 years.

My idea of wealthy: all my time my own, not having to sell any of it to an employer. Enough money where the money itself can do all the work, without me having to pitch in.

Emanuel

To me, wealth is being able to freely live the life you want to live without having to worry about the cost or perhaps not ever even see the bills.

Of course the absolute numbers required to fulfill that definition vary by orders of magnitude from one person to another.

I feel that I have relatively modest "needs" , but nevertheless reaching that point would require a few $mil to reach a zero-debt status with two homes, a few nice cars and some other misc. toys, kids school funded, etc. Then a few $mil on top of that to generate enough income without capital dilution to fund upkeep, medical expenses and general living/travel costs.

Not a small achievement and obviously not many of us will ever reach that status let alone the "mega rich" or beyond levels.

Some say that no amount of money is "too much". Personally I think that after some point it is nothing but unadulterated greed, and I would have to think that some of the ultra-rich folks are no more happy or stress-free than those of us who bust our a$$e$ trying to pay the bills and not find ourselves living on the bus stop bench.