How wealthy do YOU think you are?

Hello Everyone,

A few weeks ago, Forbes magazine published its annual list of the wealthiest people on the planet. Some of those guys made billions, when the rest of us were busy trying to make a living, by hanging on to a job that was not guaranteed tomorrow. It kept me thinking, what is real wealth, I mean, is it only in terms of money and other physical assets, and I concluded that the real definition of wealth is ” the number of days, weeks, months and years that one can be able to sustain the lifestyle or standard of living that YOU are currently living (and without altering it) without YOUR job or employment.” Going by that definition, I think many of us, OK over 99% of the folks, would fall by the wayside. This is because, this financial crisis has just shown us how poor we are, I mean most of the citizens in the developed countries were living a life that was beyond their means and when the crisis hit home, it just showed us how incapable we are of sustaining the lifestyle we were living. Most people had accumulated all these unmanageable debt through debt, specifically credit card and mortgage debts. Don’t get me wrong here, there are debts that are good, especially if there are for assets that appreciate in value, but at the same time too much of it can be poisonous. By the look of things, a lot of people define wealth in terms of things, even though they are important, do YOU need them NOW, or can that new car wait for another year, or that overseas vacation can be done next year, the credit card should be used for paying important bills not paying other credit card bills. I think until we learn how to define true wealth, that is when we are going to experience financial freedom, and STOP BEING A WELL OFF, BUT A WELL TO DO PERSON.