Are you wealthy?
It might sound like a strange or overly personal question. But “wealth” means so many things to so many different people. It can vary based on your current age, the generation you were born into, how your parents raised you or what your lifestyle looks like… among many other factors. Your notions of wealth may even change from year to year.
But it’s time we sit down and consider what the pursuit of so-called wealth is doing to us.
What is true wealth? What are we trying to achieve… and how do we get there?
The Price of Comfort
According to a 2021 Modern Wealth Survey, a person needs to have an average net worth of $624,000 to be “financially comfortable.” To achieve “financial happiness,” the average net worth gets bumped up to $1.1 million. And true wealth can be had at an average net worth of $1.9 million.
Now, all of these numbers are down considerably from those of the 2020 survey. Hardship will have that effect…
But even the lowered $1.9 million threshold is out of reach for many hardworking people.
Prior to the pandemic, the average net worth of a U.S. household was $748,000, according to the Federal Reserve’s 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances. That’s less than half of the amount the same population thinks is required to achieve wealth.
Still, that doesn’t begin to put things in perspective. In 2019, the median net worth (the midpoint of American households) was just $121,700. Feel free to check my math, but these numbers tell us that the vast majority of Americans live nowhere near the expected level for financial comfortability or financial happiness.
But I’ll bet that more than a few of them consider themselves wealthy…
Freedom From Finances
The question I wish that survey had asked is this: What does wealth mean to you?
Here at The Good Life of Tampa Bay, we want to help you add zeros to your bank account. But beyond that, we want you to live your best life socially, culturally, mentally and emotionally.
Because wealth doesn’t just bring you financial freedom…
It brings you freedom from finances.
Health is Wealth.