Define What it Means to Get Rich

In order to get rich, it is first necessary to define what is meant by wealth. Wealth for each person can be different. We can all agree that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are wealthy but we don’t all agree as to how much money one needs in order to be considered wealthy. Dictionary.com (2009) defines rich as “having wealth or great possessions; abundantly supplied with resources, means, or funds.” That’s pretty subjective. But each of us must define wealth for ourselves.

I have known people who feel that they will be wealthy once their home is paid for, because they can live off of social security and have almost no bills. I have known others who have $15 million in assets and live in an old, tiny house because they feel they are poor. These people have a very different definition of what it means to get rich.

I tend to think of wealth in terms of your ability to live off your assets. For our purposes, I will define a wealthy person as someone who can live comfortably off of less than 5% of their net worth. Net worth is simply the value of all your investable assets minus all your debt. (In this case, the value of ones home is not included in “investable assets”)

As an example, someone who can live comfortably off of $50,000 per year in income would need a net worth of at least $1 million, not including their home in order to be considered wealthy by this definition.

Of course, $50,000 per year is not enough money for you to buy a Ferrari and a beach house. So you need to assess what you think is enough money and use that as your definition of wealth.

Whatever your definition of wealth is, the ideas on this site can help you achieve it. But you should clearly define it in your mind before setting your own goals.

Of course, your definition may change over time. And you may never get rich according to your definition. But I’m confident that if you use the ideas on this site, you will get closer to that definition than you otherwise would. This site may not make you wealthy by your definition but it will get you a lot closer.

Ethics

In order to get rich, you must first have considered the morality of such a quest. There are many cultures that believe that people who get rich are evil and the pursuit of wealth is an evil undertaking

There are some that believe that wealthy people must be immoral and unethical in some way in order to get rich in the first place.

If you are a person who believes these things, I don’t presume to be able to change your mind here.

I would only urge you to consider the fact that most people remain poor all of their lives because of habits and ideas that they were taught growing up. Examine your own beliefs to see if some of them go against common sense and reality.

Unethical People

There are many people in the world who have become wealthy through unethical or immoral ways.

There are plenty of people who can easily justify stealing, swindling, conning or manipulating people out of their money in order to get rich.

These people tell themselves that they are doing it for their family or for their company and they justify the worst kinds of behavior.

I want to stress that these people are the minority of wealthy people. Also, these people are often not wealthy for long because their behavior eventually catches up with them.

Morality of Most Wealthy People

The majority of wealthy people get rich through innovation and honest hard work.

In fact many of these people actually help hundreds or thousands of people throughout their lives by providing financial assistance, jobs and products and services to those who want or need them.

Wealthy people create jobs by starting or investing in companies. They provide financial assistance by loaning money to others or by putting money in a bank that can then loan the money.

In fact these people tend to provide innovation that helps all of mankind by raising the standard of living for all of society.

Furthermore, wealthy people give more money to charities which can help the poor or less fortunate.

Be ethical and use your moral compass in your pursuit of wealth and you will be doing a good thing not only for you and your family but also for the rest of society.