Let's look at the income gap from the other side. Wealthy: "Having millions doesn't make you rich"

[ck4829]

More than four out of ten American millionaires say they do not feel rich. Indeed many would need to have at least $7.5 million in order to feel they were truly rich, according to a Fidelity Investments survey.

Some 42 percent of the more than 1,000 millionaires surveyed by Fidelity said they did not feel wealthy. Respondents had at least $1 million in investable assets, excluding any real estate or retirement accounts.

"Every person in the survey is wealthy," said Sanjiv Mirchandani, president of National Financial, a unit of Fidelity. "But they are still worried about outliving their assets."

The average age of respondents was 56 years old with a mean of $3.5 million of investable assets. The threshold for "rich" rose with age.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110314/lf_nm_life/us_fidelity_survey

More and more people are living paycheck to paycheck, and yet these people don't feel comfortable? And Republicans and tea whiners want these folks to solve all our economic problems for us? Crazy.

[madmax]

1. When I read these articles I can't help but wonder

WHEN IS ENUF, ENUF??? How much freakin money do you need? As far as having money for ones old age... what are you going to DO? Planning on scaling Everest are ya? You're going to need a comfortable chair, some saltines and tea.

[bobbolink]

3. Clearly, ENUF cannot be seen from here.....

We are very frightened people, and our very isolation from each other, which increases our sense of unease, creates this desire for money and the illusion of safety it brings.

[madmax]

22. Hey Bobbie good to see you back.

The one thing these rich idiots can't seem to grasp is that money no matter how much can not buy ones health.

Without health one has absolutely nothing.

[bobbolink]

23. It doesn't buy you guarantees of any kind.... safety, kind families to retreat to,

loyal friends, etc.

None of what truly matters in life.

When one woman I know was going through a very hard time, no income, etc., and got treated like crap by affluent people, and I said to her, "You don't deserve that", she replied. "No, I don't. But you know what... I still have my heart, I still have my soul."

Money not only doesn't buy heart and soul... it usually destroys them both.

Good to see you, too! Keep preaching it! :yourock:

[Mumble]

2. Tax the filthy rich...

...and leave the middle class and lower class alone.

[CrossChris]

4. Proof that over a certain amount, it's just compulsive hoarding.

At some point, that needs to be addressed.

[grasswire]

16. yes, and taxation is a proper INTERVENTION

Compulsive hoarders must be helped by an intervention. Tax them for their own good! They are destroying our American family.

[Egalitariat]

24. Didn't sound like hoarding to me. They're afraid of running out of money. Hoarders don't run out

of money.

[CrossChris]

25. Hoarding is driven by that nagging fear that they will run out one day.

Anyone worth more than a few million who can't get comfortable has to be ruled by fear, IMO.

[kestrel91316]

5. Greedy money HOARDERS. These people have a disease.

They are sick sick sick.

If you gave me a cool million I would consider myself SET FOR LIFE. Would never have to worry about money again. Because I know how to spend it.

[bobbolink]

9. And that disease is FEAR. As we become more isolated from each other, as we need each other less

because we rely on cell phones and other gadgets in times of emergency, rather than on each other, we know that we are more and more alone, and that makes us fearful. Human beings instintively know they depend on each other. If they know they don't have that, they need MONEY to relieve that fear.

[pnwmom]

19. How would you pay for nursing home care if you needed it

for a decade or longer? And how would a married couple with a million in savings afford long-term nursing home care for both of them? (By the way, nursing home care is increasing at the rate of 6% a year.)

People with few assets use Medicaid to pay for nursing home care, and people sometimes spend down their assets to become eligible. But people with money know they might have to spend it all on care during the last decades of their life.


http://www.boston.com/business/personalfinance/managingyourmoney/archives/2010/11/nursing_home_co.html

Most Expensive

Alaska = $687 per day
Connecticut = $376 per day
Hawaii = $364 per day
New York = $350 per day
Massachusetts = $329 per day

Least Expensive:

Louisiana = $141 per day
Minnesota = $154 per day
Arkansas = $155 per day
Missouri = $157 per day
Kansas = $158 per day

[jwirr]

21. I doubt they need more than 7 million to pay for the nursing home. nt

[pnwmom]

26. 7.5 million is the level that most respondents said felt rich.

So I assume they'd agree with you.

But half of the families had investments less than 3.5, and many closer to only 1 million, and those families do worry about the costs of nursing care.

[jwirr]

28. I'm sure they do - I lived in a high rise for seniors for a while and they

were having a discussion about just this and none of them were anywhere near millionaires. I explained to them about spending down their money to qualify for care but this is not an option for a millionaire. Just think what he/she would have to do to get rid of that money!

[pnwmom]

30. Some people do things like giving their house to their children,

but there are downsides to that, of course.

I remember reading about someone in NY, where the nursing costs are about $350 a day (even more for some patients with dementia). Several years of nursing home care had put a $600,000 dent in their combined savings, and the healthier spouse was worried that the money would run out and he wouldn't have anything. It's really a tragedy when seniors in this kind of situation find themselves choosing between divorce or losing their life savings.

[kestrel91316]

32. I would avoid nursing homes. Though Medicare pays to keep the elderly destitute in them.

I would prefer to stay in my home and die quietly (hospice/Amish style) when I begin to fade away or become incapacitated.

[The Doctor.]

6. What this means is that they are living excessively,

whether they know it or not.

If they think that 3M can't last another 20-30 years, then they're burning through wealth too quickly.

[jp11]

8. Be fair they are accustomed to living on a million a year they can't go back!

Not in America, the rich must go up and up, they need that wealth to create jobs.

[pnwmom]

27. People with investments of 3.5 million don't have incomes of a million

a year. At an annual interest level of 5% (which is much higher than conservative investments get these days) there would be $175K in income on 3.5 million. There is a huge difference between those wealth levels.

[pnwmom]

18. Or it means, Doctor, that they're worried about the cost of nursing care,

which can easily cost over a hundred thousand dollars a year (and is increasing at an annual rate of over 6%) and can be needed for decades.

[HughBeaumont]

7. Meet the REAL "Nation of Whiners".

The Steamroller wealthmonger fuckos who need a refresher course in humility for their astoundingly unappreciative outlook at their fortunate lot in life.

We let them get away with it because of the vast number of appeaser "Look Out Fer Nummer WON!!" fuckos who think they're going to be rich someday.

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. Here's the deal.

If government has no role in guaranteeing security for its citizens, then they'll have to fend for themselves. To indemnify one's self from every imaginable catastrophe, many millions are required. The problem is that those infinite millions don't exist, and if they did, they would be sequestered by the really rich.

The alternative is pooled resources, and if there is anything that americans are NOT about, it's that.

[pnwmom]

20. +1000. n/t

[spinbaby]

11. This is why we need a better social safety net

Even millionaires know that if they live to 95 and need long-term nursing care, their money is as good as gone. My husband and I hope to have a million or close to it when we retire in about a decade and we're very aware that this amount may not be enough for a comfortable retirement. Without a good social safety net, you need many, many millions to really be secure.

[pnwmom]

17. Exactly. Nursing home costs are a huge concern to older Americans. n/t

[Drale]

12. If your dead and empty inside before you have money

then your going to be dead and empty inside with money as well. Money doesn't fix your mental problems, and while yes its nice to have to fix and financial problems you have, its not going to make you a better person.

[w4rma]

13. And giving people with mental problems so much power doesn't help the world, either. (nt)

[grasswire]

14. I read a study saying that $17 mil is when they stop worrying...

...and consider themselves rich. Prior to 17 mil, they think it can be transitory.

[pnwmom]

15. These people probably feel "comfortable."

They just don't all feel "rich."

For people approaching sixty, it's easy to imagine all a couple's assets being used up in nursing home or other care. People with no assets rely on Medicaid for nursing home care, and some people buy insurance which helps to some degree. But a couple with assets might live long enough to see those assets drained in decades of nursing home care.

[L0oniX]

29. Maybe tar and feathers would help them feel better.

[pnwmom]

31. I think all people, even the wealthy, feel less secure in an

economic downtown.

When you know that your stock portfolio can lose half its value in a few days, or that that house with the jumbo mortgage could suddenly be underwater, it's probably hard to feel "rich." Plenty of wealthy people have lost all or most of their assets in a short period of time. On the other hand, if they invest very conservatively and live long enough they can see their assets eaten up by inflation. I'm guessing that it's the lack of security that makes even some very wealthy people not feel rich. That, and comparing themselves to much wealthier people.