Reply #91: This is why I keep saying a million in assets isn't rich

[Warpy]

but if that person is able to sell the house and retire to a place with cheap real estate and invest the proceeds wisely, he'll have a decent income to see him through retirement. That million in assets means he's potentially comfortably middle class even after retirement if he can unload his house for that kind of paper value.

However, if he's 52, he's going to have to do that sooner rather than later, because 55 is the average corporate expiration date, that birthday at which the PTB decide either you move into top management or you are let go in favor of a green kid right out of school. Most hardworking corporate types are let go. That leaves 10 years before Medicare kicks in and 7 years before he can apply for reduced social security benefits.

Likely he and his wife will end up working a patchwork of dead end, low paid jobs to pay his medical costs until they're 65 since the real estate market is not going to improve soon enough for them to realize the full paper value that house once held and allow them enough of an income to retire on.

The admission price to the rich man's club is considerably higher and starts at about ten million. At that entry point, he's got access to the rich man's infrastructure through richer friends who use it all the time, but full access starts at about double that kind of money.

Just don't let anybody tell you a family with a million in combined assets is rich. They're not.