If you only have $3.4 million, you’re not wealthy. Real wealth now starts at $10 million.
Of course, you can live very nicely if you have $3.4 million, but you can’t spend too freely.
agree, true wealth is probably closer to 10 million at the moment.
If you move somewhere else besides NY. At 2% per annum that returns $200,000 per year, a nice living for sure, but that gives you a car and a mortgage, a fair upper middle class income. But wealthy you are not. You could spend $1M on a house and save the mortgage. It's a nice house in a nice neighborhood, but not "wealthy" and now you have $180K for all the other expenses. And inflation is running a lot more than 2%.
$500k for an average American house leaving $2.9M to invest which returns $58k per year at 2% above inflation - if you can find somewhere to get that. You are not living very nicely at all. Maybe buy a reasonably good care - another $50k and there goes more of your capital.
Yep, $3.4 million isn't that much today. I know quite a few with a net worth of that living in a cheap area and they're still watching their pennies shopping at Wal-Mart and Dollar General.
It’s all about cash flow.
If you don’t make enough to cover expenses then you are slowly becoming poor.