I don't know if it matches the "actual" definitions, but to me "rich" is a lifestyle. It means not worrying about having enough to do what you desire to do. "We

I don't know if it matches the "actual" definitions, but to me "rich" is a lifestyle. It means not worrying about having enough to do what you desire to do. "Wealthy", on the other hand, means never having to work again if you don't want to (or if your priorities change). By those metrics, I'm (sometimes) rich, but I'm not wealthy. I'm working on it. My financial goal in life is to build a process that generates enough of a positive income stream in perpetuity to take care of my family, and to be able to leave that process to my descendants. Note that this doesn't necessarily require billions (or even millions) of dollars to attain. I've severely cut my recurring expenses, and categorize them into "essential" and "discretionary". For instance: I spend a lot of money right now on high-speed Internet access. I have 300Mbps at home (Gigabit wasn't worth the cost to me), an iPhone X, and an iPad Pro, all with LTE. My 10-year-old has a 6th-Gen iPad LTE, and my wife has a Samsung Galaxy 10+. Monthly costs for all of that is ~$650 / month... and it's entirely discretionary. I can afford it, but I could also turn it off tomorrow if my financial situation were to change. Meanwhile, my mortgage is $850 / month, and that's "essential". My utilities combined are $125 / month, and those are "essential". Add in food and such, and I'm right at $1,400 / month of total essential expenses - I need $17k / year to run my household at a minimum. In order to make that in interest in a traditional investment account, I'd need $340k. That's obvious back-of-the-envelope and doesn't take into account market fluctuations or inflation, but it goes to show what I mean: I would be completely financially independent with less than a half million dollars in traditional investments. My plan relies on that sort of investment for retirement, because it's a relatively safe platform to build upon. I'm in the process now of saving enough capital to get into real estate in a substantial way. If my planning is remotely accurate, I should be able to use rental properties to grow an income stream there exponentially - barring a major depression, the real challenge will be one of process, not money. Managing a single commercial rental with a long-term lease agreement is one thing; managing a dozen, or a hundred, or a thousand... that's quite another.