What Is Wealth And How Do We Measure It?
I don’t know many wealthy people. But I know one. An old friend of mine, who after university, didn’t bum about like me, but got a job.
I met up with him a few weeks ago, and we started talking about money and wealth and what it meant — if anything. As a way of quantifying our progress since we left university almost twenty-five years ago, we totted up all the money we had in the entire world.
It was a bit of fun, we were a bit drunk, but the results were very telling, and quite surprising.
My friend has a house worth £800k, has investments worth £300k, plus a steady job earning him £150k a year.
‘So you’re a millionaire,’ I commented. ‘Congrats, you’ve made it!’
He stared at me in disbelief. ‘You’ve no idea, Phil, have you? You’re probably richer than me.’
‘Yeah, right,’ I said, quaffing my beer. ‘I work on a farm in Normandy, for God’s sake, and earn €19k a year. I don’t own any property, and except for my savings, have no investments whatsoever. Compared to you, I’m a pauper.’
He didn’t see it like that, though, and told me that despite his big salary, come the end of the month, he probably has less money than me. In fact, by the time he’s paid his mortgage, his two cars (BMW & Mercedes), utility bills, food, petrol…
