I've always wanted to ask this question. What net worth does one need to be considered rich?

For the longest time it was probably $1 million. What is it today, $10 million? $50 million? Keep in mind that athletes can make $40-50 million per year. Movie stars get $20 million per film. On the business side, new entrepreneurs in China, Russia and India take their companies public and have multibillion dollar net worths. A Chinese property developer listed his company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and gave shares to his daughter. Those are worth $9 billion U.S.

Also, please no answers like "you're rich if you have friends" or "you're rich if you're happy and have enough".

I think $1 million was a lot of money even into the early 1980s. Even the top TV star at that time was making about $2 million before tax. The top F1 drivers and baseball players were probably also in that bracket. However, since the '80s, hyper-inflation took over and everything shot up in price, especially luxury properties.

I still think $1 million is the universal standard that you're fairly well off.

One million is no big deal for today's standards. Some people can spend that amount of money in 24 hours.

I would say 50 million dollars at least.

Yeah with $1 million you are well off and wealthy.............but you're not rich. Hear me out.

In todays world of globalization and increasing property prices $1 million isn't as much as people think it it. That some of money will barely get you a town home in Chelsea London or if you just want to buy a nice big home anywhere in the world half of the sum will easily be spent. Then you'd want to live out your dreams and buy a few fancy cars and fly out to St. Barts and Monaco and floss there a couple of times a year. And before you will no it you won't be any much wealthier than the average well educated mortal.
By definition of rich is when you have to much money that you don't have to work and can simply live off the interest of your money, while at the same time enjoying just about anything in life. IMO you can't do that unless you are sitting on a 10 million dollar account.

I have to agree with Yannis here. $1,million doesn`t really cut it these days with all the consumer options we have now.

If you are making $1million a year, you're definately rich.

Only having $1million in the bank doesn't neccessarily make you rich.

That $1 million won't buy you a floor in Chelsea. I think property services firm Knight Frank estimates the average price for a luxury home in London to be 4 million pounds or $8 million U.S. In 1976, the average was supposedly 100,000 pounds!

In a novel I read, having enough money so you don't have to work and still have anything you want means having "Screw You Money". It basically means you have enough money to say screw you to anyone or anything.

A very tiny percentage of the world's population have "screw you money". Most importantly those people are not only worth billions but they have a great amount of power and influence. These are people like Lakshmi Mittal, Richard Branson and Bernard Arnault.

In the UK, to be in the top 1000 rich list you have to have atleast £70 million which is about $140 million.

EDIT: I think you have to have about £10 million to be rich which is about $20 million.

mercmad, do you know when the first UK Rich List was printed? Any ideas what was the minimum you needed to get on such a list in the 1980s?

Luwalira, it is interesting that you bring up those billionaires' names. In '87, Forbes published its first worldwide billionaires list. These where then the richest and, presumably, smartest people in the world. You would expect them to have longevity. Unfortunately, not one of the ten richest men in the world in '87 is still in the top ten in 2007. I think only 25% of the names on the initial list are still there today! And these are some of the smartest men around.