I’ve always thought of “independently wealthy” as “No debt, no need for paid employment, no need to labor away for sustenance and basic needs.”
After all, wealth isn’t just money, but also (and much more importantly) what you trade money for.
Someone who has no money whatsoever, but owns some land with a house and an army of self-maintaining food-producing robots and has free high-speed internet is just as independently extremely wealthy in my books as the guy who earns $1 000 000 USD a year from investment returns.
I think of “independently wealthy” as connoting being able to afford really nice stuff—big house, frequent travel for fun, etc. without having to work.
I’ve always thought of “independently wealthy” as “No debt, no need for paid employment, no need to labor away for sustenance and basic needs.”
After all, wealth isn’t just money, but also (and much more importantly) what you trade money for.
Someone who has no money whatsoever, but owns some land with a house and an army of self-maintaining food-producing robots and has free high-speed internet is just as independently extremely wealthy in my books as the guy who earns $1 000 000 USD a year from investment returns.
I think of “independently wealthy” as connoting being able to afford really nice stuff—big house, frequent travel for fun, etc. without having to work.
Hmm. Seems like the central common empirical cluster might be something like “Above-sufficient personal quality of life without need for work”.