The term "net-worth", while giving you a technical glance, is not always useful. Use it in the conventional way at your own risk. Person A: 0 Assets, 0 Lia. = 0 NW Person B: 100Mil. Assets, 100Mil Lia. = 0 NW Their NW is equal, but they are each in a very different game. Which would you rather be? I'm person B any day of the week.
Person A gets to sit on the stoop of his single-wide, drinking beer and shootin' the sh1t with his buds. He'll never be rich but at least he doesn't have much stress or worry in his life either.
Stressing out and worrying about crap are the things that get me out of bed every morning. I wold probably freak out if I were sent to an abandoned island with nothing to worry about.
Read Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Ok, the guy is very pro-real estate. Forget about that, if you like. But the underlying philosophy that you'll never get rich working for someone else is totally correct. Yeah...someone will probably say that it depends on how you define "rich" and that some Doctors and Lawyers are rich. But I'm talking big money here... SM
Here is one answer to your question: http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-bu...joining-the-5-million-club-takes-an-open-mind
In one hundred years we'll all be dead and how much money we had won't mean a hill of beans. I'd rather be known to my grandkids as a modest man with integrity than a rich SOB.
Side note: I worked for a guy that started a high tech business and grew it to 350 employees. When he sold it he got a dollar for every dollar he ever paid in wages [, and he paid 40% over the prevailing wages in the area]. That is how they get the lump sum after a long period of time. I really liked that book "The Millionaire Next Door". It revealed the character of people that made it fairly big, $1 to $10 mil, and were not in debt. Their neighbors were in debt up to their eyeballs to have the same lifestyle. The typical profile was college education, started a business while working for a corporation because they hired sub contractors and realized they could do the work way better. Side note #2: I've known people that did that, they were pretty good at keeping a low profile actually. They seemed to be a little bit above the typical pettiness too.