There are many types of riches. If you have a happy marriage... you are rich. NO! If you are proud of your children... you are rich. Useless nut job! If you wake up everyday with no pain... you are rich. Back and Knee pain! If you've learned how to enjoy each moment.... you are rich. Errrrrr some, so no!! If you have friends that would lay down their lives for you... you are rich. Hell no! And I don't care what anyone says, if you wake up in America free... you are rich. UK and not free defo not these days.
This is such a terrible way to look at it. If I lived in a third world country I could get by on $1200 a year. If I live in California I can't get by making $65,000 a year. Should someone living in California feel fortunate because "they make more than 90% of the world"? Is someone making $25,000 in the boonies of Alabama less well off than someone shacking up with 3 roommates in the bay area? By what metric other than absolute value (without accounting for CPI) is "being more rich than 90% of the world" defined by? Hell, I can get medicine in India for a fraction of a cent and in America the mark up is 80,000%! How am I fortunate under this new metric? It holds absolutely zero basis in reality and is the kind of lying by statistics that is so obvious it's almost offensive. If you wanted to cite a real statistic talk about the opportunity cost of living in a poor area vs. a developed area. Comparing absolute dollar values is possibly the weakest argument for feeling fortunate you can come up with.
My parents said, "if you have your health, you have everything." That is, perhaps, easier for people with health problems to understand; than young, healthy people. As children, we certainly didn't get it. We have a friend, a retired airline pilot, who had a cerebral aneurysm. A tall and very handsome man. It crippled him, put him in a wheelchair, impaired cognitive function, and he became very emotional and started crying nearly every time he tried to talk. He was confused and seemed miserable part of the time, despite having a great wife to take care of him; and the money to provide everything that he needed. Other times, he regained clarity and joked and laughed with us. I'd bet that he'd give everything to have his health back.
Do you need to sell your child in order for the rest of your family not to starve to death when you make minimum wage in California? I don't think so ... Complaining about making $95K a year is just ridiculous, especially since you would have the opportunity to do something about it (education to get a better job, work harder to earn more, move ...) ... People in third world countries have close to 0% odds of their life ever seriously improving for the better, they are lucky if they have something to eat every now and then. Yet here we are complaining about only making $95K.
Now that you said that,I pretty sure my Mom used to say the exact same thing your parents said..Good memories indeed..
there are poor students & there are rich students. fully or partly funded students are not poor ... sorry, if you are one of those, you do not fit the "poor slot"
good to read that ^^^ so you are not financially poor, or rich or middle class .... just working class, now would that be white collar or blue collar working class? and with some funds to play the market/win or lose