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> Wealth is generally understood to mean how much assets you have accumulated

...by accountants.

"Wealth" as used by most people is related to quality of life. It even shows up in the phrase "house poor" where maybe someone has great net assets but cannot live comfortable life due to the drain of the house. Wealth is not money.




"House poor" is an oxymoron. They have the option at any time to sell their house to get liquid. I can have ten gold bars and choose to live like a miser because I don't want to touch my gold, but everybody would call that ridiculous. Just as ridiculous are "house poor" who don't want to touch their real estate wealth. But we can't say that, because everybody reading this has relatives who are "house poor", and we all have to work together to keep up the lie.


Wealth is composed of many factors of which one is money, but you need money to have wealth.

Therefore, wealth is money.


Life is composed of many factors of which one is carbon, but you need carbon to have life. There, carbon is life.

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No, life is the combination of carbon and other things, so wealth is the combination of money and other things. It's the combination and interaction with other things that is important and focussing just on money is missing the forest for the trees.


This is true, but the converse isn't: you don't need wealth to have money. Just use your credit card instead.

A borrowed dollar spends just as well as a saved or earned one, which is why many confuse spending with wealth.




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