Do you feel wealthy?

“Am I wealthy?”
It’s a question we are often asked by clients.

Given that many of them live modest lifestyles, a lot of them don’t feel wealthy.

A study by Fidelity Investments found that 42% of American millionaires do not feel wealthy. The investable asset level at which they said they would feel wealthy?: $7.5 million.

Ironically, of the 58% who said they do feel wealthy, $1.75 million of investable assets was the amount at which they reported feeling wealthy.

So who is ‘wealthy’ in Canada?

This month’s issue of Report on Business magazine published a summary of Canada’s highest income earners: The top 1% — 246,000 Canadians – earn a minimum of $169,300 per year; the average income for this group is just over $400,000.

The top 0.1% make an average of $1.49 million and a rarefied 0.01% of Canadians get by on $3.83 million a year.

Still, these people are what Thomas J. Stanley, author of the Millionaire Next Door would call ‘Income Statement Affluent’; income being an imperfect predictor of net worth.

According to Investor Economics, a research firm specializing in financial services, there are an estimated 562,000 households in Canada having more than $1 million in investable assets and 19,000 households with $10 million or more.  According to Report on Business magazine, there are 24 billionaires in Canada.

Perhaps wealth, like age, is just a number; it’s more about how you feel.

Do you feel wealthy? How much would you need to feel wealthy? What would happen if you decided to feel wealthy even if your actual net worth doesn’t yet meet your definition of wealthy?