I, too, like UCGal’s definition of wealth as well as the “acquire more or require less” idea.
Interesting that many of us have parents and grandparents who somehow figured out how to live well without incurring mountains of unsustainable debt…it seems that one of the failings of this generation is that many have squandered what could’ve truly been “the good life” by wanting more, more, more.
My beloved grandmother (a Depression-era person who passed away 3 years ago at age 94) once told me that she made it a game to try to live at or around the poverty line. She also told me that, after the Depression, she realized that out of the three essentials in life – food, clothing and shelter – you can usually find a way to get at least two of them. In her view, most people have enough clothes to last their lifetime, and we can often find enough food to keep us going in this country, but that finding adequate shelter (e.g. holding on to our homes) was the greatest challenge in a financial crisis. She absolutely pounded it into me and my siblings that only when we paid off our mortgages would we be able to be completely assured that we would weather the next inevitable financial cycle downwards (or worse) without enormous stress or perhaps even personal devastation.
I remember her also once explaining that the things that brought her the most joy in life didn’t cost money anyway. Those words stuck with me because they ring true for me, too.
She truly loved life, was absorbed in her work (as a university professor and writer/historian), and lived a very simple yet full life. She was the most open-minded person, always interested in others’ ideas and experiences and naturally inquisitive and curious…clearly the stimulation in her life didn’t come from acquiring things but instead, she valued her interaction with people, ideas and the world around her.
I don’t think she ever felt that she was scrimping – it just never occured to her to spend big bucks on cars or dinners out or other things.
When she died, her estate was worth well over $2mil, all of it saved during her lifetime, even after being wiped out in the Great Depression.
It’s almost a cliche to remark on how much we should have/could have learned from prior generations! Interesting how somehow the inevitability of this financial crisis was apparently unforeseen to most of this generation.
