The Ideal Age to Be Rich
It’s lower than most would like but not impossible to achieve
If you’ve ever sat through one of those company sponsored investment seminars, you’ve undoubtedly been told something along the lines, “It’s never too early to start saving for retirement, and it’s never too late either.” These platitudes are not just used in retirement seminars but can be found in your Instagram and Twitter feeds to help you feel better about your depressing rate of savings.
Like it or not, having a lot of money when you’re younger will always be better than having a lot when you’re older. Today, I try and fool myself by saying my conservative portfolio is slowly building generational wealth for my family, but secretly I would have preferred being rich in my twenties.
Being rich has a timeline; being wealthy does not — and my rich timeline has long passed.
When we first moved to Texas, we financed one of the cheapest houses in one of the nicest neighborhoods we could find. We didn’t realize that people in some of the other neighborhoods zoned to my son’s school were rich (and wealthy).
My son came home from school one day in a huff, wanting to quickly change and go to his friend’s house. Normally a pretty laid-back kid, I asked in wonder what could possibly bring about all this excitement. He then proceeded to tell me that his friend had a large pool in their backyard, and he wanted to go swimming.
We had taken him to a rec center years ago where he formally learned to swim, and my wife and I certainly didn’t grow up in houses with pools in the backyard. Nor did our current home have one. So, here he was at age 14 wanting to go swimming at someone’s home for the first time.
I would later learn that over three-quarters of his friends had pools, and swimming after school was just a regular thing for these kids. Ironically, the house we wanted to buy before we settled on our final property had a beautiful pool lined with colored glass tile, but it was truly out of our price range no matter how we tried to justify ways to make the financing work.
As my son got older, the learning to drive phase came. We ultimately settled on a Hyundai for his first car; some of his friends were driving around in BMWs and Teslas at seventeen and eighteen. It’s humbling when your son’s friend picks him up at the house in your dream car, but this scenario plays out in many neighborhoods across America every day.
The super-rich kids run out of other super-rich friends and so have settle for a few basic rich friends. The basic rich kids have a few upper-middle class friends. The upper-middle class kids have a few middle-class friends. Middle-class kids have a few lower-middle class friends. And down the line it goes.
Then with the popularity of social media, we really began to see the difference in how the rich live. Sure, people only post the highlight reel of their best moments on Instagram, but these people were posting photos from trips during Spring Break, Memorial Day, summer vacation, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and more. Three to four really nice vacations per year while many years we took none. And then came the best pic of all — the photo of the neighbors on the private jet, off to the big game.
What stuck with me the most in observing these life events was that these rich kids would not be too young to remember the great times and not too old to be bored. Likewise, there was a sweet spot where the grandparents could participate in their children’s riches right alongside their grandchildren.
Even if one never got married and had children, who wouldn’t want to take their parents on an amazing vacation when they were in their 60’s instead of their late 70’s when they could have more health problems.
Regardless of how much we want at such an early age, admittedly there are many good reasons not to obtain obscene riches too early. Having that latest Corvette Stingray at age 25 would probably put you into a nearby retaining wall within the first year — or worse, kill an innocent bystander.
So, good things come to those who wait but not just too long of a wait.
If you haven’t made it to your mid-forties, the rumors are true — you can pull your back out just sleeping at night or getting out of bed in the morning. I’ve had my knee slip in bed just rolling on my side too fast under the covers.
You want early adult life for dating, marriage, maybe kids if you desire, but you’re also working against the clock to enjoy those years with your parents where they can see you as a full self-sufficient adult. Factoring in all these constraints puts you anywhere between age 30 to 40.
But remember, we said we wanted to be rich!
At least one luxury car, multiple vacations each year, maybe a boat on the water if you live in Miami. Oh, and of course, you have to have the inground pool for the pre-teens, so they have years of enjoyment through high school.
It’s going to take some time to build an income stream large enough to get all of this by age 30, so the magic number is closer to 40 — to be exact I’d say age 38.
The Ideal Age to Be Rich is 38
At this age you can still go on vacation, drink all-night and bungee jump the next morning.
You can still run around with the kids and get up in the morning without the aches.
If you’re lucky, your parents are in their late 60’s or younger, plenty of time to still walk all of Disney World without an oxygen tank.
You’re still young enough to buy almost any car and not be accused of having some complex or mid-life crisis.
You’re still young enough to “think” that 40 is a long way off (hint: it’s not).
You’re old enough to probably be a senior director or even VP at some companies, if you’re not already independently wealthy.
You’re young enough to blow money on frivolous things, and still have time to continue saving. You want the suite in Vegas for $1,000 a night? Done. You want the 5-star dining experience for $300 per person? Done.
That’s what rich looks like at 38.
Well past that age now, I’m working on long, quiet wealth — money I’ll probably never see, and that’s okay. Audacious goals are not meant to be achieved by everyone. Even when I hit age 60, I’m probably not going to spend $1,000 for a hotel room.
You may read this and not care about money at all, and that’s really great — it will probably save you years of stress.
But if you want to be rich, then aim for 38.
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