Dunno about “should be considered,” but to me, a single person making $100 grand is doing well, $200 thousand is rich. For a family breadwinner, $250 is doing really well, $500 thousand is rich.
FWIW, I make about $25,000, and my wife almost double that. In San Francisco, we can afford a smallish apartment.
Joe
The reality is that she has to invest in something risk free. She also needs it to be fairly liquid, since her health could decline at any moment and she would need to move into a facility that provides a higher level of care. Those facilities will be about double what she is paying now. And depending on how long she lives, all her money could run out. So she is very frugal, and winces over every purchase she makes.
I mentioned her situation just to point out how finding the magic number of when someone would be considered rich would need to change depending on the circumstances. A young couple just starting out with a net worth of $1 million could use that money to live a lifestyle that would be considered “rich” by many. But in my mom’s situation, that amount has her counting pennies, hoping that she doesn’t outlive her money and have to be a financial burden on her children.
I agree with other posters that “rich” people in everyone’s definition does not include income. I equate rich to wealthy. Rich people who work, do so because of personality, not based on any sort of need. My CFO probably has $10M in cash in the bank. If I had that kind of money, I would take a year or two traveling Europe, if not the world. When I was working for the firm, a number of partners had that much money, but it was tied up in the firm. They were susceptible to Bears Sterns type losses as well, not to mention highly-trained associate jumping ship or starting new firms to eat up market share.
I would say that if one can reap $150k cash money from investments with no loss or risk to principal, then that person is rich. If you had to tie a salary to it, I’ll say $250k/yr for 20 years should make someone rich (maybe less if investments pay off, but definitely higher than $150k). If you’re not rich by then, your quality of life has been too expensive, or you had some real bad luck.
To me ‘rich’ is being able to do what you want to do, instead of what you have to do for a living.
You probably need more money than this. A single new 747-400 costs between $228-260 million (2007 dollars). Cite.
You could probably get some used ones for less, though. Good luck! 
Somewhat. In NYC and San Fran, you’re looking up at people who are wealthy, but you’re also surrounded by your fellow participants in the rat race, who also need $250K/year just to live at the particular standard of living that is the norm for that city. So you’re swimming in a sea of rich people aspiring to be wealthy, for the most part. Doesn’t do you a heck of a lot of good if you can’t find a decent 2-bedroom apartment for less than $3.5K/month.
Personally, I equate wealth with personal freedom. I make a good deal of money working in Manhattan, but I live outside the city and for job reasons, I’m wed to the suburbs of NYC - probably for the rest of my life. This means I do a good deal of commuting, and that means time away from my family. To meet the definition of “rich,” IMHO, means that I could cast off the commuter lifestyle and spend time with my wife and new baby daughter instead of sitting on a Long Island Rail Road train all the time.
What if you happen to enjoy panhandling? 
To me, being rich is being able to buy anything (not everything, but anything) that you want without having to worry about how it will affect your budget or spending a month shopping around for the best price for it, or waiting for it to go on sale.
“Wealth” has to do with money in the bank earning interest, and “rich” doesn’t. So two people can both be earning $350k income a year. One person does it through a job. They’re rich. The other person does it by having $10m invested. They’re wealthy.
At least that’s one way to look at it. Basically, ‘wealthy’ is more traditional, old-money, old white man sort of thing. ‘Rich’ is more like new-money, spends-too-much sort of thing.
btw, I also think ‘rich’ is defined by earning/spending 500k-1m a year. What percentile is that? Maybe we should define richness as a percentile. If you earn more than 999 other random people, you’re rich. What does the top 0.1% earn?
If I’m sitting on $300 million in cash and not earning any interest or other income, does that make me not rich?
No, it makes you not smart.
At the time when Princess Di and Charles were getting a divorce, they were looking at how much support and assets she should get. The article I read then stated that the Windsors are land rich, but income poor, and that was an issue, as Di’s jet-setting lifestyle would take about $650,000 a year to maintain.
That was more than 13 years ago, so $1 million + would likely be a good figure.
That’s my definition. If you need a paycheck, you aren’t rich.
Rich is having so much money, you can live off your interest.
“Well-off” is some one who could keep the house running on interest & a minimum wage job.
“Comfortable” depends on a fairly high pay check.
I don’t know. I think if you own a Maybach and fancy house and etc but would lose all of that the second you got kicked off the team, you’re still rich. Not wealthy, but rich.
I’m just a poor blue collar, unversed in the difference between ‘wealthy’ and ‘rich’. (I suspect one is of saxon root and the other frankish).
But, if you depend on your job for your money, you are just another worker, no matter how generous your Boss. Whether your collar is blue, white, pink, or sweat-stained.
Seconded.
I don’t think you can put a number on it. Things like “how many dependants they have” or where they live affect it enormously.
An actor making N for 2 hours’ work would be getting paid a lot more than a bullfighter making the same money for a single bullfight, simply because when you hire the bullfighter you’re not hiring a single person but more than half a dozen.
The last time I moved out of the US, it was an intercompany transfer. My just-ex-boss was worried because the move implied lower pay, until I explained that in the previous location my rent was 25% of my pay, for 50m[sup]2[/sup], whereas in the new one it would be 10% of my pay, for 120m[sup]2[/sup], and that other prices were on a similar scale. In effect, my pay had grown.
That was Chris Rock but he didn’t use Oprah, because Oprah signs her own check.
Shaq aint rich, it’s the guy who signs Shaq’s check who is rich.
Forever? For a year? For ten years?
Is that just as true if they live in a efficiency apartment in Birmingham, Alabama, and take public transportation everywhere (and have just been saving like crazy so they don’t need to continue to work as a school janitor) as if their lifestyle is to party with Paris?