Someone with £1m in London is definitely more wealthy, because they have the option to move to a village and buy property to rent out with whatever is left over after they move into their cottage.
Or they could buy a huge rental house in a student town and make around £60k to £90k a year in rent.
If they rent cheaply themselves and put all the profit into more property, they can easily double the £1m in less than a decade without having a day job at all.
Repeat for another couple of decades, and they have a sizeable property empire. With some medium risk/return investing they can be well into the high net worth bracket well before retirement age.
This is the point of being in the 1%. Beyond a certain level you don't need to contribute anything useful in the way of imagination, creativity, or talent. You just need to own stuff and have cash to spare. As long as you take some fairly simple steps the money grows itself with very little effort or skill on your part. It's a classic feedback loop, and it will work for you as long as you let it.
Compare this with someone in poverty, where it's likely that whatever they do they will remain in debt once they get into debt. Unless they start dealing drugs, or winning the lottery, or building an unusually successful app or business (in their spare time while working three jobs at once), the feedback loop pushes them down and keeps them down.
> If they rent cheaply themselves and put all the profit into more property, they can easily double the £1m in less than a decade without having a day job at all.
Repeat for another couple of decades, and they have a sizeable property empire.
Real estate investing may not fit a tight definition of "day job", but the part of it that you describe above is absolutely hard work, IMO.
Or they could buy a huge rental house in a student town and make around £60k to £90k a year in rent.
If they rent cheaply themselves and put all the profit into more property, they can easily double the £1m in less than a decade without having a day job at all.
Repeat for another couple of decades, and they have a sizeable property empire. With some medium risk/return investing they can be well into the high net worth bracket well before retirement age.
This is the point of being in the 1%. Beyond a certain level you don't need to contribute anything useful in the way of imagination, creativity, or talent. You just need to own stuff and have cash to spare. As long as you take some fairly simple steps the money grows itself with very little effort or skill on your part. It's a classic feedback loop, and it will work for you as long as you let it.
Compare this with someone in poverty, where it's likely that whatever they do they will remain in debt once they get into debt. Unless they start dealing drugs, or winning the lottery, or building an unusually successful app or business (in their spare time while working three jobs at once), the feedback loop pushes them down and keeps them down.