It sounds like a set-up for a punchline, but there are key identifiable differences.<\/p>\n
According to Irish Independent personal finance columnist Sinead Ryan, it all comes down to \u201cstuff\u201d – how we spend our money, and, crucially, what we spend our money on.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, somebody who is affluent likes the trappings of what money can buy,\u201d says Ryan on the latest episode of the Money Talks podcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey like the stuff. They want other people to know that they can afford the stuff. They have new things, the latest things, and a constant through-flow of conspicuous consumption.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who value wealth over that are people who are quietly putting money aside for their future. They have little or no debt. They don\u2019t need the stuff to show off to other people what they do own or do have. It\u2019s a more modest interaction with money, but they\u2019re using money for a more powerful purpose, as they would see it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryan is quick to note that there\u2019s \u201cnothing wrong\u201d with buying material possessions \u2013 it makes perfect sense for human beings to want to enjoy the payoff that comes with the fruits of their labour once basic needs are tended to.<\/p>\n
Still, what you do \u2013 or don\u2019t do – with your disposable income can say a lot about you.<\/p>\n
Ryan goes on to present the example of Ingvar Kamprad, late Swedish billionaire and founder of multinational juggernaut Ikea.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he died a few years ago, Ingvar Kamprad was worth $58 billion,\u201d Ryan says.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe drove a 10-year-old Volvo and lived in the house he\u2019d always lived in. All of his furniture was from Ikea. He was an extraordinarily wealthy man, but not one who valued affluence.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are also key differences between how wealthy and affluent people save and invest their money, Ryan explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere used to be a saying when I worked in the insurance industry \u2013 the difference between an old man and a retired gentleman is a good pension.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the full \u2018wealth versus affluence\u2019 breakdown, including how property and pensions play into the mix, check out the latest episode of Money Talks wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n
The content of this podcast is for information purposes and does not constitute investment advice or recommendation of any investment product.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It sounds like a set-up for a punchline, but there are key identifiable differences. According to Irish Independent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[138,246,52680,111,139,69,12613,244,245],"class_list":{"0":"post-143114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-money-talks-podcast","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-pensions","15":"tag-personal-finance","16":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}