
The most important measure of your wealth, in a lot of ways, is how much of a shock it would take to cause serious negative consequences to spiral out of control, and how often such a shock is likely to hit. If the cost of a flat tire is enough to cause a major disaster for you, you’re poor; shocks that big happen all the time. If the cost of a cancer diagnosis is, you’re in an unstable middle class; that may hit your family or it may not. If more or less nothing is, you’re rich. (And that captures your wealth much better than your on-paper bank balance)