[germanlee]

Warren Buffet had an interesting take on "being rich". He defined it as being able to withstand economic, medical, etc catastrophe and still being able to maintain your standard of living and be able to rebuild your wealth in a reasonable amount of time. I think he set "rich" as having $25 million of liquid assets. He said have that amount of liquid assets will shelter you from a few medical or economic disasters and leave you enough to rebuild your wealth without affecting your standard of living.

If you had $3 million, a medical crisis or a business failure could wipe it all out and it would affect our standard of living and make it difficult to rebuild your wealth. $25 million cushions you against catastrophes. Of course he noted that it doesn't shield you from self-afflicted disasters like drug or gambling problems.

[jjeaff]

If you have $3m, sure, a business crisis could wipe you out, but if a medical one does, it's your own fault. Health plans can't even have maximum lifetime payouts in the US anymore. They will have to pay for everything over your out of pocket max.

[tedmiston]

There are plenty of exclusions in the fine print for out of pocket max in most policies though. It seems more cut and dry than it is.