Asian American Attitudes toward Wealth | Asian American Poll

AA ATTITUDE TOWARD WEALTH
(Updated Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:07:00 PM to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

Assuming you are an Asian American, how important is wealth in your assessment of a person's attractiveness?
It's one of the most important. | 19%
It's just one of many factors. | 36%
It's less important than other qualities. | 29%
I don't care about a person's wealth. | 16%

Assuming you are an Asian American, which best matches your feelings toward your own wealth?
I'd give up weekends to double my income. | 20%
I'd work longer hours for 50% more income. | 39%
I'm happy with my current income. | 24%
I'd give up some income for more free time. | 17%

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Comments posted during the past year remain available for browsing.

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WHAT YOU SAY

[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]

hannybunbun,

I think that really depends on your circle of friends.

I have people in Asia in Taipei, HK, and Shanghai whose apartments are worth millions. They sell them and buy 3 or 4 homes in the USA. I consider them well to do.

There is always somebody richer, no matter what. I think is has to do with what lifestyle you acclimate yourself to.

You can be filthy rich but still live a middle class lifestyle.

I think a relative guage of wealth is when you wake up one day and you go how am I going to spend all this.
AC Dropout Monday, July 01, 2002 at 10:32:43 (PDT)

AC, and Curious girl,
this is interesting "conversations" of sort we have going in this forum..to me anyways. First to AC: My second question was about how much do people accumulate or what status signs do they have before they declare themselves to be wealthy? And do Asian and Caucasians seem to have different standards or status to achieve before declaring such? My husband and I have VERY different ideas about what makes someone wealthy.
I grew up in extreme poverty, so when I think of poor I think of not having clothes, lives touched by homelessness, bare cupboards and taking public transportation or walking , the word new car was not an option growing up , living from minimum wage paycheck to paycheck. That was the lives my parents lived and I did until I turned 16 and left to be on my own and made a better way for myself.
Now my husband has a different standard. He calls certain relatives of his as "middle class" , when to me they are dripping filthy rich!!! To own a Mercedes and BMW, the newest and latest fully loaded, paid for in cash, and to own 4 houses and not have to work, and spare no expense, that is more than middle class to me.
The same with many of his old college friends. He will say, oh, they are poor or they are middle class....and I am seeing 5 cars in the driveway and designer clothes on their back and hearing of trips to Japan!
I am just curious, because I was affected by an extreme, so many things appear "rich" to me now. I feel rich now, owning a house, meaning mortgage, having a car, meaning car payments, and living on a budget that affords us to do fun things still. Yet my husband cries poorman at times!
To Curious girl, sounds like you and your BF have got a good balance between you! Atleast he will have a well dressed GF and you will have a man with a financially planned future! Our marriage is a mixture, my husband makes the budget, yet we take turns wrecking it once in awhile, and we both sacrifice to get it running smoothly again, hehehe.
hannybunbun Friday, June 28, 2002 at 04:42:21 (PDT)

Hannybunbun,

I think that most people are never happy with the amount of wealth they have. In our extremely consumer society we're taught to want more and more. Not that I put it down, I like buying things!

I know that my boyfriend and I have very different views toward handling money. I grew up lower middle class, but now that I have a good job I shop way too much, used to never save money. My boyfriend is a first generation AA. He is meticulous about saving. He won't buy something for himself unless he thinks about it for a few months. He saves and invests and saves. We've learned a lot from each other. I'm now much better with my spending, and I save quite a bit. And he's learned to treat himself once in a while to something fun. :)
curious girl Wednesday, June 26, 2002 at 12:28:10 (PDT)

Hannybunbun,

If you ask me 6 months ago is one can satisfy ones desire for the accumulation of wealth, I would have given you a resounding no. The greed is infinite.

But I'm beginning to notice in myself a moderation in the rate at which I accumulate wealth. I don't wake up in the morning going thinking I need to double my market share much anymore. I'm concerning of the my market share isn't increasing. But I don't overly preasure my employees as much anymore.

I'm confused by your second question. Owning things is just a relative reflection of wealth. I think one realizes that they are wealthy when they have an abundant amount of resources at their disposal.

A quick fix for the karaoke machine...just sing in the shower.
AC Dropout Wednesday, June 26, 2002 at 11:50:39 (PDT)

Curious girl:
I know the episode well....my husband never watched that show before until a few weeks ago, re-runs :) and now he thinks it is really funny.
AC, keep crooning the Karaoke songs...while your at it, come fix our machine! It broke last night! I must have hit too many bad notes trying to sing Chinese, my poor neighbors, hehehehe...
Back to the forum subject...wealth and attitude. Just a question, but is anyone ever satisfied with wealth or do they just keep wanting more and more? My husband drools over the cute little sports cars passing in traffic and wishes for one and I remind him that his sports car is sitting in the baby car seat wearing diapers..hehe.
Do you think that Asian Americans and Caucasian or other race Americans have different standards of owning things before they declare they are wealthy?

Hannybunbun Wednesday, June 26, 2002 at 05:11:19 (PDT)

curious girl,

Ahh...the symbols. The key to true internet dialogue. :P
AC Dropout Monday, June 24, 2002 at 13:58:01 (PDT)

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