Felix Dennis’s message to bankers: You’re not really rich until you have £16m of liquid assets

Felix Dennis, the publishing mogul and self-described, 'overweight, cigarette-smoking, malt-whisky swilling idiot with too much money,' has passed away.  Now seems an appropriate moment, therefore, to re-post the article below, along with your comments. You can read the full text of Felix Dennis's book, 'How to get rich', here. 

Entrepreneur Felix Dennis has some novel ideas about what constitutes being rich.

In his book, Dennis (net worth £500m) categorises richness as follows:

Comfortably poor: £50k-£199k in liquid assets; £1m-£2m in total assets

Comfortably off: £200k-£499k in liquid assets; £3m-£4m in total assets

Comfortably wealthy: £500k-£999k in liquid assets; £5m-£15m in total assets

Lesser rich: £1m-£5m in liquid assets; £16m-£39m in total assets

Comfortably rich: £6m-£15m in liquid assets; £40m-£74m in total assets

Rich: £16m-£35m in liquid assets; £75m-£99m in total assets

Seriously rich: £36m-£49m in liquid assets; £100m-£199m in total assets

Truly rich: £50m-£100m in liquid assets; £200m-£399m in total assets

Filthy or super rich: Over £100m in liquid assets; over £1bn in total assets

Dennis also offers the following pearls of wisdom:

· If you stay too long working for others, you will never be rich

· If you have artistic inclinations (and fear the search for wealth will degrade them) you will never be rich.

· If you are not prepared to work longer hours than anyone you know, you will never be rich.

· Inner compulsion is mandatory in the getting of money

· You must choose between riches and seeking contentment

· Your body is a machine - a machine that requires sleep, good quality fuel, and the odd day off. Making time to sleep well, eat well, and take an occasional walk in the park is not slacking, not a betrayal of the cause. It's just good sense. The getting of money is a marathon, not a sprint. Keeping mentally and physically fit is essential.

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When a million isn’t enough: why top bankers are struggling to get by

Eight methods for reinventing your financial services career 

Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash