I was reading a novel set in the 1800s. One of the characters mentions that another is a 'millionaire', commenting that he finds the distinction a vulgar one. It got me to thinking.
If I, personally, as a single person, had one million dollars in cash, I'd be a millionaire. The moment I spent penny one, I wouldn't. If I had access to interest on that money, it'd bump up over the magic number pretty quickly, and then I would be again. So it might be fair to say that if I have about a million dollars, myself, and expect to stay around there, or increase, I'm a millionaire. If I don't, I'm not.
What if I'm married? If we refer to ourselves as 'millionaires',that implies that we each have a million, or more. But in this case, we don't -- we have one million dollars, jointly shared. What if we had one million, two hundred thousand? Are we millionaires, or not?
Doubt this question will be a big part of my life, barring a nice call from the Lottery people, but, you know, you want to be prepared.
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