Austin, TEXAS, January 30, 2006 — Sometimes FFP says, "Oh, well. We're rich." Or something like that. [Ed. Note. The writer is the worst person alive at remembering verbatim exactly what people say, what words they use. Although she would swear she gets the 'gist' of things with deadly accuracy. Maybe.]

Of course, there is rich and then richer and beyond. By the book, the rich have more money than most people. We crawled out of the morass of the poor or lower middle and, I guess, we are rich. But no superlatives. We are not 'very rich.'

Today a very rich man asked me how I thought someone got their money who is

definitely richer than us and, I don't know, probably not as rich as the questioner. I couldn't begin to say what the net worth of either individual is, but I thought it was funny to hear this question from this questioner.

We agreed that the source of the wealth in question might stem from a company that was started and later sold (I think that happened) and from asute investment with a little lifestyle choice thrown in.

The thing is the people being discussed have given away money in quantities that mark them as 'richer than us.' Because I think they have probably given away an amount equal to our net worth.

However, I think that these people could have easily spent a good part of the money they gave away on a fancy house, its upkeep, more expensive cars, whatever. They chose to make spending on charity a big part of their lives.

I'd like to be richer. But I'd give most of it away. If that makes any sense.