People often use the words rich and wealthy as if they mean the same thing. They don't have to.
Rich can be visible
A high income can buy visible things: a larger home, a newer car, expensive holidays, designer products. Those things may be enjoyable. But they don't necessarily create financial independence.
Wealth is often invisible
Wealth can look like a paid-off obligation, a diversified portfolio, cash reserves, low fixed costs, flexible work or the ability to walk away from a bad deal.
Those things don't photograph particularly well.
The most valuable part of wealth may be the choices nobody else can see.
Measure the right thing
If your goal is freedom, measure the resources that create freedom: savings, investments, resilience, time and the gap between what you earn and what you need.
Looking rich can consume resources. Building wealth can create them.