How is everyone so wealthy?

USAtrader · May 14, 2007

The term "net-worth", while giving you a technical glance, is not always useful. Use it in the conventional way at your own risk.

Person A: 0 Assets, 0 Lia. = 0 NW

Person B: 100Mil. Assets, 100Mil Lia. = 0 NW

Their NW is equal, but they are each in a very different game.

Which would you rather be? I'm person B any day of the week.

stevegee58 · May 14, 2007

Person A gets to sit on the stoop of his single-wide, drinking beer and shootin' the sh1t with his buds. He'll never be rich but at least he doesn't have much stress or worry in his life either.

Div_Arb · May 14, 2007

Stressing out and worrying about crap are the things that get me out of bed every morning. I wold probably freak out if I were sent to an abandoned island with nothing to worry about.

Quote from stevegee58:

Person A gets to sit on the stoop of his single-wide, drinking beer and shootin' the sh1t with his buds. He'll never be rich but at least he doesn't have much stress or worry in his life either.

spreadn00b · May 14, 2007

So articles represent "everyone"??

Quote from midlifeguy:

If I read one more article about how a family is struggling despite their $1,600,000 net worth, I am going to gag.

What am I missing? I busted my ass for years working
and do not have a million dollars put away. I guess mortgages, car payments, groceries, kids, wife etc got in the way. It just seems like everyone is wealthy and middle class is a $2 million net worth.

The odd thing is that if you look at job ads, most pay crap. I was downsized and would like to work again but can make more daytrading and would feel stupid to give it up for some crummy service sector job.

Smart Money · May 14, 2007

Quote from midlifeguy:

If I read one more article about how a family is struggling despite their $1,600,000 net worth, I am going to gag.

What am I missing? I busted my ass for years working
and do not have a million dollars put away. I guess mortgages, car payments, groceries, kids, wife etc got in the way. It just seems like everyone is wealthy and middle class is a $2 million net worth.

The odd thing is that if you look at job ads, most pay crap. I was downsized and would like to work again but can make more daytrading and would feel stupid to give it up for some crummy service sector job.

Read Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Ok, the guy is very pro-real estate. Forget about that, if you like. But the underlying philosophy that you'll never get rich working for someone else is totally correct. Yeah...someone will probably say that it depends on how you define "rich" and that some Doctors and Lawyers are rich. But I'm talking big money here...

SM

USAtrader · May 14, 2007

The [financial] haves are seldom A's.

Quote from USAtrader:

The term "net-worth", while giving you a technical glance, is not always useful. Use it in the conventional way at your own risk.

Person A: 0 Assets, 0 Lia. = 0 NW

Person B: 100Mil. Assets, 100Mil Lia. = 0 NW

Their NW is equal, but they are each in a very different game.

Which would you rather be? I'm person B any day of the week.

Businessman · May 14, 2007

Here is one answer to your question:

Harrison Group head Jim Taylor recently persuaded more than 3,000 pentamillionaires to discuss their path to success. Perhaps not surprisingly, none of them had a cushy union job down at the DMV. The vast majority â 80% â either started their own business or worked for a small company that saw explosive growth. And almost all of them made their fortune in a big lump sum after many years of effort.

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-bu...joining-the-5-million-club-takes-an-open-mind

logikos · May 14, 2007

In one hundred years we'll all be dead and how much money we had won't mean a hill of beans. I'd rather be known to my grandkids as a modest man with integrity than a rich SOB.

maxpi · May 14, 2007

Side note: I worked for a guy that started a high tech business and grew it to 350 employees. When he sold it he got a dollar for every dollar he ever paid in wages [, and he paid 40% over the prevailing wages in the area]. That is how they get the lump sum after a long period of time.

I really liked that book "The Millionaire Next Door". It revealed the character of people that made it fairly big, $1 to $10 mil, and were not in debt. Their neighbors were in debt up to their eyeballs to have the same lifestyle. The typical profile was college education, started a business while working for a corporation because they hired sub contractors and realized they could do the work way better.

Side note #2: I've known people that did that, they were pretty good at keeping a low profile actually. They seemed to be a little bit above the typical pettiness too.

USAtrader · May 14, 2007

Rich and modest are not mutually exclusive.

Quote from logikos:

In one hundred years we'll all be dead and how much money we had won't mean a hill of beans. I'd rather be known to my grandkids as a modest man with integrity than a rich SOB.