A version of the article was publisheded August 18, 2010
“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.” Abraham Lincoln
Many researchers have stated that taking control of ones’ own life, maintaining a positive attitude, and being resilient in the face of setbacks are the keys to success. Who can argue with the long lasting contributions of Abraham Lincoln?
MAIN TOPIC: Do you have these qualities of the RICH?
When El Carino approached me with enthusiasm over a Money Magazine article, I KNEW IT HAD TO BE FABULOUS. Do You Have What It Takes To Be Wealthy? from the September, 2010 issue of Money lists the qualities of the RICHalong with empirical research.
Sound too good to be true? Just gain these qualities and you are on your way to the bank! Hold on, not so fast. No offense to El Carino, it is way too simplistic. Tell me what you think!
Wealthy Americans possess these attributes (according to Money Magazine):
- Optimistic; But not an over the top, Pollyanna attitude.
- Loaded parents; Wealthiest 20% of families have a 55% chance of staying in that bracket.
- Healthy; Chronic health problems are associated with financial problems.
- Intelligent: But not too much-don’t need to be MENSA smart! The top 2% of the population (IQ>130) have a tough time keeping their cash!
- Educated; College degree-gain $450K in lifetime wealth, graduate degree-gain $570,00K in lifetime wealth.
- Thin, tall, & attractive: Earn more (2 out of 3 isn’t too bad)
. - Only child; Maybe because they receive more parental attention.
- Married one time & stay married; the married are 93% wealthier than the unmarried. Divorce reduces wealth by 77%.
- Married-no kids; those without kids are wealthiest, next those with one offspring. Than one’s a no brainer, have you been to the mall with the kids recently?
- Persistent; these folks are the wealthiest.
- Non-Materialistic; the materialistic folks are the least wealthy.
- Exercisers & non smokers: not a huge surprise here.
- Entrepreneurial workers are the wealthiest.
- Frugal lifestyle: Correlates with wealth (Go personal finance bloggers!).
PRACTICAL APPLICATION; Take this Article with a Grain of Salt
Many of the wealthy traits reflect qualities totally out of your control; wealthy parents, birth order, intelligence, appearance, height, and gender. This is not helpful! If you can’t control these qualities, then what difference do they make? Furthermore, there was minimal data to indicate the actual percent that these qualities contribute to wealth. For example, if 10% of the wealthy are married with no kids, who cares. Plus, some might argue that kids (not teenagers) add to one’s overall wealth in life!
Isn’t it common sense that persistence is an attribute of the rich? No smoking and exercising indicate discipline, another obvious success trait! If you are relatively intelligent, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that you will probably be richer than someone less brainy.
Although entertaining reading, the article didn’t offer any huge revelations!
My unscientific OPINION: Control what you can in life and forget about the rest. Set the goals that are important to you.
If you desire wealth, make a plan, break it down into manageable steps, persist in spite of obstacles, and be patient. Focus on the PROCESS, the outcome will follow. Although Money is one of my long term favorite magazines, skip this article. What do you think? Am I just being cranky or does Do You Have What It Takes To Be Wealthy? adds very little to the pool of knowledge related to wealth?
ACTION STEP:
Get a notebook and label it: “(your name) Personal Finance” and keep it by the computer. Use it to keep all of your personal finance goals, thoughts, activities, and plans.
Set some personal success goals. Make them specific and quantifiable. For example, present 2 new ideas to the boss every other week, commit to saving 15% of your income, brain storm ways to earn extra cash.
Follow this action step and take control of your future, don’t leave it to your birth order!
Read More About Getting Rich
- Buy Like Buffet; Get Rich $10.00 at a Time
- Free from Broke; Get Rich Quick Ideas
- Tight Fisted Miser; What Have You Done to Get Rich?
- Consumerism Commentary; Get Rich By Thinking About Being Rich
- Frugal Zeitgeist; Top Ways to Get Rich
WHAT DO YOU THINK IT TAKES TO BE WEALTHY?
image credit: Anadelmann
It’s interesting that being too smart can actually work against you.
Health is so important. The folks I know with health issues, either physical or mental do struggle financially.
I wonder why divorced couples would be 77% poorer. Would it make sense that they were 50% poorer…on average? I guess if you continue living in the same big house with fewer people, I can see how that would work out.
There are a couple of surprises in this article, but as you said most of it is a no brainer if you ask me.
Personally, I believe your state of mind plays a major role. Don’t dwell on poverty, but ‘know’ that you will be rich. Your thoughts attract what you dwell on most of the time.
Moneycone recently posted..10 Reasons Why The Rich Hate Warren Buffett
My definition of wealthy is simply having enough for all your needs and a few of your wants. With that definition, the next step is to define your needs and wants (be honest) and working towards that.
The fastest way to wealth is not increases money/salary – it’s decreasing needs and wants.
(yes, I know this puts me in the minority – but it beats sitting around wishing you were an only child with rich parents when that’s out of your control)
Brave New Life recently posted..Investing For Young People… BNL Style
These traits can be taken two ways! Either you have a lot of them and you are waiting to call yourself wealthy or you lack a lot of them and you are wealthy anyway. I don’t think I will ever refer to myself as wealthy, no matter how much money or assets I have. Wealthy is always someone else!
krantcents@gmail.com recently posted..Can You Sum Up your Career in Six Words?
Hey, with the exception of “thin and tall” (I’m tall by South Asian standards!) I have all the attributes of a wealthy person:
I’m persistent, frugal, smart but not a genius, optimistic, healthy, a non-smoker, entrepreneurial, and the only child of upper-middle-class parents (they’re not millionaires, but they’re not poor — dad’s a professor, mom’s a stay-at-home mom, and they’re even more frugal than I am).
Paula @ AffordAnything.org recently posted..Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?
It is interesting to see the traits but as you say there isn’t really a way to apply them to your own life.
Andy Hough recently posted..My Self Storage Unit Auction Experience
As the second child of non wealthy (divorced) parents, who is not thin, doesn’t exercise enough, and isn’t entrepeneurial, who married someone with an IQ over 130 who doesn’t have a college education, I guess I’m pretty much SOL when it comes to having the type of money that qualifies as “wealthy” for Money magazine.
Not that that bothers me. That’s never been what we’ve been looking for. Like Brave New Life, my money goal is to be able to cover all of our needs and some of our wants from now to the time we die.
shanendoah@Baking the Budget recently posted..Know Your Role
9.5 isn’t too bad! I need to lose weight & exercise more, like I didn’t know that! I didn’t choose wealthy parents, but I feel rich from the lessons they taught me. And we are rich in kids, with 4 grown kids that we put through college as far as a bachelor’s degree. According to the list that was our mistake. We don’t see it that way. We see them as our back-up plan in case our social security, pension, and savings go to nothing. Fortunately they see it that way too & we are trying our best to never let that happen. I like the ideaof the list Barb & am implementing it!
Maggie recently posted..Wall of White Frames for Impact
Looks like I have only 2/3rds of the traits
But I guess I can always work on them (except the tall and thin part, which I don’t think I have hope)
Suba recently posted..Are we saving too much for retirement?
@First Gen-I found the being too smart one understandable as you may be out of the mainstream with typical success mentality and living in your own world a bit.
@moneycone-That’s an interesting take on the “think yourself rich” concept. Acutually, when I write down specific goals I almost always achieve them, so I guess you must be correct:)
@BNL-I like how you think. Attitude in so many things is key! Being happy with what you have, automatically increases your wealth in life.
@Krantcents-I completely understand your comment that, “wealthy is someone else.” No atter what you have, there is always someone with more and someone with less.
@Paula-Sounds like you hit the jackpot of wealthy traits. Being tall is really out of one’s control!!!! Although women can always wear heels!
@Andy-Yea, if you can’t control something, then why even bother thinking about it?
@Shenendoah-Define your own goal of wealth-I like it. Isn’t that what life is about, deciding what’s important to you?
@Maggie-Wow, you have accomplished a lot and have 4 grown kids to show for it!! I’m thrilled to have our only daughter a new college grad- I’m so proud of her, that gives me personal wealth!
@Suba-What’s with the tall one? Come on, no one can adjust their height. I just try to stand up straight and hope that helps
I fit all the traits except #2,#7 and #9
I also know a few “only childs” and
I have to say they are all smart and rich but not wealth
L Marie Joseph recently posted..How economic life is structured … Part 2
The 14 traits are interesting to read. I found it amusing because I only got optimism, healthy, educated, thin, non-materialistic, non-smoker and has a frugal lifestyle. Maybe I should learn to find ways to strengthen other qualities on the list. And maybe I should concentrate on setting the goals that are important.
Stephan Hilson recently posted..Comparateur de forfaits mobiles
I’d say I have most of these traits except the ones I can’t control: #2, 6, and 7 (though I was an only child for 8 years – does that count?!) And you’re completely right; how does being tall have anything to do with being more wealthy? All I know is I work on the traits I can control and strive to do better!
Little House recently posted..Gorilla Pod to the Rescue!
I do have most of them but I’m still not wealthy
Tushar@EverythingFinance recently posted..Pay Biweekly to Shave Years off Your Mortgage
I really like BNL approach to limiting want you want out of life, and the idea of wealth being relative. This list is more or less what I thought it would be. Does that mean I am knowledgeable or cynical?
My University Money recently posted..Public Vs Private Secondary Schools
2 Thoughts:
1. That list describes to a T. Now it’s just a waiting game…
2. I can’t believe Money Magazine actually published this article full of obvious traits.
I would have published your thoughts over theirs.
Funancials recently posted..Warren Buffett Dunks Over Lebron James!
@L Marie- Our daughter is an only child. Time will tell what her financial state will be
@Stephan-I vote with strengthening your own personal goals. What you value is what’s truly important.
@Little House-I give you the okay for the “only child for 8 years”
@Tushar-Guess it means wealth is not completely assessed from a list. Are you over 35 or 40? Wealth takes some time to amass.
@My university money- I’ll go with knowledgeable. I also think limiting your wants and appreciating what you have is a great way to feel wealthy.
I think I’m ok with about 9-10 of these. I’m working on #13, throwing some ideas around.
Hunter @ Financially Consumed recently posted..Prepare For A Hurricane Financially
Interesting list, if not all that surprising. It’s very easy to see a correlation between discipline, attitude, outlook and financial wealth.
Shame (but again not surprising) that a wealthy family is a defining characteristic of wealthy Americans.
Harri @ TotallyMoney recently posted..Friday grapevine: best of the blogs
Barb – I just love your action items! Knowing the traits doesn’t help without them.
Marie at FamilyMoneyValues recently posted..Tax Lien Certificate Sale –Researching Property in the County Recorder’s Office
@Hunter-Good luck with your entrepreneurial ventures!!
@Harri-Yes, not much we can do to control our parents financial status
@Marie-Thanks for the props. Action is the key to all success!
[...] Barbara Friedberg discusses rich people tips and traits. Mirroring actions of successful folks is not a bad way to develop good money habits. [...]
@Funancials-Thanks for the props. It’s always a waiting game-after you make your best efforts.
The traits you listed here are quite interesting. Majority of them are quite true. The bottom line is, the richest people, both in finances and in life, are optimistic, persistent, and disciplined people. It’s not that they’re born with it. They just realized that these traits are important in achieving goals. Whatever goals that might be. It just so happened that their goals are in line with making money. I think these traits automatically make one become smart.
Andrew Clarke
dallas prime lending recently posted..Buy a New Home with Little Down with the Help of FHA Loans
I would actually suggest (as you yourself do) that people should not be looking to match themselves up to the 14 traits. Instead people should be confident that like stocks, the past is no indicator of the future. In which case don’t worry about trying to be ‘like’ previous rich people. Instead try to become ‘you’ and thus an individual, a current rich person!
MultiMillionaireRoad recently posted..Frugality
@Dallas, It’s remarkable how frequently the terms persistent and disciplined come up when success is mentioned.
@Multi-I really like your emphasis on defining for oneself who you want to be. It’s way to easy to get “outside” focused. No one knows what’s right for you better than yourself.
The trait that struck me here is being persistent. I believe having this trait can really help you a lot to become rich.