Billionaire Sam Zell: "The 1% work harder."

[joeglow3]

38. Statistically, those are small numbers

In the media, we see the pieces of crap who did nothing but win the birthing lottery and assume they make up a much larger pool than they do. I read that around 80% of wealthy people are first generation rich.

The majority millionaires actually got the money by consistently investing in the market over a period spanning decades.

My wife and I are doing well and I don't feel sorry about it. Looking at his list an how I believe it applies to me:

1. I consider myself a hard worker. We had an exceptionally busy March-October this last year due to a major acquisition and I worked my ass off, averaging over 75 hours a week. One week, I worked 127 out of 168 hours.
2. I busted my ass in college and got a masters in Accounting.
3. As I said above, I started out at less that $100 month, 14 years ago, but have always consistently paid myself first before ANY bills and have increased the savings rate with every possibility.
4. I constantly have lunches with ex-workers and belong to multiple professional organizations
5. I consider myself as having a plan
6. I would like to think I am smart
7. I am the son of a union drywaller who remembers points in our life when my parents struggled to put food on the table.

Now, one thing I WOULD add to his list: their parents most likely stayed married. A recently saw a study that said the single greatest predictor of a child's lifetime success was the marital status of their parents.