quarta-feira, 6 de janeiro de 2010

10 secrets that millionaires keep- Parte 3

7. "I was a B student."

Mom was right when she said good grades are the key to success -- just not necessarily a big bank account. According to the book "The Millionaire Mind," the median college grade-point average for millionaires is 2.9, and the average SAT score is 1,190 -- hardly Harvard material. In fact, 59% of millionaires attended a state college or university, according to AmEx-Harrison.
When asked to list the keys to their success, millionaires rank hard work first, then education, determination and "treating others with respect." They also say that what they absorbed in class was less important than learning how to study and stay disciplined, says Jim Taylor, the vice chairman of the Harrison Group.
Granted, 48% of millionaires hold an advanced degree, and elite colleges do open doors to careers on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley (not to mention social connections that grease the wheels).
But for every Ph.D. millionaire, there are many more who squeaked through school. Kiyosaki, for one, says the only way he survived college calculus was by "sitting near" the smart kids in class. "We cheated like crazy," he says.

8. "Like my Ferrari? It's a rental."

Why spend $3,000 on a Versace bag that'll be out of style as soon as next season when you can rent it for $175 a month? For that matter, why blow $250,000 on a Ferrari when for $25,000 it can be yours for a few weekends a year? Clubs that offer "fractional ownership" of jets have been popular for some time, and now the concept has extended to other high-end luxuries like exotic cars and fine art.
How hot is the trend? More than 50% of millionaires say they plan to rent luxury goods within the next 12 months, according to a survey by Prince & Associates. Handbags topped the list, followed by cars, jewelry, watches and art. Online companies like Bag Borrow or Steal, for example, cater to customers who always want new designer accessories and jewelry, for prices starting at $15 a week.
For Suzanne Garner, a millionaire software engineer in Santa Clara, Calif., owning a $100,000 car doesn't make financial sense (she drives a Mazda Miata). Instead, Garner pays up to $30,000 in annual membership fees to Club Sportiva, a fractional-ownership car club in San Francisco that lets her take out Ferraris, Lamborghinis and other exotic vehicles on weekends.
"I'm all about the car," she says. And so are other people, it seems. While stopped at a light in a Ferrari recently, Garner received a marriage proposal from a guy in a pickup. (She declined the offer.)

9. "Turns out money can buy happiness."

It may not be comforting to folks who aren't minting cash, but the rich really are different. "There's no group in America that's happier than the wealthy," says Taylor, of the Harrison Group.
Roughly 70% of millionaires say that money "created" more happiness for them, he says. Higher income also correlates with higher ratings in life satisfaction, according to a new study by economists at the Wharton School of Business. But it's not necessarily the Bentley or Manolo Blahniks that lead to bliss.
"It's the freedom that money buys," says Betsey Stevenson, a co-author of the Wharton study. (See "7 ways to buy happiness.")
Concomitantly, rates of depression are lower among the wealthy, according to the Wharton study, and the rich tend to have better health than the rest of the population, says James Smith, senior labor economist at the Rand Corporation. In fact, health and happiness are as closely correlated as wealth and happiness, Smith says.
The wealthy even seem to smile and laugh more often, according to the Wharton study, to say nothing of getting treated with more respect and eating better food.
"People experience their day very differently when they have a lot of money," Stevenson says.

10. "You worry about the Joneses. I worry about keeping up with the Trumps."

Wealth may go a long way toward creating happiness, but the middle-class rich still can't afford the life of the billionaire next door, the guy who writes charity checks for $100,000 and retreats to his own private island.
"What makes people happy isn't how much they're making," says Glenn Firebaugh, a sociologist at Pennsylvania State University. "It's how much they're making relative to their peers." (See "How rich friends make you feel poor.")
Indeed, for all their riches, some 40% of millionaires fear that their standard of living will decline in retirement and that their money will run out before they die, according to Fidelity.
Of course, it may not help if their lifestyle is so lavish that they're barely squeaking by on hundreds of thousands a year.
"You can always be happier with more money," Stevenson says. "There's no satiation point." But that's the trouble with keeping up with the Trumps. "Millionaires are always looking up," Schiff says, "and think it's better up there."

This article was reported and written by Daren Fonda for SmartMoney.

Published Sept. 2, 2008

0 comentários:

Postar um comentário