In our discussion of how much money it takes to rank among the top 1% of wealth in the United States, we uncovered the fact that roughly 80 out of every 100 members of the “new elite” in the United States – those with at least $5 million to $10 million in liquid net worth…
In economics, opportunity cost is defined as the cost of not choosing the next, best alternative for your money or time. Everything in life has an opportunity cost. If you want to go to the movies with friends it means you can’t stay home and read a good book. If you want to spend cash on…
Mental Model: Cui Bono Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravilla was a famous Roman judge, who, according to Marcus Tullius Cicero, was regarded as an “honest and wise” man. He was known for a habit of constantly asking the question, “Cui bono?“, which roughly translates into “who benefits?”. In a crime or a political scheme, Lucius Cassius…
Yesterday, I explained how most of the people in the Occupy Wall Street protest haven’t yet realized the struggle isn’t between the rich and the poor – it is between the knowledge workers and manual workers, which Peter Drucker predicted in startling detail decades ago. Charles Hughes, a professor at Henderson State University, had…
I’m going to let you in on a secret. It’s not much of a secret for those who study economics or pay attention to the world. In fact, it’s been known for some time except to the average guy on the street, who is busy living his life and supporting his family. He thinks the…
We already looked at how much money it takes to be in the top 1% of wealth in the United States. Now we are going to look further into the top 1% of wealth. This category, those who have between $5 and $10 million in investments, has been called by some The New Elite. Personally,…
I spent years working out my thoughts on a wide range of topics only to discover that John Stuart Mill had come to many of the same conclusions long before I was even born. I wish I had found his writings as a teenager.
What does it take to be in the top 1% of wealth in the United States? Many of you write me and ask that question, hoping someday to make it into the top 1% of net worth but not sure where that line gets drawn. I thought it might be useful to provide a reference to which I could point people in the future whenever they write, as well as make for some interesting afternoon reading for those of you who are curious about the nature of the economic world in which we live.
I write a lot about investing in stock and investing in bonds over at Investing for Beginners at About.com, a division of The New York Times. There is a reason I tend to be far more favorable to equity investments (stocks) than fixed income investments (bonds) when it comes to long-term investing and why much…
My lunch with friends yesterday turned into a 3 to 4 hour event as we hung out at a local independent pizza parlor and discussed kids, love, True Blood, taxes, and a host of other things. The topic of poverty came up (as is inevitably bound to happen when the group includes a social worker,…
