Are Most Millionaires Actually “Self-Made”?

The Money with Katie Show

Money with Katie

Self-improvement, Education, Business, Investing, How To

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2023

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Luck” is where opportunity meets preparation, right? Fantastic financial outcomes are the culmination of a lot of factors coalescing in a very specific way, but we tend to only focus on one: effort. So much American lore (and by extension, American…personal finance advice?) is constructed on the foundation of the self-made meritocracy. One such “statistic” that often gets touted in these conversations: Somewhere in the ballpark of 88% of US millionaires are “self-made.” But where does that figure come from? How was it determined? And where do its implications fall dangerously short? We chat with Shannon McNamara, host of the Fluently Forward podcast, all about it. Learn more about our sponsor, Vin Social: https://www.vinsocial.vip Learn more about our sponsor, TaxAct: https://www.taxact.com/moneywithkatie Learn more about our sponsor, Fidelity: https://fidelity.com/stocksbytheslice Transcripts can be found at podcast.moneywithkatie.com. — Mentioned in the Episode The Fluently Forward podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/mk/podcast/fluentlyforward/id1589952385 Here's How 9 Billionaires Start Their Mornings, per Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/billionaire-morning-routine-mornings-oprah-zuckerberg-bezos-musk-buffett-gates-2019-1 A History of Hating the Rich for the Saturday Evening Post: https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2020/02/a-history-of-hating-the-rich/ "88% of all millionaires are self-made," per US News: https://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/on-retirement/articles/7-myths-about-millionaires 2017 Fidelity Investments Study: https://institutional.fidelity.com/app/proxy/content?literatureURL=/9884619.PDF The National Study of Millionaires from Ramsey Solutions: https://www.ramseysolutions.com/retirement/the-national-study-of-millionaires-research US Bureau of Labor Statistics on inheritances: https://www.bls.gov/osmr/research-papers/2011/pdf/ec110030.pdf Hailey Baldwin Bieber on the Forbes 30 Under 30: https://people.com/style/hailey-bieber-lands-cover-of-forbes-30-under-30/ Kendall Jenner on work: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2018/08/207820/kendall-jenner-modeling-comments-response Kendall Jenner on "having to fly all over Europe:" https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/6416481/kendall-jenner-kardashian-out-touch-delusional-modeling-career/ Elon Musk on now-deleted Forbes article on his father's emerald mine: https://web.archive.org/web/20140802011449/http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimclash/2014/07/28/elon-musk-tells-me-his-secret-of-success-hint-it-aint-about-the-money/ 90% of millionaires are male: https://www.verdict.co.uk/90-percent-millionaires-male/ 8 Ways Rich People View the World Differently: https://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/11/8-ways-rich-people-view-the-world-differently-than-the-average-person.html — Follow Along at Money with Katie: https://moneywithkatie.com/ Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MoneywithKatie Follow Money with Katie! - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moneywithkatie/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/moneywithkatie Subscribe to The Money with Katie Newsletter - Sign up for free today: https://www.morningbrew.com/money-with-katie/subscribe/2 Follow the Brew! - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morningbrew/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/MorningBrew - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@morningbrew Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just work like hell. I mean, you just have to put in, you know, 80-hour, 80-100-hour weeks
0:07.2	every week.
0:10.2	And then all those things improve the odds of success.
0:14.2	Okay.
0:15.2	I mean, if other people are putting in 40-hour work weeks and you're putting in 100-hour
0:20.8	work weeks, then even if you're doing the same thing, you know, that in one year you
0:27.7	will achieve what they achieve.
0:29.5	You will achieve in four months what it takes them a year to achieve.
0:46.0	Welcome back to this week's episode of The Money with Katie Show, my rich family.
0:50.9	Here's a specific strain of online discourse that loves to study the rich.
0:57.1	And I spend a lot of time on Fintwit, thanks to my profession, or at least that's what
1:01.2	I'm telling myself.
1:02.8	And I routinely witness this obsession with figuring out how rich people got that way.
1:16.0	Even it involves a certain projection of wealthy people cause playing poverty or engaging
1:21.8	in other quirky behavior that we kind of zero in on and assume it must be some trade secret
1:29.2	of the billionaire class.
1:30.9	Like we love to examine and highlight the ultra-fugal or otherwise extreme habits of wealthy
1:36.7	people and then imply a causal relationship where it's not clear that one actually exists.
1:44.0	This is a distinct shift from the way people use to obsess over celebrities and starlets
1:50.7	for their glamorous lives and paternity scandals.
1:54.2	Now we're interested in, and let's be honest a little bit in awe of, anyone with money,
2:00.5	not just celebrities, which seems to be a clear line of demarcation between 21st century
	...

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