{"id":2301,"date":"2012-08-20T12:34:56","date_gmt":"2012-08-20T19:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marketriders.com\/investing\/?p=2301"},"modified":"2016-12-21T07:34:22","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T15:34:22","slug":"how-rich-people-think-about-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marketriders.com\/investing\/how-rich-people-think-about-money\/","title":{"rendered":"How Rich People Think About Money (Really)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s talk about how rich people think about money, beginning with this famous quote: \u201cLet me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.\u201d<\/p>\n

So goes the line from the short story \u201cThe Rich Boy.” The great American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald was making a point about how money affects your mind<\/a>, but the quote (often misquoted) is a useful starting point for talking about how rich people think about money.<\/p>\n

\"How<\/a><\/p>\n

I know Hemingway\u2019s response: \u201cYes. They’ve got more money.\u201d But you, too, will have money if you save and invest properly. In fact, you will need to have money if you expect to retire at a reasonable age and to avoid becoming dependent<\/a> on your children or public assistance. Learning how rich people think about money really matters.<\/p>\n

Popular culture tends to focus on the more lurid, reality-TV aspects of wealth. Our ideas of how rich people think about money are skewed as well by media and Hollywood movies. Unfortunately, too many Americans buy into the notion that getting rich is about chance meetings, unfair advantages, sheer luck or, worse, the lottery.<\/p>\n

Sure, some rich people inherit. But many others started from zero and built themselves up (a more common\u00a0occurrence, but probably a very boring movie).\u00a0And having money while young can be as much a curse as a blessing.<\/p>\n

The bigger problem is not losing it all. Rich people are up against exactly the same risks we all face as savers and investors, and perhaps more so. While they can afford the highest levels of expertise and financial advice, they are also subject to the unwelcome attention of a far greater number of financial sharks, people who seem to mean well but only want to line their own pockets.<\/p>\n

So, how do the rich invest their money? The very, very rich (defined as having upwards of $100 million) invest in a mix of asset classes<\/a>, which they then regularly rebalance. It breaks down like this, according to one recent study:<\/p>\n