The Thin Green Line: How I Learned the Difference Between Being Wealthy and Rich and Why It Matters to Everyone
Paul Sullivan
Language: English
Pages: 177
ISBN: 2:00283957
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The “Wealth Matters” columnist of The New York Times reveals the habits, worldviews, and practices that lead to true wealth—and why it’s more important to be “wealthy” than “rich.”
For the better part of the past decade, Paul Sullivan has written about and lived among some of the wealthiest people in America. He has learned how they save, spend, and invest their money; how they work and rest; how they use their wealth to give their children educational advantages but not strip them of motivation. He has also seen how they make horrendous mistakes. Firsthand, Sullivan knows why some people, even “rich” people, never find true wealth, and why other people, even those who have far less are much wealthier.
Sullivan is part of the “The One Percent” today, but he came from far humbler roots, starting life in the bottom twenty-five percent. This personal book shows how others can make better financial decisions—and come to terms with what money means to them. It lays out how they can avoid the pitfalls around saving, spending and giving their money away and think differently about wealth to lead more secure and less stressful lives. An essential complement to all of the financial advice available, this unique guide is a welcome antidote to the idea that wealth is a number on a bank statement.
no correlation to a person’s ability to advise them. “They’ll always say, ‘He’s such a handsome man. He has a good golf handicap. And he’s got a lovely family,’ ” Stuller said with a quick laugh. “These are utterly meaningless when it comes to picking an adviser. People don’t know if he’s a trust officer or a wealth adviser, an asset manager or fee-only planner.” A willingness to trust is good in other areas of life, such as marriage, but it may not be beneficial in investing. So what should you
said. “But we’re predisposed to listening to someone telling us something we want to believe, in this case about the investment being good. We’re not good at taking an unbiased view of opportunity, particularly when they’re coming to us with the investment.” The best schemers know to target affinity groups—churches, neighborhoods, clubs—so that people see their friends getting something good and want in on it—or wonder why they haven’t been asked. Bernie Madoff, after all, ran his scheme by
That meant when he arrived on campus in 1993, he lived in the “minority students dorm,” which was filled with financial-aid students from inner-city neighborhoods who had nothing in common with Khan beyond their nonwhite skin. Khan’s parents were both immigrants: his father from Pakistan and his mother from Ireland. They were thrilled that they could give Khan and his brother private-school educations, but Khan said he struggled with the easy access St. Paul’s provided to the top colleges in
to get ahead,” Piff said. “When the economic times are literally tough, wealthier people want to maximize personal achievement. It’s a question of what do you value.” The terms wealthier and community are always relative. As I wrote in the chapter on debt, with the overleveraged people of Darien, Connecticut, some of the people in these communities are affluent by any measure, but they may not be as wealthy as the family with the home on the water. This perception may make them more community
2012. I spoke with Mark Curtis on February 22, 2013, with Michael Conway June 11, 2012, and with Don Ross on May 21, 2012. I met with Stuart Sternberg on May 22, 2012, at Kneaded Bread in Port Chester, New York. I met with Tim Noonan on April 1, 2014, at Rosie in New Canaan, Connecticut. I interviewed Ed Marinaro on April 20, 2012, and Roger Staubach on June 8, 2012. CHAPTER 6 I went to the Westover School on May 10, 2012. I interviewed Susan Beacham three times, first on July 17, 2012. The