YAHOO.Shortcuts.annotationSet=YAHOO.Shortcuts.annotationSet||{};A business of your own can help you realize your dream of financial independence. All you need to succeed is motivation, some no-nonsense planning, a competitive spirit and the energy to achieve your goals.
One of the best ways to financial success is a successful business. If your business is profitable, the equity you build can […]

When you’re young and rich, risk is your friend. At least that’s what the conventional wisdom tells us.
Yet a new study from Northern Trust shows millionaires in their 30s are better diversified across all asset classes than millionaires in their 50s and 60s are.
According to the study, Gen X investors between 28 and 42 with […]

America’s richest man, Bill Gates, takes the stage in Davos today to plead the case of the world’s poor.
The Microsoft chairman is unveiling a plan he calls “creative capitalism” — using market forces to better address the needs of the poor. It’s described by Rob Guth in the Journal today, and refines some of the […]

A number of Web outfits have picked up on a fascinating speech given by New York-based luxury expert Andrew Sacks to the Leading Hotels of the World annual conference held in Monte Carlo. His talk was about about connecting with the wealthy, and the overuse of the term “luxury.” I’ve been harping on this myself: […]

In today’s Journal Gregory Zuckerman brings us news of the biggest one-year salary ever paid on Wall Street — that of hedge-funder John Paulson, who made somewhere between $3 billion and $4 billion last year. That’s right, between $3 billion and $4 billion. In one year.
To put that in perspective, Mr. Paulson’s salary equals […]

My Krugman post brought a lot of emails asking about my assertion that “the vast majority of today’s rich didn’t inherit their money, but made it themselves.”
For the sake of brevity, I didn’t cite the research behind the statement. But since many of you have asked, and we aim to please here at the Wealth […]

I just came across a very interesting article on Guy Kawasaki’s blog titled Top Ten Myths of Entrepreneurship. Definitely an eye opener and a must read for new entrepreneurs.

The Grand Luxe yacht. Credit: Expoships

It seemed like the perfect match: yachts and fine art, two of priciest “passions” of today’s rich.
When Expoships launched its $30 million Grande Luxe yacht, a 228-foot-long floating art gallery with 28 commercial galleries on board, the company said it had invented a new kind of “mobile luxury […]

In his new book “The Conscience of a Liberal,” Paul Krugman takes on the argument that inequality doesn’t impose any social costs. His foil is Irving Kristol, who wrote a 1997 article in the Journal called “Income Inequality Without Class Conflict.”
Mr. Kristol asserted then that class distinctions are all but gone: “In all of our […]

A net worth of $1.4 million will put you in the top 5% of Americans, according to the Federal Reserve. Yet to the wealthy today, having $1 million (including the value of your homes and certain retirement assets) seems like chump change.

How much do you need to be rich? Here’s what affluent people surveyed […]