‘The Difference’ between you and the rich

Some people seem to move relatively easily from paycheck to paycheck into comfort or wealth, while others get stuck or worse, fall back. What are the attributes and abilities that set them apart? Do they exhibit common behaviors and personalities? In her new book, “The Difference,” financial expert Jean Chatzky lays out the four types of people that make up today's economic strata in America, and shares tips on how people can move up to being financially comfortable or even wealthy. An excerpt.

Meet the wealthy
Confident. Driven. Intuitive. Resilient. Only 3 percent of Americans are truly wealthy. But there is no doubt it’s good to be one of them. On average, they have investable assets (not including home equity) of nearly $2 million, but we also categorized them as wealthy if they had achieved significant wealth at a younger age:

• $1 million or more for ages 55 or older

• $750,000 or more for ages 45–54

• $500,000 or more for ages 35–44

• $250,000 or more if under age 35

What made them wealthy? The vast majority didn’t get there overnight. Nor did they get there because someone died or handed them a check. In fact, nearly nine out of ten said their wealth developed over time. They credit a combination of the Top Twenty factors for their success. Some are attitudes or attributes that seem to make up their personality; others are habits that support wealth. Both are needed to build a life of lasting wealth. When you have the habits without the personality, you are likely to be financially comfortable, but it’s less likely you’ll become truly wealthy. When you get the attitudes without the habits, the picture is even less rosy. We have all met that person who is able to get job after job but never climbs the ladder. Without solid financial habits, paycheck-to-paycheck is usually where they get stuck.

Seven traits of the wealthy personality

Optimism. Optimism is an expectation that good things are going to be plentiful. The wealthy generally have the sense that life will bring good rather than bad outcomes. That doesn’t mean they believe that good things will be omnipresent, but that they will outnumber the not so-good.

Resilience. The wealthy are confident in their abilities to overcome bad situations — on the job, in their personal lives, with their finances. Many have triumphed over dismal financial starts. And, unlike most of the population that hops from job to job, career to career, the wealthy are much more likely to stick with what they start.

Connectedness. The wealthy are people magnets. They are connected to people in all aspects of life — they have circles of family, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. One sign of a wealthy person is that others are willing to work for him or her, sometimes for less than they are worth on the open market.

Drive. The wealthy want to succeed. Some want that success to arrive in the form of money (and that’s OK). But most are quite passionate about the careers they choose to pursue. Not succeeding at these pursuits is, quite frankly, not an option.

Curiosity. The wealthy are likely to have gone to college. But it’s not just classroom education that sets them apart. They are always learning, consistently reading books for pleasure and newspapers to keep up with the world. This may be a habit learned in childhood; most wealthy individuals report that their parents read to them when they were young.

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Intuition. The wealthy somehow know precisely whom they should be dealing with and whom to walk away from. And they listen to those gut instincts.

Confidence. When the wealthy take a calculated risk — such as starting a business or buying investment real estate—they don’t see it as much of a risk at all.

Four habits of the wealthy

Work hard. The wealthy work harder — and sleep less — than other people. They are more likely to mix work with their downtime, sacrificing personal time for professional success. But because they tend to be passionate about what they do, it’s less likely that they see it as a chore.

Save habitually. Wealthy people certainly have the funds to be crazy spenders, but most are not. In fact, some seven out of ten say that saving more money has been an “absolutely essential” financial goal as an adult. They typically pay off their full credit card balance each month.

Invest soundly and aggressively. The wealthy are more likely to invest in stocks or stock mutual funds. They understand that even in down markets they need to take risks in the market in order to make their money work as hard as they do. They are also more likely to invest in real estate (above and beyond buying their own homes).

Give back. The wealthy are grateful and they show it by giving back to their communities, to organizations they believe in, and to people they care about.

Interestingly, although the PTPs and FIDs are likely to blame their financial troubles on bad luck, the wealthy say they didn’t get there by virtue of a lucky break. They got there by landing a good-paying job and sticking with it. Or by creating, as an entrepreneur, a good paying job for themselves.

It’s also important to note that many of the truly wealthy individuals — the millionaires — in our study didn’t describe themselves as wealthy. Instead they described themselves as “financially comfortable.” Wealth, it still seems, is relative. You’re less likely to see yourself as wealthy, even if you live in a huge home on a big plot of land with millions of dollars in the bank, if the neighbors to the left and the right of you have tens of millions in the bank. Likewise, you’re less likely to see yourself as wealthy if you run a successful small business, when the other members of your social set run successful midsize ones. Of course, the rest of America — and most of the world — indeed views you as wealthy.

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With wealth, you get a greater degree of contentment with the other aspects of your life. Although study after study has shown that wealth in and of itself can’t buy you real happiness or inner peace (and my own research noted that people who believe it can are less satisfied with their lives as a result), as you climb the ladder of financial success, you do become more satisfied with many parts of your existence: your family life, social life, health, religious life, even your sex life.

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