
IRS Wealth Statistics Paint Fascinating Picture of Top One Percent - jermaustin1
https://evergreensmallbusiness.com/irs-wealth-statistics-paint-fascinating-picture-top-one-percent/
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ashark
Anyones else getting really strong vibes of "author doesn't understand what
they're analyzing" from this?

[edit] In particular, they seem to spend a lot of space marveling over
marginal utility as if they'd never encountered such a thing, yet fail to
mention it by name, and there are gems like: "curiously, the wealthiest
Americans hold relatively modest balances in their retirement accounts" for
which the author betrays no hint of having used "curiously" rhetorically and
doesn't attempt to explain when, to a person like me who knows almost nothing
about finance and economics, the reason seems obvious, unless they mean
something different by "retirement account" than what I think they do (tax-
privileged accounts like IRA and 401k). The word "trust" also does not appear
in the article's body text. The apparent "gee, look how wrong these other
stats are" at the beginning seems wholly unjustified without further analysis
which is absent (i.e. most likely the author didn't notice that the difference
is due to some methodological differences between the sources, or in some
other way failed to understand what they were comparing, rather than such a
source _actually_ being so far off)

~~~
choward
I still have no idea what his point was.

~~~
gabesullice
There wasn't a point, the post is just published personal musings... And
that's okay. And awesome.

This feels like a throwback to a pre social media internet. Just some guy,
somewhere, passionate about a topic noodling with the amazing wealth of
information that can be had online (IRS financial data).

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fpgaminer
Ignoring the ... quality issues of this post, looking at the statistics of
wealth _is_ interesting.

The author points out a couple times the sub-optimal investment strategies
apparent in this data, and reads into them under the assumption that the
wealthy must have some trick of their sleeves and so their investment
strategies must just go _beyond_ us mere mortals.

I don't concur. I think, rather, most everyone is financially naive.
_Especially_ wealthy people. Why? Here's an example.

Doctors make a lot of money. And yet the vast majority of doctors are abysmal
when it comes to A) running a business and B) managing money. And it makes
sense, because doctors have to spend the vast majority of their young adult
lives in school, and then the rest of their lives in a high stress, high
demand work place. There's no time to pick up those skills.

There's no reason to suspect that anything different happens for the wealthy
in America. You don't just acquire skill with money simply because you have or
it, or earn a lot of it. Most of the super wealthy are people like actors,
athletes, etc. None of them would have the time or inclination to be
proficient in finance.

Even in the case of wealthy business people, aptitude in business does not
necessarily translate into aptitude with money. It sounds a bit contradictory
at first glance, but managing finances is actually one of the least important
things when it comes to running a business. It's mostly an after thought. It's
just that it tends to be salient and a common topic of discussion. Zuckerberg
isn't wealthy because he's good with money. He's wealthy because he had a good
business idea with good execution. It's why the CEO isn't a CFO.

In other words, at the very least I believe the wealthy are as illiterate when
it comes to money as the average American. But more likely they're worse,
because being successful tends to mean being hyper focused on one specific
goal in exclusion of other things.

And don't forget, your ideas about what wealth looks like and how the wealthy
live ... comes mostly from celebrities; people who build their business on
appearances. So no wonder they want to portray an image of 1) extravagance and
2) aptitude.

~~~
charlesdm
I think it depends on your personality. You can be more of a visionary (i.e. a
Zuckerberg) and make a lot of money. Or you can be a numbers person (i.e. a
Warren Buffet) and be good at investing. Or a speculator (i.e. George Soros).
Or a good operator but not a visionary. Etc

A lot of it comes down to personality and personal preference of what you
like. The path and approach to wealth building can be and is different for
everyone.

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nasredin
Click bait. Do not waste your time.

>Looking at the finances of people who have more money that you or I do can be
a little unsettling. If we’re not careful, the financial voyeurism can also
foster a sense of ingratitude. That’s not good…

"Ingratitude"?

Right after US congress passed the tax cut that will add 1,000,000,000 to the
deficit?

Is the author - "Steve" \- funded by the Mercers or the Kochs?

~~~
maxxxxx
Don't forget that they will be creating jobs for you and me. So there is
reason to be grateful.

~~~
anigbrowl
I hope that was ironic, because if you believe that excessive taxes were what
was holding down job and wage growth then oh boy are you in for a surprise.

~~~
maxxxxx
I was sarcastic.

~~~
nasredin
After I read your comment I thought: That is clever! Should he have included a
sarcasm tag at the end? Living dangerously!

And of course you got down voted.

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bcheung
This seems like a rather naive approach to understanding the top one percent.
Interviewing them and actually talking to them about their financial
strategies seems like a much better idea. Many people have done this and there
are books written from this perspective. It doesn't surprise me in the
slightest that they don't have much in their retirement accounts or mutual
funds. Those are very middle class vehicles that are very inefficient. Most of
the wealthy put their money in real estate investments, their own businesses,
and high cash value life insurance.

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pmc1
Great article. Its sad that wealth automatically portrays hate in many peoples
eyes. Jabs at the author don't advance anything and are not appropriate HN is
better than that

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cmurf
I found this more interesting and relevant:
[http://www.people.hbs.edu/mnorton/norton%20ariely%20in%20pre...](http://www.people.hbs.edu/mnorton/norton%20ariely%20in%20press.pdf)

What is the optimum level of wealth inequality? First they put together what
most people think is a fair distribution of wealth, then have those people
estimate what they think it actually is, and then compare it to the actual
distribution of wealth. Most people have the right idea that wealth inequality
is not optimal, but they're way way off on estimating how suboptimal it is.

This is a screen shot of one of the charts in the doc.
[https://screenshots.firefox.com/EnpiKHzPzi7X2cGw/www.people....](https://screenshots.firefox.com/EnpiKHzPzi7X2cGw/www.people.hbs.edu)

