Even the Rich Need to Spend Less than They Earn

I've noted before that it doesn't matter whether you make $30,000 a year or $130,000 a year -- if you spend more than you make, your net worth will be going backward. In fact, I've posted a lot on the subject of spending less than you earn. Some of my favorite posts on the subject are:

• Poverty to Prosperity
• How You Can Become Wealthy
• It's Not What You Make, It's What You Spend, Part 3

So when I ran into this article from the Washington Post that stated rich people have the same problems as poor people if they spend more than they earn, I just had to share it. Here are their main thoughts:

Upper-income Americans suffer from some of the same problems as other families but may not know it.

That's because the affluent in this category don't just earn more, they spend more. The typical family has $25,800 worth of vehicles, $10,000 more than the average family. They have a median of $11,000 in cash savings, but as a proportion of their incomes, that's only a little better rate of saving than all families.

It's basic math, people! If you spend more than you earn, it doesn't matter what you make -- you're still going backward. But, if you spend less than you earn, you're taking the first step on the path to prosperity.

Comments

[LAMoneyGuy]

In the financial services field, Doctors are often referred to as Money Dumb. You know, "M.D." As my Dad always said, "it doesn't matter how much you make, it's what you keep that counts."

[thc]

Many affluent folks actively try to reduce their net worths through gifting, charitable contributions and other estate reduction techniques so that their money goes where they want rather than to estate taxes.

[twb]

I'm not sure the person who wrote that article really understands much themselves about getting ahead. First off, 104,000 in income is not in a range that most people I know would consider high or afluent. Then the part about 25,800 in cars? That doesn't seem excesive to me considering most families have 2 cars. Sounds like these people are driving used cars worth about 13k. Again, that doesn't seem out of bounds.

The article also states the average person in this mix has a net worth of 311,000. Ok, but without more info, like how old these people are, it's not possible to say if thats good or bad.

Certainly 11,000 in saving is pathetic, but if 11k is in saving and 100k is in their business' where's the rest of the net worth coming from? We're missing 200K.

Articles like this make people like us who are building net worth feel good but,I would bet the farm this author has no more financial sense than the people he's reporting on. Just noise IMO.

[FMF]

I can agree that many writers know little about personal finances. When you see some of the stuff that they say, it's clear that they don't have a clue.

But I think the spirit of the article is correct: it doesn't matter what you make, if you spend more than this amount, you're going backward. Do you disagree with this? It seems simple and basic math to me, but maybe I'm missing something.

In addition, while you may think that $104,000 income is not that high, it puts a person in the top 20% of all incomes in the U.S. (see http://www.osjspm.org/101_income.htm#4 -- a bit old, but I found it in 30 seconds, probably could find more with a bit more googling) which is probably in the top few percentages of income in the world. Facts say it is among the top-level incomes out there, so I don't think there's much debate here either.

[twb]

FMF, obviously the key to acquiring wealth is spending less than you earn. I'm not debating that issue whatsoever.

I just thought this article was shallow to the point of nonsense. For example,the title was "Even The Rich Need To Spend Less". Well, I don't know about you, but someone making 104K ain't rich to me. That was my point regarding income. Not that 104K is measley, but rich? Come on!

Then there was the cars. 25k in cars doesn't fall into the crazy spending catagory to me. What was the point?

Then he throws out a net worth number without any explanation. Your obviously a smart guy. If I said to you, I make 104k, I own 25K worth of cars and have a net worth of 300k, how am I doing? What would you say? I suspect you'd say about what I would which is essentially, I dunno it depends.

Look, I'm not challenging the premise that in order to get ahead you have to chose to spend less than you could. I don't know why, but this writer just struck me as some 20 something writing about an issue they really don't know much about themselves. I guess when the title suggests were going to talk about "rich" people and then in the 1st paragraph we define rich as someone earing 104k I have to wonder about whose writing this thing and how much they really know about money in general.

Consider this just a rant on my part and not a challenge of the premise that getting ahead requires keeping as much of what you earn as possible.

[FMF]

Fair enough. I'll warn the author that you may be on the lookout for him. ;-)

BTW, I've often thought of doing a piece on financial writers -- their net worths, investments, etc. I've seen enough of them comment on various topics that I'm guessing they are at the level of average Americans (which isn't good) at BEST.