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How Much Does One Need to be Rich?

The wealthy say at least $5 million.

Achieving such a fortune is the focus of the new book “Get Rich, Stay Rich, Pass It On: The Wealth Accumulation Secrets of America's Richest Families”

CHICAGO, January 7, 2008 – How much money does it take to be considered rich? It turns out that $1 million just doesn’t cut it, anymore.

In fact, rich today requires at least $5 million, according to a new survey of affluent households, defined as those with investable assets of $500,000 or more. When asked how much money it takes to be rich, 45% chose $5 million, 25% selected $25 million, and 8% picked $100 million, according to the research by Millionaire Corner (http://www.millionairecorner.com/index.php), a newly launched website powered by Spectrem Group. Only 22% said $1 million is enough to be rich.

Achieving such wealth – and holding onto it for generations – is the topic of a new book by Spectrem’s Catherine S. McBreen and George H. Walper, Jr. titled “Get Rich, Stay Rich, Pass It On: The Wealth Accumulation Secrets of America's Richest Families” (http://getrichstayrich.net/). Published this month by Portfolio and available in bookstores now, the book is based on years of research in addition to interviews with ordinary individuals who were able to amass enough wealth to pass on to future generations. “All you really need is to know how to use the same wealth-building tools Carnegie and du Pont and all the other progenitors of sustainable fortunes used,” McBreen and Walper write. “They created the model but they didn’t patent it. It’s available for your use, and this book is the operating manual.”

The authors found that the proper mix of entrepreneurial activities and income-producing real estate is the key to achieving building perpetual wealth. “Get Rich, Stay Rich, Pass It On” walks readers through not only the theory but the practice of building sustainable fortunes. It not only lays out the model, but provides exercises to help readers bring their own finances into focus and determine what they need to do to develop perpetual wealth of their own.

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The data on how much it takes to be rich are based on 253 telephone interviews conducted in December 2007, with a margin of error of plus or minus 6.2 percentage points. Interviews were conducted with the financial decision-makers in households with $500,000 or more in investable assets.