This recent article in the NY Times backs up the research on affluent professionals. Affluent professionals are defined as attorneys, physicians, accountants and dentists who are worth more than $500,000 minus the value of their primary residence.

Spectrem research has found that to reach the upper echelons of income, attorney and doctor are not the ways to go anymore. As the NY Times article points out, college drop outs or academic nare-do-wells like Shawn Fanning (founder of Napster), Tom Anderson (president of Myspace), and of course the ultimate drop-out done good Bill Gates, are the new heroes for young Americans who are thinking about what professions to pursue.

Indeed, 30% of those who are worth more than $25MM+ are Business Owners or Entrepreneurs rather than the 2% that are Physicians or Dentists and the 5% that are Attorneys. The second biggest group at that highest affluence level is Senior Corporate Executives at 25%. The way to get rich and, now a days, famous is to start a company, create a new website, or invent something. The real life heroes of the Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are surpassing the fictional lawyers and doctors in the minds of America's youth.

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