Quote: (01-02-2018 02:40 PM)Genghis Khan Wrote:
From personal experience:
My dad has a networth in the 8 figures.
For most of my life, I though we were middle class, maybe even lower class considering how little money we spent. I had the shittiest clothes and other items in school.
First time my dad ever brought up he had a million was when I was 16 years, way past the age that money would have a significant influence on me.
I didn't even know how rich he was until he told me a few years back, when I was in my mid-twenties and already independent.
That's how I plan to bring up my own kids - live a normal, middle class life, and only reveal my wealth once it seems they're responsible kids/adults. I'll never let my money turn my prodigy into spoiled brats.
This is very very similar to my life.
My father was working class, very working class, as in the toilet was outside the house, old school working class.
He left school at 14-15, my grandparents made him learn a foreign language and he joined the civil service.
Once in the civil service he worked very hard, took himself to a senior level, and then took early retirement and set up his own business with a colleague which was quite successful.
Growing up, I always thought my family were middle class, and not the top end.
They did not spend money wastefully, more importantly, they never spoiled me, though I never wanted for anything I needed.
They sent me to a very posh private school, were most others were stupendously rich to what I believed my family were (and probably were at that time).
I look back and think of the spoiled kids in my school, who when passing there driving test, daddy gave them a new BMW. Me, I walked into school the next day.
Imagine, my surprise when recently I found out my familys net worth was 7 figures (low 7 figures). I am technically a HNWI.
I work, in a job which is paid an average wage, but before the possibilities of wealth were opened up to me, I lived a good life, which would have seemed beyond my means, but was due to the lessons my parents gave me as I grew up. Additionally, I took whatever I earned and invested it, and I have personal assets of about 200,000.
Anyway, my upbringing has shown me, as others have said, those who are born into money, and spoiled end up failing, and/or going of the rails, whilst those whose family is a bit stricter with them seem to thrive.
Additionally, I seem to have become something of a social chameleon due to my upbringing, which has allowed me to fit in pretty much wherever I want.
I think, if you are going to be rich, you have to have faced some adversity in your life, to not be a complete fuckup. Whether you join the army for a tour, or your family business takes a knock in a recession, or your parents force you to do a paper round when you are 8 for pocket money, these things should instill some common sense and stop you being a dumb rich kid.