A story by an anonymous friend
I’m currently 17, and my parents net worth and income qualify us to be in the 1% of the United States. My mom is the main breadwinner of our family, as she’s an executive at a Fortune 500 company. Although our family makes more money through stocks than her salary, at this point. My family has an estate plan, and a trust fund set up for my brother and I.
People tend to have this idea that the rich are very flashy with their wealth, but that’s not true at all. The “nouveau riche” might be flashy, but they rarely keep onto their wealth for long. They usually are in debt, honestly. Someone who is in the 1% and actually plans on maintaining and growing their wealth will live modestly for their means. Take my family, for example: we could easily afford a much more expensive home, but instead we live in a 4 bedroom, 3 bath home worth less than my parent’s combined yearly salary. We could afford to have 3 or 4 luxury cars if we really wanted to, but my family has a 2011 Toyota and a 2006 Honda. The point is, while we might not own the most expensive things, we own these things without debts. No car payments, no mortgage. We look like an upper middle class family to anyone else.
There is something freeing about being in the 1%. I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to afford secondary education. I can apply to any private college I want to, and it’s still within my parent’s means. If my parents lose their jobs-we wouldn’t suffer, because we have enough in investments to be comfortable. If the economy takes a downturn- we wouldn’t suffer, because my parents make a high enough salary. If my parents lose their job AND the economy takes a downturn, we would have to tighten our budget, but ultimately we have enough savings that we’d be fine.
I try to keep my family’s financial background a secret to my friends. If my peers knew this, they’d treat me a lot differently. People usually guess that my family is above average, probably upper middle class. If they knew how much my family’s “worth”, I think people would expect me to wear designer clothes, have my own car, or travel internationally. Not even my closest friend knows how much my family is “worth”, and I don’t want them to either.
My family also has connections, although they are very modest compared to some families’ connections. I know someone my age who gets to spend his weekends golfing with NFL players because of his much wealthier family’s connections.
Connections aren’t all that big of a deal to people outside of the 1%, it seems. Knowing someone might be useful, but knowing someone who knows someone? Most people outside the 1% wouldn’t care. That’s something I have yet to fully rap my head around.
We have enough connections to local politics that if my parent’s really want something to get done, they stand a 50/50 chance of getting it done. My parents use their connections for what they believe is right, not for what will benefit them financially. They’ve helped keep local parks clean and prevent regulations from being loosened around waste being dumped into local waterways.
I really learned about my parents connections when I did a research project last year for school about mismanagement of funds in my city’s government. My parents helped me “read between the lines”.
Most people in the 1% (except for maybe the top few) don’t have influence directly because of their money, but because of their connections. Everyone mostly socializes with people who are in the same social class as themselves. It follows that if you mostly socialize with other millionaires, there’s a high probability that some of those millionaires you socialize with are industry leaders, politicians, and professionals who are more than happy to give what advantage they can to their friends. It’s not dissimilar to how the smartest kids in my grade have no qualms about letting their friends cheat off of them, but get offended when someone they aren’t close with tries to do the same.
I think the biggest advantage that the 1% have over the 99% is that if I or my family hit hard times we’ll be okay. This gives us the willingness to take risks that can lead to more opportunities and bigger gains in the future
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