Transcripts

George Walper:
Only about 20 - 25% of these individuals inherited their wealth. The rest of them made it through good old-fashioned hard work.

George Walper, co-author of the book Get Rich Stay Rich Pass it On, researched how wealthy Americans accumulate their wealth...

And found two consistent themes from families all over the country as we talked to them. The first was they tended to be individuals who invested in income producing real estate over their generations. Secondly, they were entrepreneurial or owned their own business and that really is the way that most Americans have built their wealth and maintained it over multiple generations.

And these businesses that wealthy people started are not necessarily high profile, high-tech companies.

There are a lot of businesses that when you drive down Main Street, America you never really think of them. They could be a big farm implement company or they can be a manufacturing company; they may not be glamorous but they're doing quite well as a stand-alone - they're employing people - the owner of that has done well.

And when wealthy people invest in real estate it's typically not to get rich quick.

This is a five and ten and fifteen year strategy, not a twelve-month strategy. And that's so important in real estate to not be thinking about this as a buy a piece of property and I'll sell it in six months and make a lot of money. It's about the long term view on this.

At somethingyoushouldknow.net - I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.