Americans cling to alluring myth of 'getting rich'

By M.P. Dunleavey
NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, NEW YORK
Sunday, May 22, 2005, Page 12

`I'm sure most people would rather hear their odds of getting rich are great. I'd love to believe it myself. But accepting that you aren't going to be snuggling into the lap of luxury any time soon can be a blessing.'

Was there always this much pressure to get rich? Achieving wealth has long been part of the American dream, but now you're expected to want to marry a millionaire, be a "Survivor," win American Idol -- or at least look as if you know people who know Paris Hilton. Even personal finance books, which once just explained how to manage money, now insist that you do whatever it takes to get rich.

Suze Orman urges readers to find The Courage to Be Rich. David Bach cautions that only Smart Couples Finish Rich. Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad series is all about overcoming negative parental influences so you can be rich. And just last week I saw yet another book: Nice Girls Don't Get Rich. Oh, well.

I'm not rich, in case you were wondering. I'm not even a taxi ride away from rich. My husband and I rent our apartment in Brooklyn. We suffer through endless repairs on our Catskill fixer-upper and our aging Subaru. While I'd love to snag a windfall as much as anyone else, I'm exhausted by all this emphasis on wealth. It's like some National Geographic special: Rich -- The Ultimate Destination.

The danger in buying into the idea that you're going to be rich is that you'll spend accordingly -- regardless of the impact on your personal financial health. Consider the following:

Personal savings rates are the lowest they've been since the US Federal Reserve started tracking this data in 1946.

US consumer debt has reached a high of US$2.1 trillion (and that doesn't include mortgages).

From 2001 to 2003 Americans cashed out US$333 billion worth of equity from their homes -- and spent 51 percent of that paying down other debts and covering expenses like rent and groceries.

The trouble comes not just from wanting to be rich, but feeling entitled to it. A 2003 Gallup poll found that about a third of Americans said they expected to be rich some day -- and 51 percent of those with incomes of US$75,000-plus felt that way. A recent Times poll had slightly different results, with just over half of respondents saying it was unlikely they would get rich, while 45 percent thought it was very or somewhat likely.

What's interesting, according to Thomas DiPrete, a professor of sociology at Columbia University, is that most people don't have a realistic idea of what "rich" means.

For example, in that Gallup poll, only 8 percent of people said that they'd need an income of US$1 million a year to be rich. The median response was US$122,000. That's a lot more than the average American makes, but it won't even cover the cost of owning a small, private jet (let alone flying in it).

DiPrete analyzed income data going back to 1968 to gauge whether people at various income levels were likely to become rich. I'll spare you the standard deviations, but basically, it's really, really, really unlikely that even the above-average Jack or Jill will ever hit that million-dollar-a-year threshold. Someone earning US$120,000 today, in fact, has only a 19 percent chance of making US$340,000 within the next 15 years.

The rest of us are left holding our lottery tickets -- and then going shopping. Why not buy something expensive? You can't be overextended if you're going to win big one day.

While DiPrete hesitated to link expectations of wealth and levels of consumption, he said that when people believe they'll be able to afford their current purchases in their (richer) future, "that makes it safer to go into debt."

Sadly, I know the havoc that results when you think outside your wallet.

My credit cards could tell you all about it. So here's one solution: forget rich. It would free up so much time and energy if "get rich" got crossed off everyone's to-do list. Trying to live a sane, productive financial life is hard enough. (I could use some of that energy to shore up financial essentials, like the pale, quivering mess that is my IRA.)

I'm sure most people would rather hear their odds of getting rich are great. I'd love to believe it myself. But accepting that you aren't going to be snuggling into the lap of luxury any time soon can be a blessing.

Smart people may finish rich, but they probably won't. How about a book called: "Smart People Finish Just Fine, Thanks." It's not sexy and it may never be a best seller, but downshifting from a focus on wealth could do more to enhance your bottom line than you ever dreamed.