College, IQ and wealth not related

Parents Forum
1

<p>Income does move up with IQ but not wealth.</p>

<p><a href=“http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2007/05/01/you-dont-have-to-be-smart-to-be-rich/?mod=yahoo_hs[/url]”>http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2007/05/01/you-dont-have-to-be-smart-to-be-rich/?mod=yahoo_hs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

2

<p>From the article:

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3

<p>Did he control for inherited wealth? There could be a very close correlation between IQ and wealth, but if you throw in some random inherited wealth it would disguise the correlation.</p>

4

<p>I’ve read that really high IQ people (155 plus) often suffer from lack of social skills and being able to relate to others which often impacts their success. They say moderate high IQs, like 135, are the most successful people in terms of income and accomplishments that have impact.</p>

5

<p>I think that those with higher IQs are less likely to be motivated by money, more likely to be motivated by the desire to find jobs/vocations which afford intellectual challenge or the opportunity to pursue their passions. It is well known that you can earn more in private industry than in academia, but I am pretty sure that you would find that the IQ’s of Ph.D’s at top research universities are significantly higher than average.</p>

<p>I mean, personally I would consider it quite stupid to work even one hour at a job I didn’t like for a person who didn’t treat me with respect, unless I truly needed the money – and I can easily meet my needs without earning megabucks. </p>

<p>Now, obviously Bill Gates doesn’t have to worry about an employer treating him disrespectfully, because like most of the world’s wealthiest individuals, he is an entrepreneur, not someone who accumulated wealth from his salary. But entrepreneurship is risky, so IQ isn’t going to have much correlation with success. For example, Bill Gates, a college dropout, made his fortune over a deal that IBM could have easily made with a competitor with a Ph.D. in computer sciences, who really is the one who generated the ideas that Gates made his fortune on – see <a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Kildall[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Kildall&lt;/a&gt; –</p>

6

<p>Those with moderately high IQs who want to make money likely go into business more often than high IQ people do, who are more likely to have lower paying jobs, such as professorships… And some of the smartest physicians will be in lower paid academic jobs than their average classmates. Business is for making money/creating wealth, but some of us aren’t interested in how much wealth we can accumulate, once we have enough money to pay the bills/afford our lifestyle we don’t care if our money maxes out. It is a matter of priorities, I’d rather read another book than own designer clothes or have to spend my time making sure the money I earned keeps earning more money…</p>

7

<p>I read lots of parents posting comments such as wis’s above and a lot very unhappy about how the middle class are treated by colleges. </p>

<p>What are we supposed to believe? I do want my kids to have college options. I do want to live in NYC. I want to travel a lot.</p>

8

<p>This is why colleges don’t admit only the applicants with the top stats.</p>

<p>If they want to admit future leaders in business, politics, the arts, etc., not to mention future billionaires, they will select for variables other than pure academic success.</p>

9

<p>suze…there is high income…for travel and private schools…and then there is wealth. </p>

<p>In my view, one makes vastly different choices in life when one pursues huge wealth versus high income. Lifestyle is the first victim when someone in their 20s, 30s or 40s decides to pursue major wealth (+$2M assets). It is possible to earn a fairly high income without sacrificing lifestyle–particularily if two people are in partnership to produce that high income. It is not possible to produce wealth without a significant sacrifice to lifestyle–if you intend to produce your wealth while you are raising a family. If you wait until you are an Empty Nester, you sacrifice less lifestyle. In my opinion.</p>

<p>*You’ll notice that I left Manhattan out of the equation. :wink: Manhattan is a dire place to try to produce a lifestyle with private schools and travel. I know–I tried it for ten years. I had the time of my life before kids–and lots less fun once the boys reached kindergarten age.</p>

<p>A friend of mine once said that seven figure salaries don’t change the stress of living in Manhattan. Obscene but true. Even billionaires feel the stress of keeping up in Manhattan. I know. I had one or two as clients.</p>

<p>Lesson? Move to Manhattan before your kids are born–when poverty is relative. You’ll have a ball.</p>

10

<p>In general I tend to agree with the Forest Gump theory that bought some fruit company that made him rich, exception to this are the billionaires that run the hedge funds. I checked out the top five billionaires in this group and they all have degrees from top technical schools such as MIT, UC Berkeley, etc…
Check this out:
<a href=“http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/23/business/hedge.php[/url]”>http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/23/business/hedge.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

11

<p>Hedge funds are the financial flavor of the week. Their average returns have been subpar compared to stocks overall. They will sink to another small sector of the financial industry once the next major recession hits and their leverage turns value to ashes. They have just ridden the current wave and all waves crash eventually. You saw how quickly money moved away from the subprime mortgage market at the first sign of weakness.</p>