There are lots of ‘Rancho-somethings’ in California but the richest neighborhood in San Diego county is ‘Rancho Santa Fe’ in northern San Diego County - maybe that’s the one they were referring to. As to who lives there - it’s usually successful business owners including some who were successful elsewhere and retired to this location with their wealth (it’s a very nice location to live), professional sports players, successful (and usually famous) actors and other show business people, successful doctors, successful lawyers, and a smattering of others.</p>
<p>I knew a wealthy family (as in -multiple grand houses all over the world, give gifts of $20 mm to 2 universities dear to them) -family owned a potato processing company in Idaho. On CC, they would have been “oh, that mythical token family from Idaho or some godforsaken place” but they lived a lifestyle most CCers could only dream of.</p>
<p>The other most-wealthy people I know don’t necessarily have fancy educations, but have outstanding people and sales skills.</p>
<p>^^^Yep, gladgraddad, that was the town. Here in NOLA, we have some VERY wealthy people, but those houses don’t go for more than 2 million dollars, although a condo in the quarter will run you about 2 million.</p>
<p>There are some very good kernels of truth in this thread … overall, work very hard at something you enjoy, work smart at it, and live below your means. Helps if your parents did the same thing, and then leave you a chunk of cash you didn’t know was there!</p>
<p>My neighbors are in their early 30s and have a nice house that is bigger than ours/ recently remodeled, a summer place on a local island and send their kids to private school.
He is a carpenter & she is a librarian.
;)</p>
<p>Two of the richest people I know are realtors who happened to start their businesses at just the right time, in just the right place. They went to no name colleges, and are not brilliant. But they are excellent salesmen, know how to hire the right people to handle the other parts of their businesses, and diversified into other investments the second they got an inkling that the real estate bubble was bursting. </p>
<p>If you were guessing who in their high school graduating classes would go on to be the most successful, you would never have guessed it would be these guys.</p>
<p>It’s possible they have family money- they aren’t from here and the mom attended an ultra xpensive college in NY. However her H works for himself from 8 am to 11pm, so he is in high demand.
It’s probable that they are much older than early 30s though, although their kds are young, they have lived in the house for over ten years.</p>
<p>Most of the well off people I know, including all of the wealthy people, were born into it.
But I don’t envy them all that flying around to board meetings.
:p</p>
<p>This is my ‘dont get me started’ thread. For 10+ years we have lived as embedded reporters in a mansion neighborhood in a wealthy 'burb of a large Midwestern city. What has amazed me the most is not how much money there is around here, but what the people are doing to earn this kind of money.</p>
<p>A few are doctors or dentists or lawyers, the obvious. Figure around $250-300k/year, which is plenty around here. A few are upper level management in large companies (someone explain to me how a regional manager of a mid-grade department store makes this kind of money…); a few are dual career couples on the edge of collection agencies (not very many) and a few are dual career couples that somehow ended up in the neighborhood. A surprising number are in sales. We even have a few business owners and for a few years the CEO of a public company (he ran the company into the ground, was given a very handsome parachute when the company was bought out by a competitor, and the ingrate sued them for more…)</p>
<p>We? we lucked out on some dot com era stock investments, cached out and put it into the house in 2000. Not a bad idea in hindsight. But I’m one of very few that do their own yard work…</p>
<p>Some people are all about appearances. And they may spend themselves into bankruptcy just to look rich.</p>
<p>Others really are rich. But just because you walk around an upscale neighborhood and it feels like “everyone” is rich - think of the actual % of the population that actually is. It’s a very small amount.</p>
<p>emerald, seems like looking at the college often ,but not always, does give a clue, especially for people in their 30’s and above. Probably less so these days with more of the emphasis that many schools are placing on merit aid, need based aid and diversity .</p>
<p>Like Jalynn said: Live below your means! If you can afford a $2000 a month mortgage that doesn’t mean you should get one. Save your money!</p>
<p>I live in rural Ohio and am a Registered nurse who doesn’t even work full time and I would be considered “high income” for my county. My husband is in software and for our county I am sure his income is considered astronomical but we would probably be considered poor in Manhatten.</p>
<p>If you save 10% of your income the minute you start making money you will be ahead of most people your entire life. </p>
<p>Many people spend just beyond what they make, and that makes them poor no matter their salary. True wealth happens when you don’t need your salary to live imo. </p>
<p>Instead of going for the career that makes a lot of money, do what you like that you do well.</p>
<p>The wealthiest people I know are real estate developers, medical sales, business owners. </p>
<p>He who takes the most risk reaps the most reward.</p>
<p>So true that looks can be decieving… many many moons ago… OK many many many moons ago I was a bank teller. We were always amazed at how the folks with the largest bank accounts were never the best dressed, never had the best/most expensive handbags, were always the most understated. </p>
<p>Then when my children went to a very expensive nursery school(we were on FA) here in the city where the parents would walk in with whole laden sneakers, worn out Birkenstocks, jeans that were probably a decade old etc. What spoke of their wealth were the summers spent in their family owded homes in Italy/France, the Xmases spent in Switzerland or when we went to playdates in their homes… amazing… these people were highly educated, dual high income and probably came from old money. </p>
<p>So the moral of the story is… never ever judge a book by its cover!</p>
<p>Of the people I know that made their own wealth, all of them did it by doing something they loved. Some were engineers that built their own startup, a few are hair dressers, some are chefs, some run their own construction company. I don’t know of anyone who made their own wealth doing something they weren’t happy to do 12 hours a day for weeks at a time with little or no pay.</p>
<p>What is it you love enough to do for free? Start there.</p>
<p>My wife and I were long-term and sort of senior Federal government employees. We each earned over $100,000 a year. BUT it took a whole career (nearly 30 years each) to get there; we had to be supervisors</p>
in a mansion neighborhood in a wealthy 'burb of a large Midwestern city. What has amazed me the most is not how much money there is around here, but what the people are doing to earn this kind of money.</p>