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Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity

joshuakennon.com

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Re: Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity

#3
From the article:

Most millionaires opt for stealth wealth. Their friends don’t know, their coworkers don’t know, their extended family doesn’t know. In a few cases, not even their children know! Wealth is accumulated through habits; at least in a free society like ours. At the moment, something like 1 out of 25 households falls into the millionaire category, most of it self-made.

From the comments:

Your right in Jack MacDonald's case too, he didn't make his initial money from stocks, his wealth was inherited which was then invested, he didn't spend any of it because he thought of himself as the steward of the inherited wealth

"His wealth was inherited from his parents, who owned MacDonald Meat Co. in Seattle, and he sought to boost the funds by investing their money"

"Wealth is accumulated through habits" is a great story to tell people but it seems very often to be complete BS.

Re: Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity

#4
post #3

From the article: Most millionaires opt for stealth wealth. Their friends don’t know, their coworkers don’t know, their extended family doesn’t know. In a few cases, not even their children know! Wealth is accumulated through habits; at least in a free society like ours. At the moment, something like 1 out of 25 households falls into the millionaire category, most of it self-made. From the comments: Your right in Jac…

What percentage of those millionaires are house-rich? I.e. the house they live in just happened to appreciate significantly and is now worth over $1mm? Those people can still feel as if they are not wealthy at all.

Re: Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity

#5
post #3

From the article: Most millionaires opt for stealth wealth. Their friends don’t know, their coworkers don’t know, their extended family doesn’t know. In a few cases, not even their children know! Wealth is accumulated through habits; at least in a free society like ours. At the moment, something like 1 out of 25 households falls into the millionaire category, most of it self-made. From the comments: Your right in Jac…

> "Wealth is accumulated through habits" > his wealth was inherited

I really dislike these kind's of articles.

Re: Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity

#6
post #3

From the article: Most millionaires opt for stealth wealth. Their friends don’t know, their coworkers don’t know, their extended family doesn’t know. In a few cases, not even their children know! Wealth is accumulated through habits; at least in a free society like ours. At the moment, something like 1 out of 25 households falls into the millionaire category, most of it self-made. From the comments: Your right in Jac…

> very often

This can just be replaced with "always". You can be lucky or you can have inherited wealth.

Re: Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity

#7
post #3

From the article: Most millionaires opt for stealth wealth. Their friends don’t know, their coworkers don’t know, their extended family doesn’t know. In a few cases, not even their children know! Wealth is accumulated through habits; at least in a free society like ours. At the moment, something like 1 out of 25 households falls into the millionaire category, most of it self-made. From the comments: Your right in Jac…

well this is mostly semantics: the quote does not contradict, most of the wealth was self-made. as in the profits accumulated during their lifetime, it doesn't say anything about how the first one million or any amount was made.

your consternation requires you to have a fixed and shared definition of self made that is just not described at all here.

it does leave a glaring hole about then which wealth was not self-made. alimony? child support? having a million now but having inherited ten million?

of course its not people that spent years in debt, worked on salary, dealt with illness in their family, and made millions. that's very rare and life will never be catering to that, so, yes, a life with more options from earning this way is BS and it does keep people motivated enough to continue trying anyway, but that's not what this article was talking about.

Re: Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity

#8
post #3

From the article: Most millionaires opt for stealth wealth. Their friends don’t know, their coworkers don’t know, their extended family doesn’t know. In a few cases, not even their children know! Wealth is accumulated through habits; at least in a free society like ours. At the moment, something like 1 out of 25 households falls into the millionaire category, most of it self-made. From the comments: Your right in Jac…

What percentage of those millionaires are house-rich? I.e. the house they live in just happened to appreciate significantly and is now worth over $1mm? Those people can still feel as if they are not wealthy at all.

It's almost ironic to call someone a "millionaire" these days in Toronto, which has been badly affected by the real estate bubble.

Re: Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity

#9
post #3

From the article: Most millionaires opt for stealth wealth. Their friends don’t know, their coworkers don’t know, their extended family doesn’t know. In a few cases, not even their children know! Wealth is accumulated through habits; at least in a free society like ours. At the moment, something like 1 out of 25 households falls into the millionaire category, most of it self-made. From the comments: Your right in Jac…

> "Wealth is accumulated through habits" is a great story to tell people but it seems very often to be complete BS.

Yes. It's capitalist propaganda. If you are a highly paid heart surgeon or CEO you can "accumulate wealth with habits". If you are anywhere between flipping burgers to many other types of jobs there's just not enough money "coming in" for these things to make a huge difference. You can be more sensible with your money and you may end up with a slightly nicer car, a slightly bigger house in a slightly better location than your other careless peers. But that's about it.

Re: Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity

#10
post #3

From the article: Most millionaires opt for stealth wealth. Their friends don’t know, their coworkers don’t know, their extended family doesn’t know. In a few cases, not even their children know! Wealth is accumulated through habits; at least in a free society like ours. At the moment, something like 1 out of 25 households falls into the millionaire category, most of it self-made. From the comments: Your right in Jac…

well this is mostly semantics: the quote does not contradict, most of the wealth was self-made. as in the profits accumulated during their lifetime, it doesn't say anything about how the first one million or any amount was made. your consternation requires you to have a fixed and shared definition of self made that is just not described at all here. it does leave a glaring hole about then which wealth was not self-ma…

I mean, it takes money to make money. It's a lot easier to get a hundred million dollars when you start out with 1 million to put in the stock market.
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