What is a greater leg up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kushner perfect example of an idiot born into a filthy rich family

Corrupt too. Jared’s father went to jail for tax evasion and witness tampering. Jared is following his father’s footsteps where he puts money above all else. Trump same thing. His father was a draft dodger just like Jr. Trump Sr was a racist pig who was arrested twice , once for being a slum lord and once for being with a group in Queens marching with the KKK in 1929.

The Bushes and especially the Kennedys were a mixture of good and bad. These are not good role models.

Most billionaires are self made and did not inherit a family business like Kushner and Trump. Most started a business and became successful through hard work, intelligence, determination, and never giving up. Certain traits give you a leg up. Money will help the regular kids to reach their potential by buying the tools necessary.

BULL SHITE. This is how the perpetuate the American Dream when the data shows that billionaires almost always come from rich/UMC families. Entrepreneurship requires risk. Risk requires a net. There are quite a few who have actually been poor but a significant portion have family money, support, connections, etc.

Forbes Magazine
While many of the world’s billionaires inherited their wealth, nearly 70% of the newest names on this year’s list are self-made, meaning they founded or cofounded the company that made them their billions. The newcomers include 73-year-old Sulaiman Al Habib, founder and chairman of Saudi Arabia hospital group HMG, as well as Scale AI cofounder and CEO Alexandr Wang, the list’s youngest self-made billionaire at just 28 years old. The American billionaires are more likely to be self made.



Here are Top billionaires that did not inherit their business…..

Larry Ellison who grew up working class.
Mark Zuckerberg grew up upper middle class. again UMC. opens opportunity doors and exposure, parents were psych and dentist, invested in by Peter Thiel
Jeff Bezos born to teenage parents grew up working class. FFS his step dad worked at Exxon. His parents gave him 1/4million dollar loan to start amazon the equivalent of 1/2 million in 2024 dollars
Warren Buffet grew up upper middle class started businesses at 11 years old son of US congreesman and businessman nothing more needs to be said
Howard Shultz (Starbucks) grew up in public housing
Ken Langone grew up working class started businesses
Allen Gerry (cable vision) grew up poor
Kenny Troutt (Excel communications) grew up poor

Plus many more.

What some tech billionaires have in common are parents who were professors or tech savvy themselves.

Entrepreneurs are comfortable with risk whether they have back up or not. Inheriting billions doesn’t make you an entrepreneur. A person with the rare combination of intelligence, work ethic, resilience, leadership, good communication skills can be a self made person.

A good portion of them have " family money, support, connections, etc especially the younger billionaires. You can see a thread in those in the 60-70 age range regarding opportunity. But with the condensing of American manufacturing, businesses, and others there are less opportunities for the type of wealth accumulated by poor people. Look at the ages at those who were poor and were able to become billionaires. Almost all of it happened in the 60-early 80s as far as creation of the businesses that built the wealth. Do you not see the difference between the landscape of now and then?
I dont think we need to refer to inheriting businesses as the main exclusionary content to self-made.

[Anonymous]

Op, what do you mean by a leg up? What is your goal for your children? Is it wealth? An impressive college? A prestigious career? Happiness? Contributing something positive to the world? Finding loving friends and/or a partner to move through life with?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the biggest 'leg up' is being raised by parents who are mature adults with no significant personality disorders, substance abuse, etc. We recently met with someone at our bank who mentioned that he deals with really wealthy families that often have one child with significant substance use, failure to launch etc. issues and that they have to put procedures in place regarding inheritances, etc. as a result. I'm pretty sure the adult children with all the issues didn't get these issues completely on their own. They might have inherited psychological issues or have them based on their upbringing. I frequently wish I had been raised in a psychologically healthy family even if it meant I never went to a private college, etc. Even if I ended up being an elementary school teacher back in my small hometown vs. my "prestigious career." I think being happy and healthy and grounded and all that is really priceless.

Absolutely this. I feel the same way about my own upbringing, and the older I get the more true this becomes. Even if you are academically and professionally successful, growing up with severe dysfunction means you will spend considerable amounts of your adulthood unwinding that dysfunction and trying to process and get past it. And that's if you're lucky enough to understand it and seek to get better -- some people just perpetuate the dysfunction and deal with the consequences, which involve having lots of terrible relationships and never feeling happy or satisfied with life.

If my kid grows up feeling like a worthwhile person who deserves to be happy, I consider it a win regardless of her income or the prestige of her career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kushner perfect example of an idiot born into a filthy rich family

Corrupt too. Jared’s father went to jail for tax evasion and witness tampering. Jared is following his father’s footsteps where he puts money above all else. Trump same thing. His father was a draft dodger just like Jr. Trump Sr was a racist pig who was arrested twice , once for being a slum lord and once for being with a group in Queens marching with the KKK in 1929.

The Bushes and especially the Kennedys were a mixture of good and bad. These are not good role models.

Most billionaires are self made and did not inherit a family business like Kushner and Trump. Most started a business and became successful through hard work, intelligence, determination, and never giving up. Certain traits give you a leg up. Money will help the regular kids to reach their potential by buying the tools necessary.

BULL SHITE. This is how the perpetuate the American Dream when the data shows that billionaires almost always come from rich/UMC families. Entrepreneurship requires risk. Risk requires a net. There are quite a few who have actually been poor but a significant portion have family money, support, connections, etc.

Forbes Magazine
While many of the world’s billionaires inherited their wealth, nearly 70% of the newest names on this year’s list are self-made, meaning they founded or cofounded the company that made them their billions. The newcomers include 73-year-old Sulaiman Al Habib, founder and chairman of Saudi Arabia hospital group HMG, as well as Scale AI cofounder and CEO Alexandr Wang, the list’s youngest self-made billionaire at just 28 years old. The American billionaires are more likely to be self made.



Here are Top billionaires that did not inherit their business…..

Larry Ellison who grew up working class.
Mark Zuckerberg grew up upper middle class. again UMC. opens opportunity doors and exposure, parents were psych and dentist, invested in by Peter Thiel
Jeff Bezos born to teenage parents grew up working class. FFS his step dad worked at Exxon. His parents gave him 1/4million dollar loan to start amazon the equivalent of 1/2 million in 2024 dollars
Warren Buffet grew up upper middle class started businesses at 11 years old son of US congreesman and businessman nothing more needs to be said
Howard Shultz (Starbucks) grew up in public housing
Ken Langone grew up working class started businesses
Allen Gerry (cable vision) grew up poor
Kenny Troutt (Excel communications) grew up poor

Plus many more.

What some tech billionaires have in common are parents who were professors or tech savvy themselves.

Entrepreneurs are comfortable with risk whether they have back up or not. Inheriting billions doesn’t make you an entrepreneur. A person with the rare combination of intelligence, work ethic, resilience, leadership, good communication skills can be a self made person.

A good portion of them have " family money, support, connections, etc especially the younger billionaires. You can see a thread in those in the 60-70 age range regarding opportunity. But with the condensing of American manufacturing, businesses, and others there are less opportunities for the type of wealth accumulated by poor people. Look at the ages at those who were poor and were able to become billionaires. Almost all of it happened in the 60-early 80s as far as creation of the businesses that built the wealth. Do you not see the difference between the landscape of now and then?
I dont think we need to refer to inheriting businesses as the main exclusionary content to self-made.

The older ones like the Koch Brothers, the Johnson family at Fidelity, the Waltons from the inexplicably popular Walmart are becoming less common.

According to Forbes, 196 of the world's 285 new billionaires in 2025 are self-made, representing nearly 70% of them. This means that they established their fortunes themselves rather than inheriting them, a trend that contrasts with 2023 when new billionaires acquired more wealth through inheritance, according to a UBS report.

Studies show that a vast majority of wealthy families, including those with billionaire founders, lose their wealth within a few generations, with around 70% by the second generation and 90% by the third.

Each billionaire family has a different story. Read about the Gilded Age when immigrants came to America to make millions, it’s pretty interesting.

[Anonymous]

Op you are wildly fortunate that this is the parenting question you have. My goodness.

[Anonymous]

Having parents with an income of 500k+ who don't give the kid a lot of cash while in high school / college. A kid with too much cash = drug user.