The Thin Green Line: The Money Secrets of the Super Wealthy

by Paul Sullivan

Overview

“Wealth Matters” columnist for The New York Times reveals the decisions, behaviors, and worldviews that lead to true wealth.

For the better part of the past decade, Paul Sullivan has written about and lived among some of the wealthiest people in America. He has learned how they save, spend, and invest their money; how they work and rest; how they use their wealth to give their children educational advantages, but not strip them of motivation. He has also seen how they make horrendous mistakes. Firsthand, Sullivan knows why some people, even “rich” people, never find true wealth, and why other people, even those who have far less, are far better off financially.

This book shows how others can make better financial decisions—and come to terms with what money means to them. It lays out how to avoid the pitfalls around saving, spending, and giving money away and think differently about wealth to lead a more secure and less stressful life. An essential complement to all of the financial advice available, this “timely…smart” (Publishers Weekly) guide is a welcome antidote to the idea that wealth is a number on a bank statement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781451687255
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	03/29/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	323,570
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.38(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Paul Sullivan writes the “Wealth Matters” column for The New York Times and is the author of The Thin Green Line: The Money Secrets of the Super Wealthy and Clutch: Why Some People Excel Under Pressure and Others Don’t. His articles have appeared in Fortune, Conde Nast Portfolio, The International Herald Tribune, Barron’s, The Boston Globe, and Food & Wine. From 2000 to 2006, he was a reporter, editor, and columnist at the Financial Times. A graduate of Trinity College and the University of Chicago, Sullivan lives in Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Lunching with Wealthy People 1

Think About It 21

1 The Overlooked Simplicity of Buckets 23

Save It 33

2 Checking Stock Quotes Is Hazardous to Your Wealth 35

3 Debt and the Bordeaux Dilemma 57

4 The Futility of Fretting about Taxes 79

Spend It 91

5 Spending Tips from People Who Spend a Lot but Aren't Broke 93

6 The Education Race: Where the Wealthy Spend and Why It Matters 117

Give It Away 141

7 The Entitlement Conundrum: What Really Ruins Kids 143

8 How Did Giving Money Away Become Difficult? 169

Think About It Again 191

9 Money Causes Stress for Everyone 193

Epilogue: It's Better to Be Wealthy Than Rich, Even If You're Poor 211

Acknowledgments 217

Notes 221

Index 229

Editorial Reviews

Rather than function as wealth porn, this book looks at how people with lots of money exercise self-control. Just as you bore of their piousness, it switches focus to those who love to spend. Fun!

Bloomberg Businessweek

I loved Sullivan’s breezy, compelling writing. He’s a natural storyteller and each chapter feels more like a thoughtful conversation with an old and trusted friend than some important lesson you’re supposed to be memorizing… Read The Thin Green Line if you’re looking for new ideas to increase your personal net worth or you want to see how your own decisions measure up to those who’ve had great financial success.

Better Investing

01/26/2015
This book’s message can be summed up in the title of its epilogue: “It’s Better to Be Wealthy than Rich, Even If You’re Poor.” The titular green line is the author’s useful conceit for describing this desirable state of being. A financial journalist, Sullivan consults with experts from the “one percent” to prescribe a set of strategies for achieving financial stability, such as investing in education for one’s children rather than spending time and energy on avoiding taxes. Most important, in his opinion, is understanding how your feelings about earning, saving, and spending motivate financial decisions. Sullivan lays bare a number of his own financial concerns, foibles, and successes. His personal journey, which includes being grilled by the TIGER 21 club (a kind of therapy group for the financial elite) and a visit to Kansas State University’s behavioral finance research lab, proves both entertaining and instructive. Drawing on research in behavioral economics, the book is timely—taking up the topic of income inequality without picking a side—as well as smart. Agent: Erika Storella, Gernert Company. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Chances are you will buy this book for its smart and practical advice about building true wealth. (Seriously, buy it.) But what kept me hooked were the tales of money decisions gone horribly awry: fortunes squandered, kids ruined by inheritances, and rich people made miserable by their riches. Learn from the wise, or learn from the foolish—either way, you win."

Dan Heath

2014-12-29
Want to get rich? Stay in school and save your money.New York Times financial columnist Sullivan (Clutch: Why Some People Excel Under Pressure and Other Don't, 2010) has a deeper, more sophisticated take on money management than all that, but the point remains: Most wealthy people place a premium on education, have voted on that with their wallets, and have learned the fine art of deferring gratification with an eye to building a portfolio. Writing sometimes too breezily but always engagingly, Sullivan distinguishes between "rich," meaning simply having a lot of money, and "wealthy," meaning "having more money than you needed to do all the things you wanted to do." That distinction—the thin green line of the title—is important, since it gauges financial well-being on one's tastes and requirements. In that sense, a person without encumbrances who has $100,000 can be wealthier than one leveraged to the hilt and worth 10 times that on paper. So being rich does not translate to being financially secure. Nor does it necessarily mean having successfully captured huge swaths of the market; by Sullivan's account, the top 1 percent of earners in this country had "just about the same percentage they had in 1936." Of course, since that time, the 1 percent has become adept at rent-seeking. All the same, they distinguish themselves in other ways, including spending less money eating out and putting more into retirement accounts. "Over years," Sullivan notes, "those differences become enormous." Other subtle differences come into play, as well. There's a reason employers are reluctant to hire workers with GEDs, for instance, and why being rich doesn't always equate to having good taste. Still, as one of Sullivan's chapter titles puts it by way of summary and slogan, "It's better to be wealthy than rich, even if you're poor." Therein lies the secret to security. There's good how-to stuff here, but Sullivan's added value is his gentle insistence that wealth and money aren't synonyms.

Kirkus Reviews