Likelihood Of Being Wealthy

I found this test in Money Magazine (Sept 2010) interesting especially when you dig into the research behind the questions and the scoring.

1. Optimists do better financially than pessimists although extreme optimists don’t save as much money as moderate ones.
2. A child born into the wealthiest 20% of families has a 55% chance of staying in that quartile.  A child born in the poorest fifth only has a 9% chance of reaching the top and one born in the middle a 13% chance.
3. If you’re raised in a home your parents owned, your more likely to stay in school and buy your own place.
4. If you have chronic conditions (diabetes, arthritis, Crohns), these are associated with less wealth.
5. People with IQs over 130 (top 2%) early $6K-$18.5K more per year…but that doesn’t correlate with better savings.
6. A college grad will earn $450K more in their lifetime than someone with only a high school education.  Getting a graduate degree adds another $120K.
7. A 6-foot tall man earns $5,525 more per year than someone that’s 5′-5″.  “Hotties” (their word) are twice as likely to make an above average income as their homelier peers and slim people have a higher net worth than heavy ones.
8. The more brothers and sisters you have the poorer you tend to be.
9. Boomers who got and stayed married accumulated 93% more wealth than their unmarried counterparts.
10. Kids drain wealth.
11. Being too agreeable leads to lower earnings.
12. Affluent people exercise more.
13. Families that own businesses are more affluent.
14. Although adreneline junkies earn more than their cautious counterparts they are also more likely to make poor investing decisions.
15. 84% of millionaires shop for bargains.

So, this may be neither hear nor there, but I’m fascinated by tests like this as they are data that can be used to predict and segment people from a communication perspective.  Understanding their behavior within sub-segments is critical in understanding why they act or don’t act.