I seem to recall reading in a college textbook a few years ago that 98% of America’s wealth is in the pockets of only 2% of American citizens. That doesn’t leave a lot of money left over for you and me, does it? I’m always interesting in finding out how wealthy people have made their fortunes. Obviously a large percentage of them inherit their money from a couple of generations ago when their grandparents were able to do things that are now illegal. Well, there’s really no way we can mimic that now and stay on the good side of the law, is there?

No, I’m more interesting in learning how the Nouveau Riche (French for newly rich) made their fortunes. I was reading a CNN Money website about the Nouveau Riche titled THE BILLIONAIRES 1991, and was interested to see how many billionaires there were in the United states back in 1991. It made me wonder how many there are now, seventeen years later! This article was fascinating in that it wrote about so very many wealthy people, and how they got their fortunes. As I expected, the vast majority of them inherited their fortunes. What I did find interesting was that the Nouveau Riche mostly made their fortunes through real estate transactions.