Hacker News Reader

> The best way to get ahead is to inherit wealth.

I think you need to define ‘best’ here. 80% of American millionaires today are first generation wealth, so if by ‘best’ you meant ‘most likely’, you’d be wrong.

[1] https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0810/7-millionai...

View on HN

You're looking at this backwards. How many 2nd generation m/billionaires stay that way vs the average person becoming a first gen m/billionaire.

I don't think of most millionaires as being particularly wealthy. Most millionaires are simply people who can retire at 60.

Funny, because you'd be wrong about billionaires too, 69% of them are first generation https://www.cnbc.com/2014/10/03/two-thirds-of-billionaires-m...

So which is it?

What do you mean 'which is it'? imesh didn't say anything contradictory.

But thank you for bringing some more relevant evidence.

It's good that inheritance seems to be less than half at all levels. But I'd still say getting it for free is 'best'.

Right, but how many of those billionaires started as millionaires (or were born into a millionaire family)? When you have generational wealth, it's much easier to take risks.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com