Below the Pockets of Wealth? Rant or Change, Stein says

About 1% of the workforce pulls in about 20% of the total income in America, according to a recent Ben Stein article in the New York Times. What's more, 5% percent of the population holds about 50% of the assets in the country.

Sounds unfair? Here are your options as offered by Ben Stein: 1) Complain about the unfair distribution of wealth or 2) Follow the trail of profits by preparing for a new career in one of the high-income professions.

How good is the upper tier? High-income employees are even paid well (7 digits and up) for their mistakes, Ben Stein reports.

"...[U]sually education in finance, medicine, law, accounting, electrical engineering --something in which you learn to add value instead of having fun in school -- is the key," Stein wrote in his "Everybody's Business" column.


Here's a list of well-paid professions:

*Lawyers
*Accountants/CPAs
*Financial services (wealth managers, brokers, planners)
*Doctors
*Self-improvement/life coaches/consultants


Here's the list of low-paying positions:

*Most civil service posts
*Poetry
*Teaching
*Acting
*Drummimg


Those career paths (high pay vs. low pay) are two of the three options laid out by Stein. Personally, I prefer his third option: "If you feel better making pottery or teaching school or policing the streets, you can have a fabulous life, too," Stein said.

Stein's Botttom-line Solution: Stop obsessing about that upper tier and just be happy as is.

On my balance sheet, I equate wealth -- financial and emotional -- with tasks, assignments, professions and hobbies performed with real passion.

That's the wisdom also touted in personal wealth books like Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Truly, "thought are things" and powerful things at that, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence and a burning desire for their translation into riches, or other material objects.

--Napoleon Hill p. 19 pf Think and Grow Rich.