The average American family has seen its income fall over the last eight years while its expenses have risen. Not so for the top 1%. They've been building 40,000 square foot mansions and flying in private jets to visit their vacation homes in Aspen and the Hamptons and so on. But since the fall of 2007, things have headed downhill for the rich along with the Dow -- which has lost 36% of its value since its peak in October 2007.

They're changing their lifestyles. How so? Vanity Fair provides examples of how the super-rich are downsizing in wine, shoes, fitness training, air travel, grocery shopping, and maid service. To illustrate these changes, the list below contrasts their behavior in these different categories between the fall of 2007 and the fall of 2008:

WINE

• 2007: $1,950 bottle of 2003 Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon
• 2008: $15 bottles of wine

SHOES

• 2007: $600 or $700 pair of shoes as "retail therapy
• 2008: No retail therapy because "It just doesn't feel good."

FITNESS TRAINING

• 2007: Fitness trainer three times a week
• 2008: Fitness trainer once a week

Continue reading The rich are feeling the crunch too...

The rich are feeling the crunch too... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading The world's millionaire list hits a milestone

The world's millionaire list hits a milestone originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The rapidly developing economies led by China, India and Russia, are making the folks at jeweler Cartier salivate with even grander plans to promote themselves as the world's premier jewelers. They have unveiled bobbles and bangles suitable only for the super wealthy. In the past, this might have been the territory of the U.S., Western Europe, Japan and the Middle East. But the game has changed.

Cartier is not the first luxury house to look east. A Japanese or Chinese aesthetic has starred in collections from Giorgio Armani to Aquascutum, while the craze for embroidery and pattern filling runways owes a debt to India. ... The reasoning is clear: the wealth of the world's richest people -- who have at least $1 billion ready to invest -- rose to $32.7 trillion last year, up 11.4 percent, with China and India leading the way, the latest Merrill Lynch Cap Gemini World Wealth Report showed.

Continue reading Cartier glitters over Chinese, Indian & Russian wealth

Cartier glitters over Chinese, Indian & Russian wealth originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every time Donald Trump gets a mention in the media, I find a new reason to hate him. A report in today's New York Times that The Donald is licensing his name to a "magazine devoted to ways to spend a great deal of money." Perhaps Mr. Trump should launch another magazine devoted to his true specialty: "How to be a self-promoting blowhard." Here's a nice quote from The Times:

And will Mr. Trump's picture grace the first cover, due out in November?

"Only if they want to sell a lot of magazines," Mr. Trump said in a telephone interview yesterday (actually, the publisher and Mr. Trump said, that decision has not been made yet).

That must be why The Apprentice, which has seen its ratings tank with each new season, is embarking on a special "Celebrity Edition" in a desperate attempt to revive the series.

Or maybe Mr. Trump could explain why his equally-flailing Trump Entertainment Resorts (NASDAQ: TRMP) couldn't seem to find a buyer.

Donald Trump is nothing but a celebrity anymore, and even that appears to be winding down as a result of overexposure and obnoxiousness.

Rosie O'Donnell must be smiling right about now.

Donald Trump's new magazine: How to spend money originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Mansions of billionaires: Where too big means barely adequate

Mansions of billionaires: Where too big means barely adequate originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 27 Jun 2007 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Can you afford to send your kids to summer camp? According to the New York Post, New York's tony set can -- and more. Instead of forcing their kids to spend 3.5 hours on a crowded bus into the wilds of Vermont, they pay $8,000 for their kids to fly to camp in a private jet.

Keewaydin camp director Peter Hare said that for the first time in the Vermont camp's history, one of its kids, a 12-year-old, will be arriving by private jet, choosing a one-hour flight over a five-hour bus trip from New York. In case you forgot, former Walt Disney Corp. (NYSE: DIS) CEO Michael Eisner loved Keewaydin so much that he wrote a terrible book about it.

But wait, there's more. Charlotte Morello, of Connecticut, has organized a birthday party for her 9-year-old daughter, Meredith, on a private jet next month. "All her cousins will come onto the plane," Morello said. "We'll have a manicurist and a model on the runway theme."

Had enough? It would help if you asked Congress to make private equity partners pay the 35% tax on their earnings that everyone else has to pay.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in Disney.

Rich kids take private jets to summer camp originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I like millionaires, I always have and I always will. A report by TNS research has revealed that American millionaire households have increased in number over the last four consecutive years to an astonishing 9.3 million, give or take a few. That's an awful lot of millionaires if you ask me. What does the climbing head count among the well-to-do mean to Joe Average? Well, if you can get beyond the jealousy and resentment long enough to see the forest through the trees, you'll find that it means a lot to us.

Millionaires tend to move a lot of money, which is the life blood of our economy. They buy large homes and furnish them with expensive decor. They own nice cars, often several, give them the best of care, and house them in well-lit, heated garages. Millionaires buy into businesses in pursuit of growing their fortunes. They invest in speculative business ventures and back inventors with good (and not so good) ideas. Millionaires hire people to assist in the routine and mundane tasks in life. Cleaning the pool, cutting the lawn and shopping for groceries are a few of the tasks that can be delegated by throwing a few dollars at them. Millionaires can throw those dollars around and they tend to do just that. "There's more where that came from," chuckle, chuckle, snort. Of course some of the wealthy tend to be very tight-fisted but they're generally easy to pick out. They live lonely lives in snobbish repose, worried that the world shall snatch an extra dollar from them.

If you want to find out where the millionaires are, this CNN Money report is a fine place to get started. It lists the top ten counties where millionaires reside. Note that it's a bit California-heavy. Some other states with counties that boast the highest number of millionaires across the country include Illinois, Arizona, Texas, New York and Florida. The list goes on and reveals the fact that more Americans have become dollar-savvy. But what does this mean, bottom line, for our country? In some ways it depends on your perspective. Some folks will tell you that it's an indication that the wealth gap has widened. I laugh at that assertion and claim instead that it means our horizons of opportunity have broadened. I also believe that it's a culmination effect of our maturing 1960's baby boom. There are an awful lot of people out there who have striven long and hard to prove that the American Dream has been more than an unsubstantiated stance on manifest destiny. Today's millionaires are the result of prolonged and intense focus on the principles of true success. This stuff doesn't just happen by itself.

So, please don't be tempted to give into feelings of unfairness. Don't waste your time wondering, "Why them and not me?" Some times it's a simple flip of the cards that determines the outcomes of success, but most often, it's the result of blood-and-guts determination. Let the climbing number of millionaires serve as inspiration to you. Realize that financial security is still well within your grasp. Then, learn their ways, associate with them when you can and truly believe that success knows no boundaries of background, gender, race or class. Roll up your sleeves, pull down your cap and get yourself to the business of leaving self pity for the next guy. You have no time to feel sorry for yourself when you're busy staking out your spot on next years millionaire list.

Oh, and about that money you spend on lottery tickets... a passbook account gives better returns by far.

Nine Million Millionaires... and counting. originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 01 May 2007 12:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Writing for Slate magazine, Daniel Gross has a history of making sweeping generalizations based on the fortunes of the latte. This week, he's analyzing the same reports we agonized over last week: that Starbucks same-store sales were falling, because (Howard Schulz said) customers were tired of waiting in line for frappuccinos. Gross' theory is an interesting one, and he has charts to back it up: he says that Starbucks, like Whole Foods, P.F. Chang's, and Williams-Sonoma, are going through a trough thanks to the decline in the "ability and willingness" of high-income consumers to pay top dollar for a venti coconut latte; organic, farm-raised salmon; $8 lettuce wraps; and an Emile Henry pie plate in a different color for every holiday meal.

Instead, he says, these consumers are trading down to Burger King (and, one would imagine, Dunkin Donuts for coffee; Trader Joe's for slabs of frozen salmon; and Dollar General for 2/$1 pie plates). Of course, I can make charts, too, and when I add DG (Dollar General) and BKC (Burger King) to the mix, I discover that their boats are falling with the same tide that's bringing down the luxe choices. It's harder to sell things to the poor, too!

Gross' theory is this: "the cost of living well is rising more rapidly than the overall cost of living." My theory is more like, "people are getting cheaper, and that goes for all of y'all."

Economy squeezes rich: Starbucks, Whole Foods falter, Burger King benefits? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 08 Aug 2006 14:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Last week Microsoft's Bill Gates expressed regret about being the world's richest man. When I read this, I was reminded of the expression, "be careful what you wish for, you might get it."

Before launching into an analysis of how Gates could be toppled from his throne, it's worth noting that I've admired Microsoft and wondered whether it's lost its elbow room. I praised Microsoft's ability to adapt to change in two of my books, The Technology Leaders and Value Leadership. But in the last several years, Microsoft seems to have lost its mojo as I noted in these interviews by Red Herring and The Washington Post.

Here's a surprise. The biggest threat to Gates's top rank on the Forbes 400 comes not from the number two on the list, but from numbers 15 and 16. According to that September 2005 list, Gates's net worth totaled $51 billion. Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett came in second at $49 billion. And he was followed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen ($22.5B), Dell's Michael Dell ($18B) and Oracle's Larry Ellison ($17B). Spots six through 12 were occupied by descendants of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, and heiresses from Cox Enterprises and Fidelity.

Continue reading Memo to billg: be careful what you wish for

Memo to billg: be careful what you wish for originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 07 May 2006 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.