But I believe what really separates the 1% from the 99% is financial knowledge more than anything else. Wealth = Access + Capital. Getting in early on the Face

But I believe what really separates the 1% from the 99% is financial knowledge more than anything else. Wealth = Access + Capital. Getting in early on the Facebook IPO is going to beat the hell out of saving your pennies, but you can only do that if you're part of a select group and already have money to invest. The same is true for all of the other truly high yield investments. Anyone can make money by saving, but it's trivial compared to what people make from extracting various rents. So if the 1% or 0.1% or whatever is defined loosely as people with an income of $250,000/year, I don't see how any amount of saving or investing will get me there if I currently make $50,000/year. If I'm a genius investor and I earn 30% or 40% a year, it's still difficult to get up to $250k in total annual income. What separates the 1% from the 99% is a lifetime of things gone right instead of wrong. Born to the right parents, accepted by the right organizations, in the right place, at the right time. If earning, budgeting, saving and investing were all it took then everyone would be a millionaire. Adding randomness into the system changes the rules, and the expected outcomes.