the difference

the fourth book i've read by jean chatzky in the past 5 days. the difference is about what sets the wealthy and the financially comfortable apart from others. "the difference" is twenty traits - attitudes, behaviors, goals, and characteristics - that, if you exhibit more than ten of, you can make your way into financial comfort. and with more, you can become wealthy.
some traits are a little weird, like being married, but marriage gives a goal outside of yourself. it compels you to provide for two people not just one. others are almost obvious, like being educated. the more educated you are the more wealth you can accumulate. mostly because you make more money each year, allowing you to invest more money.
i think that if i had a job. and had an income, i might fall into the financially comfortable category. i know enough (especially after reading many of jean chatzky's books) to put as much as i can into a 401(k). and to hire a financial planner as soon as possible.
what really got me going in this book were two things: my family and a chance conversation will a classmate. i have to explain about my family. my father is a self-investor. he has an account with e-trade, or whoever, and he buys and sells stocks as he sees fit. this sort of scares me (and always has) but more on that later. my mother is a saver. she constantly talks about how she has no money and is totally budgeted out. i know this isn't the case. she just doesn't have any cash, which is a completely different thing. i know that she's richer than she lets on because as a child we periodically had to stop by her financial planner's office to pick up or drop off paperwork. now having a financial planner doesn't mean your wealthy but when you're also a saver, it means you're an investor. then there's my grandparents (on my mom's side). they are ridiculously well off and have been for as long as i remember. i know that being wealthy is possible. my close family have put themselves onto the path of wealth, so i know i can too.
the other thing was the convo with a classmate. i had learned earlier in the semester that this girl's father had died, somewhat recently. she mentioned it in passing so i got no further details. until the other day when i told her what i was reading. fairly out of nowhere she stated that her father had committed suicide because of lost investments. half a million dollars! but in this market a lot of people had the same experience. he had just sold his business, in order to slow down, and had invested the profit into the stock market. then it crashed. i didn't know what to say. she seemed pretty okay with talking about it, so i just reassured her that she should learn from the situation. constantly jean chatzky talks about how volatile the market can be and protecting yourself against it. that's all i could think of. and if my dad took a similar hit. obviously not, he still seems to be in good shape, but it would be nice to know if he has protected himself from such damaging blows.