Book Review: The Difference

Cover via Amazon

Jean Chatzky has a new book called "The Difference". It describes the different traits of people who attain financial success and the ones who don't. She claims that in previous times the difference between rich and poor was great. Today the percentage of rich who came up from the middle class is 83 percent. The super rich who usually stay that way give the other 17 percent. Of the rich, their income is derived from 10 percent coming from passive investments and 90 percent coming from active business'. 
 
Ms. Chatzky breaks all of us down into four groups. Wealthy, Comfortable, Paycheck to paycheck and Further in debt. The reasons for someone to end up in one of these categories is our attitudes and behaviors. The four groups our: 
 

• Financial Attitudes and Behaviors 
• Goals 
• Personality 
• Non financial Behaviors 

 
Of course the greater your positive attributes are in these category's the more successful you will be. She says we don't have to be excellent in all these category's but just good. 
 
I have to add that her accent on good personality traits only work if you make a decent living. You spend less than you make. You invest your money so it can work for you in retirement and protect yourself and your finances from disaster. 
 
I admit I have only read the first chapter online at Oprah.com. Yet the book seems to rehash the same concepts of the book "The Millionaire Next Door". I can agree with the author that you have to have the right traits and behaviors to make money and to keep it. If you have the right knowledge you will be able to attain financial success. 
 
This book is well written and can be a good aid in discovering what you could be doing wrong. It has a lot of interesting facts and puts aside a lot of the myths of the rich and how they got there. If you never read other books about how work, good behaviors and a work ethic transfers into wealth, this book will be good for you. 
 
In reading a lot about this subject I believe that after a while all this good advice is just advice. It's all up to you to get up and put the book down and go make some money.