Money Veers A Bit Off Course in Latest Issue

By Jennifer Hopfinger
September 25, 2006 01:56 PM

With the words “Financial Freedom!” splashed across the cover, the September issue of Money magazine looks a lot like every other issue.

Money’s covers tend to bear headlines like “What to do with $5,000,” “What’s next for real estate,” and “Retire Rich,” hinting at the highly practical but generally predictable money advice contained within. The stories are useful, no doubt, chock full of handy tips and anecdotes about average folks who came out on top. But the humdrum tagline to September’s cover story--“Build a life free of money worries”--belies an atypical article for Money.

Writer Ryan D’Agostino visited some of the nation’s wealthiest zip codes and knocked on doors to find out how the people living there became rich. An interesting but not unusual exercise for Money. However, D’Agostino’s conclusions are more theoretical than Money’s readers are used to.

According to his seven subjects, psychological subtleties appear to be the keys to financial success. And in keeping with Money’s egalitarian tone, the magazine suggests anyone can adopt the same winning way of thinking.

Money loves to provide lists, and true to form, D’Agostino boils down the wisdom he gleaned from his subjects into five simple rules: make your own luck, make others lucky, have a growth mindset, never stop learning, and calculate your risk. (He actually lumps these into two rules with several corollaries.)

Sounds obvious, but the writer fleshes out each rule with some interesting academic research on human behavior. For example, studies show that people who describe themselves as lucky are actually better at spotting chance opportunities than people who describe themselves as unlucky. Another study showed that successful people view failure as an opportunity to learn while unsuccessful people view it as proof of their inferiority.

So is wealth a matter of mindset? The notion certainly sounds appealing. And Money offers plenty of examples of people who landed riches with the right attitude.

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Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism