Getting there takes risk and optimism. Staying there takes humility and fear of losing it.
Staying rich is a different skill.
You have €10 million. Offers flash past. Yes or no? Swipe.
Getting rich takes yeses. Staying rich takes a few big nos.
← Red LinesRed Line 12 of 48 The idea The numbers Where you see it Where it bends This game’s numbersHow strong the proof isCMixed proof Where it comes from
The habits that make money are not the ones that keep it. Keeping it means never risking what you have and need for what you don’t.
A 40% fall takes Marta’s €1 million to €600,000, and it can recover. With another €1 million borrowed at the top, the same fall leaves €1.2 million against a €1 million loan: €200,000 of her own.
The book tells of a trader who made a fortune betting on the 1929 crash, then lost it all within a few years by betting big again.
Too much fear never gets you there. You need both, at different times.
Bloomberg: how Bill Hwang lost $20 billion in two daysArchegos Capital Management (Wikipedia)Times of Israel: Madoff’s trustee and the $17.5 billionLong-Term Capital Management (Wikipedia)Harvard Magazine: Risk without reward (LTCM)CNN Money: 401(k) investors sue EnronUS Senate hearing on Enron retirement plansFinancial Advisor: shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves (Vanderbilts)Vanderbilt University: the 1973 family reunionTrinity study and the 4% rule (Wikipedia)NBIM reports (Norway’s fund)
The biggest fortunes often shrink, but over generations families tend to stay well off, and no study tests that humility is what keeps money.
- The Myth of Dynastic Wealth: The Rich Get Poorer Robert Arnott, William Bernstein & Lillian Wu, Cato Journal 35(3), 447-485, 2015
- The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of Social Mobility Gregory Clark, Princeton University Press, 2014
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · How we grade
- A Strong proof: Many good studies or long official data, from different teams or countries, point the same way.
- B Good proof, with limits: Solid studies agree on the direction, but the size varies, or the data covers few places or few kinds of people.
- C Mixed proof: Some good studies for, some against, or the evidence covers only part of the line.
- D Thin proof: Mostly one book’s argument, one survey or stories. It may be wise, but it has not been tested well.
- = True by the sums: It follows from arithmetic, so no study can overturn it. We still show what real data says.
Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money (2020). In our words, not quoted.
See it in numbers: Leverage · Debt (From Zero)
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