Apart from investing in property, share trading is also an interest of mine.  Indeed, after the pain of losses, I invested in education and was mentored by Louise Bedford and Chris Tate (traders based in Melbourne).  Louise posted an article based on a conversation she overheard between two traders talking about how money isn’t really all that important.

“People make too much of a big deal about money.  It really doesn’t matter that much.  I mean it’s not like the rich people end up with kids who are more intelligent, is it?”

Louise quotes a study by Michael Marmot based on 17,200 babies born in the UK in one week in 1970 to look at just this question.  Significant health inequalites existed between the poorest and the richest groups for a start. For example, excluding the richest and poorest 5% of people in the UK, the richest remainder can expect to live 6 years longer and enjoy an extra 13 years free of disability.

The clincher, however, was that babies with low IQs at 22 months born to rich and well educated parents had caught up by the age of 6 with kids who started out with high IQs born to those with parents less well of and educated.  By the age of 10, the kids from the well-off parents were still progressing well with IQ tests, whereas the less well-off group were falling further and further behind!