How to Build Family Wealth and Hold onto It for 100 Years

　　An American father-and-son team have put their thoughts to paper in a new book which lays out their principals for building family wealth.

 

　　CRI's Shen Ting has the details.

 

　　To construct a legacy¹ that will last, you need to forget everything you think you know about what it means to be rich.

 

　　Bill Bonner is an American author of books and articles on economic and financial subjects. He wrote the book 'Family Fortune: How to Build Family Wealth and Hold on to It for 100 Years' based on his own experiences.

 

　　"I don't come from an old money family, my grandfather was in the coal business, and he lost all his money and went bankrupt² in the great depression in the 1930s. So when I was growing up, we were very poor. I am like these people: the first generation wealth builders. I started out as a young man I just tried some ways to make money and I found out my business – publishing business which I like quite a bit. And I worked on it for a long time before I made any money."

 

　　Bill Bonner says when he was young; the city of Baltimore in the United States was extremely poor and run-down and therefore wanted to attract people and entrepreneurs³. As a young entrepreneur⁴, Bill went there with his staff and the city gave him an entire office building for one dollar. Bill capitalized on the deal and got two office buildings but quickly realized that the buildings were located in a very dangerous area.

 

　　Several years later, Bonner knew that he had made the right decision.

 

　　There is an old Chinese saying that 'great men's sons seldom do well'. Bonner says the major risk for family investors⁵ is his family heirs⁶.

 

　　"The biggest threat; the heirs themselves: people. This is hard to deal with; we can think through money system, we can think through what we do about it. We can figure it out using our rational⁷ brains, but the heirs are another problem. Family wealth requires family. The person who makes the money is not always good at creating the kind of culture and the kind of personality that you need to hold onto it. That's why it's very important to have another person. Typically, it's the husband who makes the money and the wife who creates the family culture as capable of holding it together. "

 

　　Bonner says there is no secret for turning new money into old money; it's just something you have to work at. You start early; you work as hard as you can; you think about it; you and you make sure you work on the family side as well as the investment side.

 

　　Henry Cai, a financier, wrote the preface of the book. After reading it, Cai came to his own conclusion on the definition of property.

 

　　"I think the real treasure is the spiritual property, and we should turn the spiritual property into material property. That is the real definition of treasure for me."

 

　　For CRI, I am Shen Ting.

1 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

2 bankrupt   

n.破产者；adj.破产的；vt.使...破产

参考例句：

• That factory has gone bankrupt.那家工厂倒了。
• The enemy's scheme went bankrupt.敌人的计谋破产了。

3 entrepreneurs   

企业家( entrepreneur的名词复数 )； 主办人

参考例句：

• He is one of the entrepreneurs of the concert. 他是这场音乐会的主办人之一。
• Entrepreneurs are free to develop their businesses. 企业家们可以任意发展自己的企业。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

4 entrepreneur   

n.企业家，主办人

参考例句：

• The entrepreneur has become a news figure.这位企业家变成了新闻人物。
• The entrepreneur takes business risks in the hope of making a profit.企业家为追求利润而冒险。

5 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

6 heirs   

继承人( heir的名词复数 )； 后嗣； （工作或传统的）继承者； 承袭者

参考例句：

• The socialists saw themselves as true heirs of the Enlightenment. 社会主义者认为自己是启蒙运动的真正继承者。
• He distributed his possessions among his heirs. 他把自己的财产分给继承人。

7 rational   

adj.合理的，理性的，能推理的；n.有理数

参考例句：

• It was a rational plan and bound to succeed.这是一个合理的计划，肯定会成功。
• The reasoning seems rational.这论据似乎是合乎情理的。