Luxe life: Where the 1% call home

I did not see my name listed.  Why?  I am not wealthy.  Far from it.

On the other hand, my wife and I make just above $250,000 a year.  We have no tax loop holes and no offshore bank accounts and we were not born with a silver spoon in our mouth.  We've sacrificed and worked hard for what we have.  Why are people falling for Obama's scheme - lumping common folks (like myself) in with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett?  I already pay close to 50% tax (federal, 10.3% thanks to state of California, and local taxes).  This is rediculous.  Disception at it's peak. 

This is not the America that our founding fathers and generations before us had envisioned.  Yes, be fair and balanced: bring manufacturing back into the USA, close down the corporate tax loop holes (e.g., GE), and welcome Warren Buffett's donations to the IRS (yeah right). 

This is highway robbery.

The title of this article couldn't be more misleading, and fuels the ignorance and misperceptions about those in the top 1% of income earners.  You are in the top 1% of income earners if you make approximately $350,000 or more in a year.  This article sort of just lumps together people in the top 1% with the terms "ultra-high-net-wort​h" and those who "control assets ... valued at $30 million or more."  While a comparatively small percentage of the top 1% do fall into this category, in sheer numbers, the vast majority of the top 1% of income earners make between $350,000 and $500,000 or so.  While this is a good living, these people are not "ultra-high-net-wort​h" as the term is used, nor are they flying on private jets and riding in private yachts, as the media portrays.  Rather, they are for the most part hard-working professionals and small business owners, many of whom have not earned that amount for most of their lives, but have worked their way up to where they are now.  The physician who has worked for 20 years and is making $350,000 and at the bottom of the 1% not in the same category of Bill Gates, who is at the other end of the 1%.

I willing to bet most of the UHNW individuals(MSN puts it) were not going home at night and flipping on the boob tube watching some reality show and trying to live vicariously through others while they were trying to become successful.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not against TV and entertainment, but I've had to give that up from time to time because my career choice required certifications in order to get ahead and make more money....and that I did.

A quote that I read many years ago sticks with me still today, "Judge your success on the sacrafices you made to get there".  That pretty much sums it up for me.