Two of our sister companies participate in my employer's 401(k) program. Recently an employee from one of them has gotten divorced and is getting a rollover from her ex-husband's 401(k). She has been super secret and doesn't want anyone to how much it is (if you have access to the administrative site for the plan, which I don't, you'll be able to figure it out once the rollover is done.). We are pretty certain it must be a chunk, because otherwise why be so secretive? My team was discussing this one day. My (very status conscious) boss said they probably didn't have a lot of money since their cars were something like 6 and 10 years old, info I'm guessing he gleaned from the divorce decree we received as part of the rollover process. My coworker and I both immediately said no, that makes it all the more likely that it's a large sum of money. If you're familiar with the book "The Millionaire Next Door", you know that most people who've become wealthy over the course of their lives don't drive fancy cars, wear flashy designer clothes, or living in high end neighborhoods. They are the ones driving the 10 year old cars, shopping at normal people stores, and living in the same normal person house they bought 20 years ago.
My brother has noticed a similar concept at this job. He delivers parts to a variety of automotive shops. He said many of them don't look like much at all from the outside, but they are moving an incredible dollar value of parts.
We often judge things by how they appear. This could be because it's easy or it's the only information that we have available. We would do well to remember that things aren't always as they appear
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