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Getting rich is child’s play

25 June, 2007

And in fact, David Beckham is believed to be the richest person in the UK, second only the Queen, according to new research from Ipswich Building Society.

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The survey showed that in our celebrity culture, millions not thousands or hundreds equates to being rich for today’s kids, with children stating that on average, having £1,185,000 is considered to be ‘rich’.

However, a certain level of innocence remains, with nearly one in five still expecting someone rich to have £1,000 or less. Region has a significant bearing on what children consider to be rich: children on London expect a rich person to have £2.6m whereas kids in the South West said only £366,000 – a staggering £2.2m less.

In addition, children’s perception of rich varied by age: five to six year olds believe ‘rich’ to be £543,000 compared with 11-12 year olds who expected the figure to be £1.6m.

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Paul Winter, chief executive of Ipswich Building Society, said: “Interestingly, the research also revealed that children who had visited a bank or building society had a slightly more realistic expectation of what ‘rich’ is compared with those who hadn’t, showing that even when discussing this fantasy figure, the former group have a better grasp of the value of money.”

Children’s understanding of ‘rich’ also seems somewhat confused: the research showed that children believe Tony Blair, Bill Gates, Roman Abrmovich, their teacher, Grandma and Granddad to be equally rich.

When asked about what job they might do to enable them to become really rich, becoming a footballer was the most popular answer for boys and becoming a pop star for girls. Becoming a celebrity was specified by 14 per cent of children, with more realistic career options such as becoming a doctor, teacher or solicitor/lawyer ranked five, six and eight respectively.

Winter said: “Reassuringly 42 per cent of children recognised working hard or getting a good job as the best way of becoming really rich, closely followed by winning or inheriting money. However, only 7 per cent of children believed that saving was a way of becoming richer.

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“Clearly, benefiting from saving hard depends on the amount you’re putting away, but it is worrying that children don’t seem to make the connection between working hard, earning and saving. It’s therefore important, for a number of reasons, to educate children about money and savings from a very early age.”