There is a widespread, cultural narrative that the nouveau riche often spends more lavishly, show off more liberally and blow through wealth much faster than their understated, generationally wealthy counterparts. After all, who can forget The Great Gatsby’s portrait of a refined, aristocratic East Egg versus a gaudy and garish West Egg?
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But is this “spendthrift, new money” narrative fact or fiction?
To find out, GOBankingRates asked experts, “who keeps their wealth longer: self-made earners or the inherited rich?” Surprisingly, the answer actually had little to do with where either group’s wealth came from.
Inherited Rich
According to Hayley Dickson, CFP, founder and wealth management advisor at RIPPL Wealth Management, those who inherit money are born with direct “access to [financial] advice, education, infrastructure and tax strategy.”
In other words, they also inherit built-in wealth management systems like trusts, estate plans and advisors that create a coordinated financial ecosystem to preserve and grow their wealth over time. In theory, this is a leg up in terms of wealth preservation.
Self-Made Earners
However, insurance and finance expert at Clearsurance.com, Melanie Musson, stated that, because self-made earners built their own fortune, they better understand the value of a dollar and are much more prudent with their spending than the generationally wealthy — who often “spend without thought.”
She also argued that the skillsets of self-made earners give them the ability to keep income coming in over the long-term and/or develop additional revenue streams.
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What’s The Verdict?
“Where things tend to go wrong [or right] for each group is much more behavioral than structural,” stated David Kang, taxation advisor and founder at Keeper Tax. Inherited wealth can disappear quickly if the next generation doesn’t understand how money works; self-made wealth can disappear quickly due to hubris.
A September 2025 report from Barclays supports this assertion.
When it comes to which group is likely to keep their money longer, Andrew Latham, CFP and content director at Supermoney.com, echoed a similar sentiment: the “heirs vs. self-made” framing is too broad; the true variable is financial literacy.
While financial literacy and discipline around budgeting are often skills self-made earners develop naturally through the grind of building something, earning money is an entirely different skill than preserving it.
Similarly, heirs may be born with financial infrastructures in place. They only develop financial literacy if someone deliberately teaches it to them or take the initiative to learn it on their own.
Latham stated it’s not at all uncommon for the inherited rich to be “handed the keys without a manual.”
“Strip away the labels and the real question is, ‘does the person holding the money understand how it works’?” stated Latham.
In the end, the group that keeps their money the longest is its own subset: the disciplined and financially literate.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Money Myth or Fact: Who Keeps Wealth Longer — Self-Made Earners or Inherited Rich?
