In the money: Chasing the millions

By IRENE CHAPPLE

She gets up at the moonlit hour of 4.30am to be at her central-city office within the hour. Sometimes she is home by 7pm in time to tuck the kids into bed, but other days she won't leave until the clock is ticking towards 9pm.

She needs seven hours' sleep but some projects keep her shuffling paper at home until 2am or 3am. Julie Christie, mother of two and majority owner of $35 million-plus company Touchdown Productions, barely socialises and lives her life tired. But she is rich.

She has a luxurious leather jacket worth $10,000, drives a $290,000 Mercedes and has an estimated worth of between $35 and $40 million. The 39-year-old is self made. A $23,000 redundancy payout when the Auckland Sun closed was the only hand-out she had.

For Christie, money is the lifeblood of freedom, and financial security is an obsession. She likes and needs both and points to her upbringing for her psychology. It's an oft-told tale but one which shows the stark contrast between young Christie's life and that which her children can now enjoy.

She was the fifth of seven children, brought up on the South Island's West Coast. Her father died when she was 5 and her mother had a "remarkable financial ability" to bring up the kids alone.

Christie is one of a sprinkling of New Zealanders who have risen from nothing to become millionaires. Her story tempts one to think wealth comes largely from hard work, but that is simplifying the truth. Many of us clock up the hours without rising much above the breadline and others find wealth comes a little easier. Many of New Zealand's millionaires have - unlike Christie - lucked into flush financial circumstance or gold-coated genes.

Doug Myers, who now lives in London, was born into wealth from a family brewing empire and, through business savvy, built it up to $570 million, according to last year's National Business Review rich list.

But even when they don't start from scratch the big-wealth accumulators have an asset not present in those of us who remain reliant on the next pay packet. They have an unrelenting desire to be rich.

To quote Auckland mayor and wealth accumulator John Banks, they have the competitive fire that turns a friendly jog into a race that pushes him and his rich friends to sprint "until we vomit".

Can we learn it? The rich, according to The Natural History of the Rich: A Field Guide, by Richard Conniff, are driven by the quest for control and, ultimately, status.

Some argue such a trait is entwined with the personality at birth. Others say it can be learned, with the help of some serious goal visualisation.

If we want to, most of us could be richer than we are but how much truth is in the cliche touted by the rich that it is mostly just hard work?

As a child, Banks - worth $16 million, according to last year's NBR list - would collect bottles before sunrise to sell. He also points to a career during which he would frequently moonlight. Even as an MP, he rose at 3.30am to host a radio show.

The focus is there but as Banks rightly points out, entering public life is not the route to riches. "I have no doubt I would have been at the top of the tree if I had embarked on a life of commerce rather than one of public service."

John Davies, king of much of the South Island's tourism ventures, began by clocking up hours driving trucks through the night. His worth last year was $25 million. Davies credits hard work but others admit tactics which would make many of us pause.

Former retailer Sir Roger Bhatnagar, worth an estimated $22 million, tells how he wrote cheques with incorrect information: the wrong day, the wrong year, or just unsigned.

"When they came back I had sold the product ... it would take five, six sometimes seven days before [the product seller] would call me and I would say, 'I'm sorry, I made a mistake'. So at the time I didn't have money but I used some tricks." Bhatnagar now drives a $250,000 Audi.

Others who haven't been driven by the specific desire to accumulate cash have stumbled on to gold. Peter Leitch - the Mad Butcher - can claim entry into the echelons of the rich through his 70 per cent control of a franchise worth an estimated $30 million. Leitch credits honesty, treating others well and a bombastic personality with his brand's success. But he says he is an unusual case in that he never set out to get rich.

"I wanted to succeed and not go broke," says the former grave-digger. But the wealth grew. "You don't want to get off the rollercoaster because you're having such a good time."

Leitch says if he had wanted to be richer he would not have franchised his stores. True enough. Excessive wealth will come when the money flow is not diluted.

And, as Banks points out, working for others will not make you rich. Ideally, your self-started business will be supplying an essential need.

Listen to Graeme Hart, who spoke to the Herald earlier this year after his company Burns Philp grabbed control of Australian food giant Goodman Fielder: "We're food. It's not going out of fashion, there's nothing volatile about it."

Nothing glamorous, but guaranteed to sell. "I'm pretty confident that you're going to eat your toast in the morning regardless," said Hart. "And you're going to put butter on it and you're going to have a glass of milk."

Products sold on a marketing dream - such as Trelise Cooper's flamboyant and pricey clothing brand, now turning over $10 million a year - could suffer if the economic realities crunch and incomes wither. But Cooper says she has a solid core of buyers who do not look at price, even during a downturn. "They have to buy some clothes, and I make sure they buy mine."

Cooper's turnover, like Christie's with Touchdown, finds its way back to her. Working for someone else, no matter how well paid, is unlikely to propel you into the ranks of the truly rich.

Telecom's chief executive, Theresa Gattung, earns $1.8 million. Sure, it is more than most could dream of but, once you have a nice house, car and wardrobe, it's not enough to push you into the heavyweight division. The big cash comes from shares and share options, and Gattung's windfall looks rosier with the shares totted up. Her worth soars by several million, based on last year's annual report and share prices. Exact figures are hazy because Gattung's disclosure includes share options that may now be redundant due to the company's drop in value. Anyway, several million is piddling.

Indeed, not even Queen's Counsel - the lawyers who charge out at up to $15,000 a day - can really claim wealth status. One senior QC estimates a handful may be worth around $5 million but "that's not through their income. That's from investment."

The magic word. Investment, the key to bulking up the cash we have. Martin Hawes, co-author of the best-selling book Get Rich Stay Rich says we all have the ability to accumulate wealth. '

'What we don't have is a clear picture of what we are driving for. Once we know what it is that we really want, once you have defined the dream, as long it's powerful enough we all have the ability and motivation to go out and get it."

If a $1 million house in Ponsonby is the dream, some financial rearranging is probably paramount. According to present wisdom, most of our cash should be sunk into property. Apart from the extraordinary capital gains the market offers, a property can be borrowed against.

The fresh-faced investor could start with, say, $20,000 which can be used as deposit on a $100,000 property. Martin Dunn, of City Sales, recommends "a little studio near the university" furnished with $3000 worth of second-hand furniture which could be rented for up to $280 a week. That gives plenty to pay the mortgage and body-corporate fees and Dunn picks such a property will have a capital gain of $20,000 in a year. Fingers crossed the bubble doesn't burst, and bingo, you've doubled your money.

Then there is the sharemarket (although some rich-listers spoken to have sworn off investing in anything but their own ideas). The NZX has been a healthy earner over the past 10 years, providing an average return of 8.5 per cent a year, and it is host to true business stars, on to which savvy investors can hitch their savings.

That $20,000, had it been invested in Sky City five years ago, would have bought shares at $2.38. Now, with shares at more than $8, sell up and the stock will gift a profit of almost $50,000.

This all, of course, takes time, mental effort and the willingness to put savings into the hands of someone else. The desire to chase money must be there.

Hawes likes to think he could get rich by following his own advice but, "I have no dream, no vision to be at the top of the rich list. For me to go out and try [to get rich] now would take 10 years and I've got too many other things I want to do."