Ten rules for building wealth, according to historian Joseph Moore

The American historian Joseph Moore, 48, has spent years studying how fortunes are built in the United States, and invests himself. In an interview with the Tages-Anzeiger he summed up his findings in ten rules.

The first concerns work. Those who build wealth solve other people's problems, and in particular do "what others are not prepared to do". The second is the oldest of all, and Moore puts it plainly: "Marry intelligently. It is one of the few things that has stood the test of time." A divorce, he notes, is the single event that most often halves a fortune.

More concrete rules follow: rent out the rooms you do not use, be willing to move where work pays more, invest in your children's education, do not act as guarantor for other people's debts. That last point is where Moore has seen the most family fortunes come apart.

Risk, fashions and patience

The closing part of the list deals with investing. Do not try to beat the market, do not chase fashions and stay invested even when prices fall. Calculated risks Moore accepts, and considers necessary: "We live in the least risky period in world history!"

On his own record he is direct. In 2005 he bought a house that turned out badly when the 2008 crisis arrived: "It was a stupid decision, but in 2005 we all made idiotic decisions."

Moore also warns against applying his own rules too rigidly. "Capitalism is very dynamic, the rules of the game change," he says. Fortunes built on the Greenback of 1860, those that survived the First World War and those wiped out by the 1929 crash follow paths that do not repeat identically. One recurring statistic does hold: most fortunes disperse within two generations.

His final piece of advice is not to organise your choices around predicting the next crisis. "Don't fixate on crises, in short," he concludes.