Meet the YAWNs: Super-Rich, Really Boring

The yawns are the subject of this week's Wealth Report (subscription required):

Yawns are "young and wealthy but normal." They are men and women in their 30s and 40s who have become multimillionaires and billionaires during the wealth boom of the past decade. Yet rather than spending their money on yachts, boats and jets, yawns live modestly and spend most of their money on philanthropy. In stark contrast to the outsized titans of the Gilded Age and the slicked-back Gordon Gekkos of the 1980s, yawns are notable for their extraordinary dullness.

The new species of wealth seems to have been first spotted by the Sunday Telegraph. As The Wealth Report notes, yawns may flourish better in the UK than the US, where diffidence doesn't come naturally to the New Rich:

[Natasha] Pearl, the concierge-firm founder, says, "The old-money families that live in a low-key style are doing this without conscious thought. They are behaving as their parents, grandparents, and earlier generations all behaved.

"The low-key new money is far more self-conscious, Ms. Pearl says. "They work very hard, and spend incredible amounts of money trying to be normal and raising their kids to be normal."

The Sunday Telegraph article notes that younger and younger people are showing up on UK rich lists. Seems liquidity events occur sooner for 21st-century entrepreneurs:

"Private equity groups have been buying small family businesses all over the country, as well as companies with household names such as Boots or the AA. That has made it easier for young entrepreneurs to cash in their chips at an earlier stage."