Appendix
This appendix contains the full sample composition, all data tables referenced in the report, and the complete bibliography. It is intended for the wealth trade, journalists, and academic readers seeking the underlying data behind The deliberate edge research.
200 UK adults with at least £1 million in investable assets, recruited by NewtonX. Survey designed to capture psychological and behavioural constructs linked to wealth in academic literature, with benchmarking against UKHLS and ONS data where available.
Eight in-depth interviews conducted across two waves: a senior corporate lawyer, two senior asset managers, a former senior partner at a strategic communications firm, a chairman with banking and insurance experience, a tax barrister, an executive search business founder, and the managing partner of an infrastructure investment business. Six men, two women. No interview participant is linked to the quantitative survey.
Risk preferences: 0–10 scale (UKHLS-validated). Time preferences: standard delay discounting task (£1,000 today vs. larger future amounts). Personality: BFI-10 (Big Five) and Dirty Dozen (Dark Triad). Wellbeing: ONS4 (life satisfaction, worthwhile, happiness yesterday, anxiety yesterday, each 0–10). Self-optimisation: four bespoke items per domain (1–5). Social comparison orientation: three-item measure.
The quantitative study comprised 200 UK adults with at least £1 million in investable assets, recruited by NewtonX. The quota structure was 125 respondents with £1m to £5m, 50 with £5m to £10m, and 25 with £10m to £30m.
| Characteristic | Category | N | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wealth band | £1m to <£5m | 125 | 62.5% |
| £5m to <£10m | 45 | 22.5% | |
| £10m to <£30m | 22 | 11.0% | |
| £30m to £100m | 6 | 3.0% | |
| £100m+ | 2 | 1.0% | |
| Gender | Female | 23 | 11.5% |
| Male | 175 | 87.5% | |
| Prefer not to say | 2 | 1.0% | |
| Primary wealth source |
Inheritance | 10 | 5.0% |
| Entrepreneurship | 67 | 33.5% | |
| Career income | 78 | 39.0% | |
| Investments | 39 | 19.5% | |
| Property | 6 | 3.0% | |
| Wealth origin | Self-made | 184 | 92.0% |
| Inherited | 10 | 5.0% | |
| Property (mixed) | 6 | 3.0% | |
| Time at current wealth |
Less than 2 years | 18 | 9.0% |
| 2–5 years | 98 | 49.0% | |
| 5–10 years | 64 | 32.0% | |
| 10–20 years | 18 | 9.0% | |
| More than 20 years | 2 | 1.0% |
Source: NewtonX recruitment. Quota structure: 125 (£1m–£5m), 50 (£5m–£10m), 25 (£10m–£30m). Achieved sample matched lowest band exactly.
Respondents rated seven motivations for wealth on a 1–7 scale. Table 2 reports the mean scores across the full sample.
| Motivator | Mean score (out of 7) |
Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Family security | 6.06 | 1 |
| Lifestyle | 5.78 | 2 |
| Personal achievement | 5.03 | 3 |
| Legacy | 4.80 | 4 |
| Purpose | 4.74 | 5 |
| Impact on others | 4.29 | 6 |
| Social status | 3.30 | 7 |
Note: social comparison orientation mean = 2.87 out of 5, indicating a moderate rather than strong tendency to evaluate against others.
| Measure | General risk (0–10) |
|---|---|
| HNWI | 7.23 |
| UK adults | 5.19 |
| Top decile | 5.92 |
| Matched UK / Matched top decile |
5.23 / 6.26 |
Benchmarks: UKHLS wave a (2009–11), matched by age and sex to HNWI sample composition.
Respondents completed a standard delay discounting task choosing between £1,000 today and larger amounts in twelve months. No directly comparable UK population benchmark exists for this measure.
| Implied discount-rate band |
Behaviour | N | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| <6.25% | Always chose future amount (patient) |
43 | 21.5% |
| 6.25%–10% | Switched at 6.25% | 53 | 26.5% |
| 10%–15% | Switched at 10% premium | 45 | 22.5% |
| 15%–25% | Switched at 15% premium | 43 | 21.5% |
| >25% | Always chose today (impatient) | 16 | 8.0% |
Charitable giving: 35% give at least monthly, 34% a few times a year, 25% at least annually, 7% never.
| Trait | HNWI (0–100) |
UK adults (0–100) |
Matched top decile (0–100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extraversion | 57.0 | 57.2 | 58.1 |
| Agreeableness | 60.2 | 74.4 | 73.5 |
| Conscientiousness | 78.9 | 74.9 | 76.1 |
| Neuroticism | 33.1 | 39.2 | 35.1 |
| Openness | 63.7 | 60.2 | 63.8 |
| Trait | HNWI mean | Published population norm |
|---|---|---|
| Narcissism | 2.37 | 2.4 |
| Machiavellianism | 2.22 | 2.3 |
| Psychopathy | 2.02 | 1.9 |
Personality assessed using BFI-10 (Big Five) and Dirty Dozen (dark triad). Big Five benchmarked against UKHLS BFI-15, rescaled to 0–100. Dark Triad benchmarks: Jonason et al. (2020), ~12,000 participants across 49 countries.
| Wellbeing measure (0–100) |
HNWI mean |
UK adults average (ONS) |
Matched top decile (UKHLS) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Life satisfaction | 7.28 | 7.45 | 7.52 |
| Worthwhile | 7.64 | 7.74 | - |
| Happiness yesterday | 7.21 | 7.39 | - |
| Anxiety yesterday | 4.10 | 3.23 | - |
ONS4 questions originally developed by Prof. Paul Dolan for the Office for National Statistics. Benchmarks: ONS quarterly personal wellbeing estimates (most recently published); UKHLS for life satisfaction comparator.
| Domain (0–10) | Mean | SD | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Relationships | 7.40 | 2.07 | 1 |
| Career | 7.34 | 1.59 | 2 |
| Health | 7.02 | 1.64 | 3 |
| Wealth | 6.87 | 1.80 | 4 |
| Leisure | 6.45 | 2.07 | 5 |
No direct general population comparison available for domain satisfaction ordering.
| Domain | Mean (1–5) | SD | 95% confidence interval |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 3.78 | 0.75 | [3.67, 3.89] |
| Wealth | 3.78 | 0.80 | [3.66,3.89] |
| Career | 3.54 | 0.93 | [3.41, 3.67] |
| Hobbies | 3.22 | 0.86 | [3.10, 3.34] |
| Health | 3.19 | 0.86 | [3.07, 3.30] |
Self-optimisation measured across four items per domain (1–5 scale). Hobbies and health in grey — comparatively lower despite the strongest association with wellbeing outcomes.
A latent-profile analysis using eight inputs (overall self-optimisation, four domain-specific scales, social comparison orientation, general risk appetite and sunk-cost tendency) identified three distinct groups. Personality, motivations, wellbeing and demographics were used to describe the segments.
| Variable | Steady Optimisers (n=140) |
Relentless Maximisers (n=44) |
Quiet Disengagers (n=16) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-optimising | 3.67 | 4.61 | 2.42 |
| Security motivation | 5.99 | 6.25 | 6.19 |
| Purpose motivation | 4.27 | 4.84 | 3.00 |
| Impact motivation | 5.69 | 5.27 | 3.69 |
| Risk preference | 7.09 | 8.14 | 5.94 |
| Conscientiousness | 4.07 | 4.58 | 3.75 |
| Life satisfaction | 7.24 | 7.70 | 6.50 |
| Worthwhile | 7.62 | 8.05 | 6.69 |
| Happiness | 7.31 | 7.32 | 6.06 |
| Anxiety | 3.97 | 4.43 | 4.31 |
Bold values indicate highest score in each row. Latent-profile analysis inputs: overall self-optimisation, four domain-specific self-optimisation scales, social comparison orientation, general risk appetite, sunk-cost tendency.
Respondents rated the contribution of their own talent and effort versus luck and circumstance to their financial success on a 0–10 scale.
| Attribution | Survey mean (0–10) | Qualitative interview finding |
|---|---|---|
| Talent and effort | 7.93 | Consistently mentioned; seen as primary driver |
| Luck and circumstance | 5.61 | Six of eight interviewees attributed more of their success to luck and timing when speaking face-to-face |
Survey n=200. Qualitative interviews n=8 (independent of quantitative survey).
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