The rich and successful aren't different from the rest of us just because they have more money.

Rather, they have more money because of about a dozen personality traits that help them become wealthy and successful, according to author and NBC “Today” show financial editor Jean Chatzky.

She researched nearly 5,000 wealthy and successful people and discussed some of her findings at this week's annual Financial Planning Association conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Bernice Napach

Bernice Napach is a senior writer at ThinkAdvisor covering financial markets and asset managers, robo-advisors, college planning and retirement issues. She has worked at Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg TV, CNBC, Reuters, Investor's Business Daily and The Bond Buyer and has written articles for The New York Times, TheStreet.com, The Star-Ledger, The Record, Variety and Worth magazine. Bernice has a Bachelor of Science in Social Welfare from SUNY at Stony Brook.