While the book has some interesting insights into the wealthy, what is the point of amassing a fortune if you're living well below your means? If you're looking to make some money I recommend you read some books on investing. Phil Town's book "Rule #!" is a great book based on the same investment strategies that Warren Buffet uses.

Descriptions from interviews of millionaires were the most interesting aspects of this book. The authors occasionally cited actual paraphrases from some of these folks and those statements were often impactful.

At the end, it's all common sense as in almost all business books. My biggest gripe was the overbearing use of statistics - they can make the numbers say whatever they want and there were times that they did this. For example, their questionaire must have had a question about being self-made or did they recieve an inheritance. Everyone always says they are self-made even if they came from a fairly well off family. They oversimplify how difficult it is to become more wealthy than your parents. Relying on the answers to a questionaire for this insight is unreliable.

But in summary, the book makes some great points about the inner workings of a traditional successful business owner. My favorite of which is that any business owner in any industry can become immensely successful, whether it be hauling garbage, running pawn shops, designing software or selling pharmaceuticals. It's all about hard and smart work.

I am a financial advisor and I frequently loan this book to clients and they usually love it. Its also a great book to give to young people. It really gets across the message that you don't have to make a lot of money to be wealthy, you just have to live below your means and invest well. Highly recommended.

This book just gives stats behind what should be common sense. If you save your money and stay away from the flashy things in life of course you will be better off in the long run....financially. I think we should all remember the fine line though, tomorrow isn't promised so don't kill yourself to save a couple dollars unless you think you are taking your $ with you when you die. I got through half of this book and just felt they could have gotten to the point in maybe 40 pages, why waste valuable time.

On the contrary, I think this book could be beneficial for those lacking in discipline in their finances. If you fall into this category, I would recommend this book.

I'm a single woman in my early 30s, my parents are middle-class and doing okay. The only thing i was taught as a kid was "save your money" or "dont spend it". that went in one ear and out the other. i never had it in my mind to rely on a man or get married for wealth, but my Mom always seemed to put that idea towards me...even though i never took it on.
Im an educated woman and working on my Business Degree. Ive made my mistakes in Credit card debt but luckily i am almost debt free and my mistakes never got out of control... i stopped and panicked when my debt hit $8k and for me that was it!

This book is teaching me much more in terms of having a mindset of growing wealth and investing than anything or person in my life ever has.
I wish i had this book 10 years ago when i was 20 but i still have plenty of time to get this thing on track.

When we buy groceries we usually have our brands and favorites we buy on certain things... me i pay good money for ice cream.
This week I saved $3 by switching to a cheap brand. i was proud of myself. That $3 goes into my savings.
I have no doubt in my mind that I will never become a PAW, I plan on putting more time into investing and learning about money each week.

Too bad my Dad never taught me this stuff :(

I wish everyone would read this book. You assume someone to be rich because of their car, or clothes. That just proves that they waste more money and probably go into debt for it.

I spent time as a financial analyst for a commercial lending department. Part of my job was to go through people's personal financial statements. My boss, a CPA, recommended this book to me. On of our wealthiest, millionare clients wore sweat pants, had a mullet, and drove an old beat up vehicle. We had another client who was always sporting the latest fashions and drove a Porsche, but was broker than broke and always pleading with us to not return her checks.

The key is to have the self confidence to not spend the money to fix the way people judge you. Would you rather have 10 million dollars and look like crap or be on the edge of bankruptcy and look like a million bucks? I refuse to spend that kind of money to impress someone I probably don't even like or people I don't even know.

Read this book, it will shed some clarity!

A Great book with expert advice- too many charts, but the case histories were great and wonderful advice for parents tempted to spoil their children by financing their lives after they are finished with their education. Married children get to living way beyond their means and then resent it when parents stop paying 10 to 20 thousand a month for them. It is clear that those who succeed do it better when they are responsible for their OWN finances and learn to live within their budget.

Financial books providing insight into the attitudes and mannerisms required to accumulate wealth generally focus on a lot of theory. The Millionaire Next Door presents a straight forward account based on research and feedback from qualified millionaires.

The information presented in this book focuses on the habits that create millionaires from ordinary people who often have ordinary incomes. The authors show that to be wealthy, you do not necessarily require extraordinary skills or require ardent pep talks; you just need financial discipline and a willingness to live within your means and avoid certain amounts of debt.

The information in the book is substantiated with a number of graphs, charts, and summations of data that will limit one's ability to push through the information quickly. The content of the book is very reliable and will be eye opening for many readers. There is no doubt this book presents a very formidable foundation for wealth that anyone with grand financial aspirations should be aware of, making this book rather worthwhile

This book was written based from research that was conducted through the usage of surveys that were taken in 1995. They basically accumulated information from 1000 american millionaires regarding their methods of house-hold finance, behavior, spending habits etc. Simply an analysis of the American millionaire demograhpic in the year 1995. No practical wisdom. Useless info in becoming wealthy.

The whole book could've been summed up to: "be modest, cheap, and save as much as possible".

IN CONCLUSION: If you're looking to learn to make more income, save your money and time, this one sucked. If you want a lesson in history, go right ahead.

I had always heard about this book and was eager to finally read it. Unfortunately it was somewhat disappointing. The data is getting dated. The message, while sound, is so oft repeated that it gets a little boring. However, I enjoyed very much the passages dealing with how to (or more accurately - how not to) handle wealth issues and transfers with children. Overall it is a book everyone should read, but I wish they would release a newer edition with more recent data, etc.

but sometimes it belabours the point a bit too much. Note - some of the examples/tables are very USA-specific, but it has a fair few nuggets of interesting information.

This is the second time I am reading this book and it has enlightened me once again on what it takes to be a wealthy. I think some people who read the book give it an overly simplistic view, while there is a deeper insight that is often missed about millionaires.

In the beginning of the book in the introduction, the authors discuss what the definition of wealthy is. Millionaires seem to accumulate wealthy by investing their money rather then spending money. The Authors break down what the media has us perceive millionaires are by showing their big houses, their luxury cars and expensive suites. This is a good starting ground because you can see who the wealthy are. They draw on the fact that true millionaires are Prodigious Accumulator of Wealth (PAW), who does things to build wealth. They draw on Under Accumulator of Wealth (UAW, are great consumers, buying for status rather then for wealth.

In the first chapter the authors also talk about the top ethnic groups who are wealthy and their likelihood of becoming wealthy. This is a good motivator because it suggests that most American can or should be wealthy. One misinformed reviewer thought that Black was an ethnic group, when it is actually a race. The authors did a splendid job in not making wealth a race issue, but wanted to separate which ethnic group is more likely to be wealthy. While any one can become a millionaire, how long you reside in the United States is a big factor in that.

Chapter two is about being frugal and how the wealthy preserve their capital while others are consumers. They do not go over what types of wealth the PAW gathers, but they tell what they do not focus on. They also break down the mental picture of who the wealthy are. Do the wear Armani suites, drive Porches, and live in million dollars homes, no. The answer may be surprising because the media has given us a different picture of what wealthy should be. It is encouraging to note that most millionaires live in small towns, drive inexpensive cars, and wear moderate clothing. The authors break down the idea that wealthy people may not look like they have money because their focus is accumulating wealth, not in acquiring possessions. They recommend that this is counter productive.

Chapter 3 gives you an insight on time, energy and money. It goes over what the wealthy worry about and don't. It also shows what the wealthy know about shopping, their finances and their life. They most spend their time knowing the small stuff about their finances and how to save money. This chapter is a reflection of chapter two. It also goes over the consumption habits of the PAW and the UAW to show you how different they are.
Chapter 4 you aren't what you drive speaks about the kinds of cars the wealthy drive. This chapter should have been shortened because they seem to repeat the central themes of the chapter over and over to drive their point home. It was interesting to note that many of the PAW's drive used vehicles over 5 years old and rarely by new cars.

Chapter 5 Economic Outpatient and Chapter 6 Affirmative Action, Family Style both lost me. Economic outpatient is when a wealthy parent provides a yearly gift or money to a PAW child which the authors suggest is why they are PAW in the first place. Chapter six describes who typically gets the Economic Outpatient and gives the peril of these discussions. This lost me because I could not figure out who they authors were talking to. Were they talking to the reader as a parent, the reader as a child or the reader as both? When thinking about, their vagueness on this issue I think it was written for both; one not to except it and one not to offer it. I believe both of these chapters should have been combined and shortened to make it less confusing.

Chapter 7 Finding your Niche and Chapter 8 Jobs: Millionaire Versus Heirs could have also been combines because both discuses the types of jobs and service that one can perform to become wealthy. While it may be common knowledge that the wealthy own business but what types of jobs do they have if they are not entrepreneurs? Generally these types of jobs gives them a stream of income like lawyers, doctors, real estate professional, auctioneers and accountants.

If you are looking for a book that teaches you a step by step approach on how to be a millionaire, this is not the book for you. If you want a book that explains who these individuals are and how to be like them, then you want to read it. What the authors did was give a well researched book on who the wealthy people and how to be like them.

I gave this 4 stars because Amazon does not allow for me to give it 3 ½ stars because there is a wealth of information in the book.

Enjoy

The message of this book is very good - it's about being conservative with our wealth. However, I wish the authors were a bit more conservative with the use of their lengthy descriptions of esoteric points. It's as if somewhere along the way they said, "why should we say in 10 words what we could say in 100,000?" If they just got to the point you could read the whole book in about an hour.

I really enjoyed this book. I mean, really. It was an easy read and the message really hit home with me. This book will change your life and your outlook on it, especially if you're just starting to realize that being an adult isn't as easy as you thought it was gonna be (I've been in denial for a while). It sometimes takes a while for the authors to make their point, but stick with it...it's totally worth it.

so the message is fine. people who spend all their money won't accumulate wealth no matter how high their income. the authors pretty much repeated this over and over until they decided they had enough to call a book.

just read the introduction and save yourself $9. there is no other info in the book.

I read this in high school, at the urging of a friend and my parents. It changed the way I thought (or didn't think) about money. I believe it is excellent, solid advice for anyone who wants to retire comfortably without the hassle of becoming a true investor. I love how he teaches the difference between life insurance policies, and uses reason and math to prove his points. I'm a college student, but I've already saved for retirement, because this book convinced me of the value of time and dollar cost averaging.

This book gives great examples of people making the first and most important step to wealth - saving. It shows why those who appear rich may be poor and that those who appear poor may be millionaires ! This should be mandatory reading for high school students. I give a copy of this to each of my neices and nephews for graduation dedicating it to my Mom, a bus driver after raising 7 children and my Dad, a welder who became millionaires.

I found this book to be highly informative, but overall a little redundant. The information was provide in an academic format, and the chapters are set up more like an outline, than a story. Overall, I'd say this is well worth your time to read.

This book isn't just in my library, it's also a book that I regularly purchase and hand out to friends and familiy members.

The authors lay out common sense information and details on how self-made millionaires achieved their financial success.

Basically, if everybody read this book and followed its guidance, people would at least be more aware of how to save money for their future and potentiall obtain financial freedom.

The information and advice offered by this book is 100% sound. I actually paid each of my daughters $50 to read The Millionaire Next Door when it first came out, and I now share it with others. Adjusting to the "millionaire" lifestyle described in the book will lead to a much more enjoyable and fulfilling life, pretty much guaranteed. This knowledge is especially important for young folks, who need to develop their financial skills and lifestyle attitudes early in life.

This book is a detailed study about average American millionaires, how they live their lives and how they became prodigious accumulates of wealth. The authors provide enough detailed statistical data to show that anyone can because the "The Millionaire Next Door." A good read for anyone with an interest in personal finance and building wealth. I also recommend the author's second book, "The Millionaire Mind."

Drs. Stanley and Danko have taken a somewhat empirical approach to answer the question "how do people become millionaires?" I have to say "somewhat" in that many of their observations, while empirical in nature, are not strictly valid statistically, since much of their material is obtained from focus groups and case studies, which are small sample groups.

However, Drs. Stanley and Danko provide an invaluable primer on the nature of millionaires. The most important of their observations is the need to live well below one's means. John Lithgow, in the near-classic "Cliffhanger" said it best: "Do you know what real love is...? Sacrifice." To become a millionaire, you have to give up a lot of other things. Over and over, the authors harp on the need for upper-middle class people to avoid the upper-middle class trappings of big houses, expensive cars and tastes.

I also appreciated the book for what it lacked. Unlike practically every other get-rich book currently out there, the authors did not fetishize the building of net worth through purchase of highly leveraged real estate. Yes, they do mention it, but mainly in the context of promoting stability and choice of middle class real estate as opposed to high-end real estate. Their argument is that a larger home leads not only to larger mortgage payments, but higher taxes, higher fixed costs, and a greater likelihood to try to acquire symbols of status that your neighbors have. As someone who is over-leveraged with his primary residence in terms of my overall net worth, and who has only partially resisted the tendency to try to keep up with the Joneses, I understand their reasoning and agree. Besides, people who think that their homes are going to appreciate like they have in the past five years are deceiving themselves.

The book also has the courage to say the truth that dares not speak its name: too much education is harmful to wealth accumulation. Essentially, the authors make their point by noting that: (1) time spent in school is time lost to earning a living; (2) professionals often feel like they have to have the trappings of success to go along with their "M.D.," "D.D.S." and "Esq." titles, which sucks them into a high-consumption lifestyle; and (3) a plurality of millionaires are entrepreneurs, who do not have the need for a lot of education. To many people, this is akin to just saying yes to drugs, but looked at objectively, the authors make sense.

However, the book does have some drawbacks. First, I'd like to see an update of this book. The economic analysis uses 1996 numbers. (I read the 1998 edition and now I see that there's a 2003 edition so maybe they've updated the numbers.) Moreover, some of the tax law forming the basis for their comments has changed, so the book is misleading. For example, the authors state that an intergenerational transfer of $10,000 can be made tax-free (p 214). The amount as of 2007 is actually $12,000. See 26 U.S.C. §2503(b).

Also, the book is highly repetitive in some of its examples and conclusions. Perhaps the authors felt like they needed to bulk their book up to make it more saleable, but it was annoying to read example after example of under-accumulators of wealth.

The book also only briefly discusses *why* people want to become millionaires. Not everyone has high priorities for the future, and let's face it, driving the current year's Lexus SUV is a lot more fun than driving a 1984 Buick LeSaber. The authors do mention (p 170), but do not emphasize, the thing that most commends thriftiness, hard work and sacrifice: the freedom that comes with self-sufficiency, or what Bob Brinker calls "critical mass." A direct discussion on this point would have been helpful.

Not a good reading since there are a lot of good books to read. It is a pure waste of time and money.

The Millionaire Next Door provides good insight of how wealth is perceived today. It shows the seven ways of how a millionaire lives and one becomes wealthy. I think this is a wise book to read at a young age and makes me reconsider how i should manage my money. This book is full of insightful points and ideas and i hope to read the others.

Books about personal finance are 90% the same message: stay out of consumer debt, budget, live well under your means, don't spend frivolously, buy used cars instead of leasing new ones, invest 10-20% of your pay, and max out your retirement savings to lower your current tax bracket as well as plan for the future. They all say this. Each book might introduce 10% new material, and they each have their own spin on how you should do these things, and in which order. For instance, there's a huge divide between these authors as to whether it's more important to pay off your consumer debt, or start your savings.

This book, however, got really repetitive really fast. I was reminded of Jack Nicholson in "The Shining" typing "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" for page after page. This book could have done the same thing by printing the same message:

It's easy to become a millionaire when you never spend any money.
It's easy to become a millionaire when you never spend any money.
It's easy to become a millionaire when you never spend any money.

Right. I got that.

The authors display their extreme bias against paying any form of taxes with lots of tongue-in-cheek cutsie stories. While they provide some good food for thought about how you can legally lower your tax rate, they take it farther than I preferred. Apparently things like public schools, paved roads, police, and fire departments aren't good uses of any of their money! I could have done with less preaching on the taxes.

Later, they get silly with this frugality thing. One chapter praises a particular millionaire whose family has lived in the same 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom house for 40 years -- and I can just imagine the clutter and problems with that house and its one bathroom! The same millionaire drives old American cars because he goes fishing on the weekends and he likes to throw the raw, unwrapped, dead fish straight into the backseat.

Dude, are you kidding me?

Nope. This guy is the hero of the book - they saved the best for last!

So this is the Millionaire Next Door I'm supposed to emulate? The guy whose family has lived with 1 bathroom for 40 years, and whose car stinks to high heaven of dead fish?!

The book was interesting to get the mental wheels turning, but it definitely goes from the ridiculous to the sublime very soon. My advice is to check this book out from your local library. It does have something interesting to offer, but it's unlikely to be one you'll want to reference year after year.

Wow! What great insights, as backed by years of analytical detail. Who would have thought that MOST millionaires are just look like you and I on the outside. They live normal lives, perhaps even more frugal than us at times. But yet, they have mastered the art of saving. I learned that it does not matter how much money you make, it is how much money you have that matters. I recommend this book to anyone with the dream of retiring with millions.....but be ready, you likely need to start making changes right now.

The authors, university professors that specialize in market research and the rich, explore the characteristics of America's affluent. They divide people into prodigious accumulators of wealth (PAWs) and under accumulators of wealth (UAWs).

In sum, they find that the preponderance of America's millionaires are self-made, spending far less than they earn. The authors argue convincingly that in order to become rich it is crucial to reject our culture's focus on status symbols and high consumption.

Probably the biggest insights are reserved for how money affects children. For example, the authors say you shouldn't tell your children that you're rich (assuming you are) or give them large sums of money until they have already learned to live and work independently (payments for college or graduate school excepted).

Before you go pay for that European vacation or go to the bank to borrow for that new BMW, read this book. You'll decide to stay at home and buy a 10 year old Buick, and you'll be infinitely happier than if you had done otherwise.

Wow, what a great book! Very eye-opening and interesting. At times a little hard to follow for me, but in general this book makes so much sense and is packed with valuable life lessons. I don't think it is ever wise to go to the extreme of being a self centered tight wad, but our society IS indeed a high consumption based one with many pitfalls to watch out for. There are many proverbs in the Bible which point to the common sense in this book.

"The earlier the better"
I have been purchasing Items on Amazon for approximately 10 years. By far this is the best purchase (investment) I have made on this site.
A definate eye opener. If you are serious about turning your life around by getting out of debt, investing and having a better life in your later years, here is your ticket.
Probably a redundant statement, but I wish I had this ten years ago!
I purchased this just around my 46th birthday.
Afte listening to the first two discs, I imediately increased my 401k contribution to 13 percent of my salary and when my vehicle is paid off first of the year I will max it out.
If you are serious about turning your life around and getting disiplined about finance simply buy this item!!! Thank you Amazon!
I would not be surprised if credit card issuers are trying to steer customers away from this product.

This is a must read for anyone starting to or wanting to grow rich. It's an everymans money management guide. It is a easy read.

Impossible to skim and even more agonizing to read. Save money, don't spend more than you make, invest??? duh! say something worth the paper it was written on! tell me something worth the 30 minutes it took me to skim this book! Honestly,I'm young so I'm not a millionaire yet. But I'm on the track I am going, I have a early retirement set. But damn it, I love my Lexus. I'm not willing to sacrifice my own safety so I can save some money. I love designer products! I love going out and enjoying life! Whats the point of money if your not going to enjoy it. Do what your heart tells you is right and do what makes you happy. But of course do it within your means. Save enough for retirement. Invest! Have a savings! Save enough for a rainy day! But other than that if you have have enough money to buy a ferrari or a 2 million dollar house, or every toy out there, designer things, THEN DO IT! Just do it within your means!

Making a million dollars a year is much different than being worth a million dollars. You may make a million, but if you spend it all your net worth is zero. When looking for millionaires to research, the authors initially looked at the fanciest and highest priced neighborhoods. What they found out was that there weren't many millionaires there at all. This book shows you that those who are actually worth millions do not have the newest cars, the latest gadgets or the biggest houses. They live modestly but have little or no debt. Its amazing to see people everyday falling into the traps this book outlines. Those that are wealthy know they are wealthy and do not need flashy cars and material things to prove it to the world. They don't buy cars, they buy property or other investments which make them more money. While others are borrowing money to maintain their million dollar lifestyle, the true millionaires are sitting back collecting money from their investments.

You can learn something profound from almost any book. This read is filled of wise advice for those attempting to build wealth or figure out how wealth is built.

The book reviews the habits, tendencies and actions of the rich. Their findings will surprise you and may change the way that you think.
After reading it you may not scoff at the next person you see driving a Ford F150 or envy the driver of the most expensive Mercedes.

I think that it offers good tips, HOWEVER. I have a friend who is super cheap. Which is fine if you don't want to spend your money on yourself but money shouldn't come out of my pocket to help you. she is the type to never contribute to gas and tolls on trips, and never take her car. Always seem to be short a dinner or the cover charge in a club. I could go on and on with incidents, but I stopped going anywhere with her for this reason. I noticed in her profile she listed this book as one of her favorites. I think it offers a guideline but it is sometimes not frugal but acting cheap. so I understand why many say this about the book. What are you saving your money for, but to spend it later.

Everyone should read this book. If you want to be a millionaire, see how millionaires act.

This is the most amazing collection of research I have come across in a very long time! It is so simply illustrated, you are left wondering why you never took the time to understand the "eccentrics"!

They are the ones who definitely will have the last laugh--on their way to the bank.

This book isn't really an economics book and it is not about the super wealthy as a social radical would define that group. It is a cute book and it is reassuring to those of us who really aren't all that wealthy but have watched our pennies and been reasonably conservative in our spending habits.
It follows the misleading old adage that if you wish to be "something" study those who have already become what you would like to be and follow their example. This rarely works and is a very boring, non-creative, yet common behavior practiced by almost everybody. This is why we have a never ending variety of burger stands, shopping malls, rap hoodlums, celebrities, writers and movie stars who all look, sound, and act alike everywhere we turn.
I was very pleased to find out that I was actually wealthier than I thought I was and that most of my neighbors think that I am.
I was nevertheless pleased to learn that most of "us" wealthy people believe that a penny saved is a penny earned; that it is not what you earn but what you are able to save that counts; and that charity should begin at home. I think that's all true - my wife disagrees with at least two of the above.

This is one of my all time favorite financial books because it is based on actual research of the affluent, not just one person's opinion or experience. It is very interesting that according to the authors, most millionaires are actually very thrifty people, which is in part how they were able to accumulate their wealth. What better way is there to try to become wealthy than following the patterns of others who have already accomplished the same goal? I have this book all marked up and keep refering to it again and again over the years. I think it would be a great book for young adults to read to help them to get an early start on the road to financial security and thrifty living.

This book is a goldmine. Get it, read it, apply it. It's not the only ethical way to wealth, but it's the most reliable. The Millionaire Next Door has had over ten years for it's thesis to be validated in the marketplace, and it's never been proven wrong. It's the boring and slow way to get rich. Many are called, but few are chosen.

Take action!

There is a silly book called A Millionaire Next Door, and one of the authors wrote an even sillier book called The Millionaire's Mind. They interviewed a bunch of millionaires to figure out how these people got rich. Visibly they came up with bunch of traits. You need a little bit of intelligence, a lot of hard work, and a lot of risk-taking. And they derived that, hey, taking risk is good for you if you want to become a millionaire. What these people forgot to do is to go take a look at the less visible cemetery -- in other words, bankrupt people, failures, people who went out of business -- and look at their traits. They would have discovered that some of the same traits are shared by these people, like hard work and risk taking. This tells me that the unique trait that the millionaires had in common was mostly luck.

By Nassim Nicholas Taleb

I mostly read non-fiction these days. Usually I stick to travelogues and historical accounts that generally are about the North Atlantic and, well, History. This year I made a point of starting to read business books.

"The Millionaire Next Door" isn't a book on business. It provides outstanding insight into how one should manage his or her personal finances through frugal spending. The authors aren't talking about investing in stocks. That is not the intention of the book. The key here is the word frugal. We live in a "high consumption" society and the temptation to spend on unnecessary items is way too high.

Using ample evidence (real life cases and consulting with millionaires), the authors drive home the point that a high income earner will not necessarily become a millionaire...and that guy driving the gleaming new Ferrari may not have enough to retire comfortably. Some of what the authors say may seem repetitive but their message works. They talk about everything from spoiled rich kids who have never managed to escape the influence of their parents to the tactics employed by those wealthy people when shopping for used cars.

My own spending habits (since I've finished reading the book) 3 months ago have changed considerably...for the better, I am sure. Because of its easy to understand format (the authors use plain English and no math), this book would make an interesting enough read for teenagers about to finish high school.

I was very impressed with the book on CD. Hearing the book kept the words running through my mind. The principles outlined in the book underscore the importance of budgeting, living within your means, and investing for the future. It also distinguished between affluent living (foreign luxury cars, country club memberships, expensive homes, etc.) and a wealth building lifestyle. Must reading for those serious about attaining financial independence and responsible financial management.

The statistical majority of millionaires operate in ways contrary to typical expectations. In fact, millionaires build and maintain wealth precisely because they defy those assumptions. People presume that millionaires must live and spend lavishly -- the surprise twist is that the ones acting that role are typically pretenders. They're actually under-accumulators who consume their way to impoverishment. Under-accumulators live a lifestyle they can't afford and end up unable to fund comfortable retirement.

If your goal is to live in a custom home, play in exclusive clubs and resorts, and drive exotic cars, The Millionaire Next Door is probably not for you. But if your goal is to provide for your financial future and retire worry-free, this book shows how the top 1% are building their wealth. It doesn't detail the mechanics of how to invest and manage your money. It shows that the rich are wealthy because of their frugal habits.

The concepts admittedly sound familiar after the first score of pages, and after many more iterations sound repetitive. Still the ideas are worth knowing and passing on.

The best way to understand other peoples outcomes is to grasp their behaviours. As an MBA and anthropologist, this is a facsinating book into the behaviours of "monetary" success. Very different from contemporary commercial messages about money and success. A real eye opener for a lot of people.

A constant criticism of this book is that there is so much attention to being frugal, that one doesn't get to enjoy the benefits of one's labors. To that I say, "Balderdash!". You don't have to follow all of Stanley's tips to benefit tremendously from his thinking. I love living below my means and coming up with ways to get more out of my money.
There were many ways I changed how I look at my life because of Stanley's insights. Do I follow all his advice? No. But I am the proverbial millionaire next door, and no one who meets me would ever guess.

I wanted to like the book, becouse I love the idea of living beyond your means and saving. And statistics are really interesting. But most of the text is just authors trashing spenders and praising supercheap millionaires. They don't question their black-and-white judgement. They don't ask: 'Isn't this person too maniacal about saving more and more and living like a bum?' They don't think, that the same behavior can be reasonable or unreasonable in different context. They criticize people, who make a lot of money, have large savings, but not as large as they "should". Almost nothing is said about different goals of different people and different ways to these goals. Authors seem to think that saving 20-40% of your income (no matter, large or small) is an end of itself. I recommend Gene Simmons' "Sex Money Kiss" instead of this book. Simmons makes a much more reasonable and persuasive case for being frugal.

"The Millionaire Next Door" is an oldie but goodie. Although the market changes, some things about wealth builders stay the same. This book compares the attitudes and spending habits of those with "High Networth" i.e. the wealthy with the attitudes/habits of those with "High Consumption."

The basic message of the book is that High Networth Individuals work for their money/financial freedom by being frugal--i.e. spending wisely. Whereas High Consumption individuals--work for stuff and and an outwardly appearance of high status.

The message is a good one--although after a couple hundred pages it becomes a bit redundant. Although, considering the outrageous spending habits and debt of Americans perhaps the redundancy is necessry.

90 seconds is about what you would need to finish reading this review for The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy by Thomas J. Stanley. Whatever you thought about becoming wealthy, you will probably discover in this book that the wealthy are more like everyday people just like you and me. The only difference is the way they handle money and control money. Getting wealthy, you will find is much simpler that you think. Not easy, but very, very simple. Read it and be surprised.

Other titles you will enjoy as well are:

The Millionaire Mind

Rich Dad's Guide to Investing: What the Rich Invest in, That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

Rich Dad's Before You Quit Your Job: 10 Real-Life Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Know About Building a Multimillion-Dollar Business (Rich Dad's)

Thank you, Mr. Stanley for your revelations.

Author Thomas J.Stanley provides a guide with usefull real world information. Great stories rather than just a how to manual.


Corey Cotta, Author of All of Yesterdays Tomorrows.

Excellent, excellent book! Great stories from actual, every day millionaires! Everyone earning money needs to read this book (even if they are only 14 years old!). What better advice can you get about becoming a millionaire but from actual millionaires?