In A Nutshell:
The Millionaire Next Door and The Millionaire Mind had revolutionized the way that I thought about money--or maybe it is more accurate to say that these books changed the way I aspire to approach money. No longer did it seem impossible to be financially independent even on the salary that I currently make and the salary I can hope to make in my current career (which I do love and I do feel utilizes my talents and aptitudes).

But those books did have a very strong focus on male millionaires, and as a single mother I felt some of the principles out of my reach. So I almost jumped for joy when I saw Millionaire Women Next Door. Financially independence now feels attainable--even for me.

Review:
I had read both The Millionaire Next Door and The Millionaire Mind a few years back. But after some recent major changes in my life, I decided to rededicate myself to the goal of financial independence, so I checked them both out from the library to re-read. It was during the search for these two books that I found Millionaire Women Next Door. So after re-reading both of the originals, I dove into this newer installment.

Reading them so closely together, I did see that there is some repetition between the three books. It makes sense because some of the principles that people follow as part of their plan for financial independence are going to be the same regardless of gender. But the repetition did get to be a little boring in certain spots. There is also a lot of quotes directly from the previous books, which is probably necessary for the people who started with this book without reading the other two. But for me, it just further accentuated the repetition.

There is a large section where Thomas J. Stanley goes into detail about the difference between "Alpha" women millionaires (women who became millionaires after growing up in a loving, supportive, and in many cases frugal environment) and "Beta" women millionaires (women who became millionaires after growing up in negative and/or hostile environment). This section really hit close to home for me and really gave me insight into who I am and why I approach money in some of the ways that I do. He goes on to talk about being married to "Marginal Bob." It explained so much to me about how I ended up in the situation(s) I did.

Understanding some of these things about myself have helped me as I focus on my goal of financial independence. I can see some of the areas that I have to watch for myself so they do not get out of control again. I have also been able to forgive myself for some of the mistakes of my past--with an understanding that I have to work hard to not end up in that same place a second time.

As a parent, this book has also made me think of how I want my daughter to relate to money. As she gets older, I want to start to implement some of the techniques the millionaire women talked--such as open honest discussions of how money is spent as a family every paycheck.

Very interesting read. There were many concepts that were repeated from the Millionaire next door book. I found the book inspiring as it talked about women from all walks of life who had made it big.

Not as interesting as The Millionaire Next Door. I did not end up finishing the book as I felt many of the information did not seem very novel to me nor applicable to me. I recommend The Millionaire Next Door over this one.

Another Good work by Dr. Stanley. He takes facts and figures about wealth and translates them into an easy to digest format. Although I truly enjoyed this book and got quite a bit from it, I still feel the Millionaire Next Door should be the one that is required reading

After n  The Millionaire Next Doorn made me feel so down on myself, I wasn’t as enthusiastic about reading Millioniare Women Next Door as when I first ordered it from my library. But when it finally arrived a few weeks later, I figured I might as well bite the bullet and have another unpleasant look in the financial mirror.

Surprisingly, the book turned out to be much more inspirational than the first. The author does revisit many of the same themes – the importance of thrift, the dangers of economic outpatient care on adults – but he also includes the success stories of numerous millionaire women. And who doesn’t love success stories?

More important is how the book has impacted my own life. I can name four specific ways:

(1) The most practical, real-world change is that I’ve created a spreadsheet of all my credit cards and used the “chart” function to turn it into a graph. Now I’ve got a clear, visual summary of how much I owe, and my goal is to reduce that debt by 25% or more by December. I don’t know whether or not I can become a millionaire , but I do know that my first step to financial solvency is to wipe out that debt.

(2) Though I haven’t done it every day, I’ve taken to writing down specific goals. Some are daily and some are long-term, but setting specific goals is one of the things successful women do routinely.

(3) This one is a change of mindset. Early in the book, it states that most of these successful women don’t spend much time, if any, thinking about how their lives could have been different, and not all of them led charmed existences before becoming rich. Unfortunately, regret, specifically about sabotaging my future by messing up in college, occupies so much of my own mental energy, I’ve determined it to be my mid-life crisis. And it’s deep-seated, too. Because of the book, I began to stop these thoughts whenever I caught myself, but they came back in such a powerful dream, I woke up at 3 am from it. In the negative part of my dream, I again met the college official who interviewed me for the college I didn’t go to and now wish I had. In a positive part, though, my family members agreed that I should have a “second chance,” so I was going to go back to being 18 again. But when I woke up, I realized that if I’m ever going to get a second chance at college, it won’t be by going back in time. It has to be now. That’s as close to a “never look back” attitude as I can get to.

(4) This is another mindset change, and it’s connected with the previous one. Most of the millionaire women profiled in the book run their own businesses, but most of them didn’t become millionaires until they were in their forties or fifties and usually with a few failed businesses behind them. I found that incredibly comforting in light of my own age and mistakes. Who knows what the future might hold for me?

With insights like that, is it any wonder I’ve rated this book a 5?

Interesting book. I read this one because all copies of "The Millionaire Next Door" were checked out of the library.

Interesting- but not as much insight as the original Millionaire Next Door. To echo my comments on the original book- this book is not about women who have inherited family money, it's about women who have earned it through their own efforts and hard work and managed it well. It's a very motivating book.

I really wanted to like this book. "Millionaire Women Next Door": who could *not* be attracted to a book with a title like that? Unfortunately, this book did not meet my high expectations. It's a great book if you are the parent of a little girl, and want to know what to do to give her the best chance of one day becoming a self-made millionaire. It's a great book if you enjoy reading random statistics on groups of people. However, if you are already grown, if you are not the parent of a little girl, and if you are interested in stories rather than statistics, this book is not for you. It was not for me. In fact, this is the first book in a loooooooooooong time that I gave up on; I put the book back on my shelf with 1/3 the book remaining.

Some of the statistics are interesting, and the insights into the characteristics of parents of future self-made millionaires are interesting. If that was the type of information I was looking for, I would have found this book somewhat engaging.

too many stats and not enough personal details! I could have did a google search and crossed this information. I was disappointed.

The Millionaire Next Door copy has been lost from our library, so I picked up this book instead. I already knew the basic premise of the book - everyday people (women) living frugally and acquiring wealth - but still found it intriguing. One of the most important things I took away is that as a parent, I need to explain money to my children - especially to my duaghter. I need to teach them how to earn it, what to do with it and to be generous with it. And I also left feeling motivated to acquire some new financial skills.

I've heard people refer to 'The Millionaire Next Door' for years. The library didn't have that one in stock so I read the women's version. It was not what I expected but it was interesting. I felt the study and findings about women millionaires was interesting, but I felt the writing itself wasn't great...the set up of facts and information was a little lacking, and the organization was often confusing. This is another book I read just so I could know what others were talking about. Now I know.

If you have read Millionaire Next Door, there is little to distinguish this one. However, the authors do mention gender specific aspects taking into account first generation female business owners.