This book simple shook me! I never ever imagined that millionaires life’s weren’t as it is portrayed in the media. Furthermore, it kind makes since how the rich are rich. Yet the media and it’s effect on us.

Most of the finance books I've read have been interesting and engaging, even if they didn't share any new insights.

This one, however, is dry as dust. And it certainly didn't age well.

If you want to read a book about cheap, wealthy white dudes who don't give to charity (because their favourite charity is themselves--ugh) and whose wives are cheerfully nagging them to frugality (sigh--because imagine the shock and horror if the authors had interviewed any wealthy women), this is the book for you.

But their investment advice is WAY out of date, and anyone who's part of the FIRE movement will swear at this book so much it's really not worth the rise in blood pressure. (Sure, lease a car and hire that fancy accountant. Why not? You're not going to be giving to charity...or your children.)

Really enjoyed this.

The basic premise is that a super smart statistician went around and interviewed large swaths of millionaires in America in the 80s.


Before I read this book, I had a whole lotta preconceptions about what millionaires look like. Think about what the word 'millionaire' makes you think of.


Here's mine: ridiculously shiny, sleek car. Perfect, branded accessories. Home that looks like a resort. Plastic surgery. Private jet. You have an average-sized movie theater in your home. Live-in chef.


This book challenged that assumption.


There's a huge difference between people who live like they are rich (see above) and those who actually have a huge net worth. Think of the person I mentioned above. If they are making 600k a year, but aren't putting any of that in the bank, they aren't actually rich. They just have a higher cost of living than the average spender, but still all of their money is sunk into a home mortgage, car payments, and profligate livin-it-up.


If that person's job took a dive, they'd be in dire straights. They may look fancy, but they have no real security.


What does the average, real millionaire look like?


-Drives a 15-year-old Ford F150.

-Never buys a piece of clothes that costs more than a couple hundred dollars, even for suits

-Buys a nice house in an average neighborhood

-Does their own yard work

-Flies economy


That is revolutionary. The average millionaire (in net worth) doesn't look like one, and the man who looks like one is usually a fraud.


Other interesting tidbits:

-Some of the most influential factors in whether you'll become a legitimate millionaire are:

t-Having a thrifty wife, versus a spender

t-Your parent's lifestyle and treatment of money

t-Your view of what 'makes the good life'

t-Your level of saving

t-Intentional conversations about finances and goals


One conversation I extremely enjoyed is around how generations create super-spenders.


First, you have the immigrant who scraped by to make it in America, or the first-generation successful entrepreneur. They experienced real hardship, embarrassment, and hustled to do better for their children. They never wanted their children to feel the embarrassment they experienced.


Their kids are sheltered from financial hardship and grow up with an expectation of wealth. They, however, are not passed the skills or drive to keep growing the wealth. Their successful parents end up underwriting the children's lives.


When the grandkids come along... they are passed the same standard of living expectations that their parents were. However... their parents don't have the wealth to bank-roll those lifestyles.


The wealth is gone. The skills and hustles are gone. The appearance of wealth remains.



This. Is. Haunting.


The frugal, true millionaires however never create this "appearance of wealth." Their children never consider their parents wealthy. They don't really talk about inheritance, or financial gifts. The kids are encouraged to gain skills, hustle, pay for things that they want, and save.


The children grow up, benefit from the lessons of their parents, and realize that their parents are "wealthy" later in life. By then, it doesn't matter. They are becoming wealthy themselves.


Would love to hear y'all thoughts on this.

And obviously, highly recommend you read Millionaire Next Door.

I’m not going to do any of this.

This is the best personal finance book ever for one simple reason: It's boring. Don't get me wrong, the revelations of what the average American millionaire actually looks like is quite interesting, but the ways in which they accumulate wealth is boring. Good. Every story that tries to make getting money sound exciting is a lie. There is a 99.99% chance (with a 0.01% margin of error) you will never get wealthy through a crazy stock investment, game show win, dead family member, etc. Instead, you must get some lame job (bonus points if you're working for ultra-wealthy morons) while living well below your means. It's not about inventing a revolutionary product or gaming the system, it's about throwing your money at a savings account and avoiding spendthrifts like the plague.

Of course, this book presupposes that you have an acceptable income in the first place, which hasn't aged well as we enjoy the ramifications of late-stage capitalism. There's also the statistic showing that many of their millionaires did so by starting a business. It doesn't emphasize enough how starting a business is a high-risk, high-reward prospect that will actually work out for very few people. Despite these flaws, the book's general philosophy of saving rather than spending should be practiced by all. With enough time, maybe you could be The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy (Paperback) by Thomas J. Stanley Change edition.

کتاب نسبتا خوبی بود و لی عموما عادات مصرفی و کسب و کار آرمریکا را مدنظر قرا داده بود
در کل بعضی از بخشهای کتاب مثلا بخش مربوط به صرفه جویی و تربیت فرزندان و خانواده برای کسب ثروت و اصول پس انداز جالب و موثر بود

Couple of pre-requisites you need to know before picking this book:
1. This is authored keeping America and its citizens in mind. So if you are outside the USA, might not have a similar impact it has on American citizens
2. Reading this book in 2020 can be considered a little late to the party as it is published for readers of 1995/96. And there is a considerate amount of book that addresses the next 10 years (95-05)

Keeping aside the above points. This book revolves around all combinations of parents-children, self-employees vs regular job holders vs entrepreneurs relationships when it comes to affluence. Has a few good insights on what it means to be frugal and how it benefits wealth accumulation in long run. In short, tries to answer this question "Do you wish to become affluent and stay affluent?". The better part of the book according to me is that it doesn't discriminate or rule out lower-income groups off the chart. I have indeed learned a few things out of this book which I hope to implement in my life and change my defense

A recent review convinced me that this has stood the test of time.

Labai įdomi knyga nupiešianti tikrą milijonieriaus portretą. Tyrimas atliktas 1995-96 metais. Būtų labai įdomų paskaityti naujesnius duomenis.

This book is full of great tips about sorting out your financial priorities and pursuing them, and there are plenty of interesting stories about the real lives of America's millionaires to keep the pages turning. You'll definitely be surprised about how much the typical millionaire spends on his cars. This would be beneficial to anyone, and especially those who struggle with consumption habits. The most helpful bit of information I got out of this was the difference in lifestyles between what he calls PAWs (prodigious accumulators of wealth) and UAWs (under accumulators of wealth), and the corresponding dramatic difference in net worth between these two categories. As of my reading, the $s are a tad bit outdated, but the advice is still solid gold. And it's a little bit repetitive and heavy on the numbers, but overall, highly recommend.

MIllionaires can be tremendously dull; this book isn't. It is thought provoking and unexpected, if a touch dry. With so many people fascinated by glitz and bling, it is worth considering the relationship between appearing rich and being wealthy. This book has lots of great nuggets, but the upshot is that rich people often work doggedly at some fairly mundane businesses while living frugal and unpretentious lives (they generally don't divorce, move, or consume conspicuously). Certainly, this isn't a complete economics primer, nor is it a fluffy catalog of rich and famous lifestyles. But if you're truly interested in what makes the rich different, this isn't a bad place to look.

There’s a reason this is in the discussion for the GOAT personal finance book. Couldn’t put it down.