Might be useful for the financially clueless people. For everyone else even the Blinks are boring.

The Millionaire Next Door is a 5 star book with a 1 star title (It sounds too greedy..how about secrets of those who have saved well)...less sexy, but more humble. My brother in law recommended this book after he began talking about PAW's (prodigious accumulators of wealth) and UAW's (underachieving accumulators of wealth). It turns out this book was for sale at the Goodwill for 1.99..maybe shopping at the Goodwill was the surprising secret of America's Wealthy...I had to find out! So I picked out 2 crisp dollars out of my wallet (Goodwill does not charge tax...nonprofit) and made my purchase.

Dr. Stanley and Dr. Danko try to unravel systematically and statistically the secrets of those that have assets of greater than one million dollars. When we think millionaire we think of Donald Trump, Mitt Romney, George Soros..these are misconceptions....Here are the facts about millionaires

1- 2/3rds are self employed in dull or normal jobs like farmers, contractors, pest controllers
2- 97 % own a home..most have occupied this home for over 20 years (they don't continue to buy up...Warren Buffet still lives in his same home in Ohama..and so does Rick Warren in SoCAl)
3- 80% are first generation affluent and did not receive any inheritance
4- They live below their means..most spend less than 20 k on cars (most drive cars at least 5 years old), less than 80 dollars on shoes, and well under 200 dollars on suits
5- Well educated, 6% PhD's, 18% masters, 6% medical degrees
6- But only 17 % ever attend private elementary or high school

PAW's budget carefully, and save save save. They are not concerned with keeping up with Jones. They don't care about having the right car, furniture, suit, etc. They eschew being "mass consumers...and value financial freedom and the time and ability to do what they want to do and when they want to do it. They are highly against giving large gifts to adult children (although they do support helping kids out with college). In fact they believe (and claim research shows) that giving adult children large cash gifts increases their odds of being poor..it diminishes their incentive to take risks, work hard, and learn how to be productive.

There is a lot to agree with this book..it affirms that you must play defense (spend carefully) not just play offense (try to earn more) to be successful financially (although this book does infer money is not everything). It also affirms that we live in a country of opportunities where normal people with creative business ideas and hard work teamed with careful budgeting and savings can become financially independent.

Interestingly this book claims doctors are poor PAW's...they are too altruistic and often give their services and money and time away.

My only complaints...This book was written in 1996..so it could use an update (with the internet and economic collapse of 2007-2008). Secondly it could extend more information on to specifically how PAW's invest.

5 stars...I read this book in a few days. It held my attention.

Nuts ‘n bolts: the wealthiest people live frugally. If you want wealth, be frugal.


“I’m not impressed with what people own, but I am impressed with what they achieve. Always strive to be the best in your field, and don’t chase money. If you are one of the best in your field, the money will find you.”

There are no secrets.

Also, the millionaires are not the kind you'd like to read about. Just bunch of people who saved for 30years and they have 1'000'000$ in the bank, living almost poor, and praising education.

Main message is: Be Frugal, invest.
One driving a Benz is quite likely less worth than one driving a Ford F150 (since the Benz owner has already spent money). Max price paid by 75% millionaires for: Suit $600, Shoes: $200, watch $235 (50%)! JCPenney has toughest quality control amongst all stores. Millionaires' wives are all frugal too. They save coupons etc...
1. All have annual household budget
2. All have accountant
3. All have investments in stocks, real estate, business etc
4. Shopping method and principles (i.e. car purchase)
VIMP: It takes only one fancy item to start the snowball effect. i.e. Rolls Royce as a gift was denied by a millionaire because all his accessories, clothes etc things would needed an upgrade to match that status symbol. Millionaires don't care about status symbols. The author calls them artifacts. They own, Ford (F150), Cadillac, Lincoln Town cars, Jeep, Lexus, Mercedes,, Oldsmobile, Chevy, Toyota, Buick, Nissan, Volvo, Chrysler, Jaguar. They tend to go for more weight per dollar criteria subconciously (comforts, reliability, safety).

The book gives distribution of folks per their ancesterial origin, job function, inheritance.
Frugal millionaires have less worries in general.
Doctors & Lawyers typically earn a lot and spend a lot.

The book could have been a little less lengthy; however, good thing is that it has come out of a thorough statistics from numerous interviews of millionaires.

Household net worth = Household Income + Investments - expenses.
Typically, one tries to maximize income but also increases expenses to either show off or to be at par with the society or because one thinks that spending = enjoying.
It takes only one high-class item to start the snow-ball effect.
Worth of a person should be >= Age / 10 * Annual earnings before taxes (no investment).
i.e. for a 30 year old making $100k/year, his worth should be: $300k or more.

If you are rich, your kids could have less net worth if you get into a teaching of spending or supporting them financially.
The question that remains unanswered for me is: What to do with all the money when I save say a few millions?
- I don't end up spending it due to my habit,
- If I start spending, I am doing so when I am old and can supposedly enjoy less
- If there is a recession or major financial problem (heart transplant), then I have more chances of survival (assuming US doesn't adapt good strategies of Europe and Canada about healthcare).
- Once I die, Govt takes most for doing nothing.

It talks about what one should do with all the money (main part is to donate and distribute and how). I shall read it when I am older or a millionaire, whichever happens first. :)

The issues with financially helping out kids and continuing the help when they are adults is well listed. (Economic Outpatient Care). We weaken the weak by helping him financially.

1. Never tell children that their parents are wealthy.
2. Teach discipline and frugality
3. Don't let them realize that you are affluent until after they have established a mature, disciplined, and adult life-style and profession.
4. Minimize discussions of the items that each child and grandchild will inherit or receive as gifts
5. Never give cash or other significant gifts to your adult children as part of a negotiation strategy.
6. Stay out of your adult children's family matters
7. Don't try to compete with your children
8. Always remember that you children are individuals
9. Emphasize your children's achievements, no matter how small, not their or your symbols of success.
10. Tell your children that there are a lot of things more valuable than money

I, however, would rather have that questions hanging over me than having worries of how to sponsor my brother's / kids' education while carrying a $500 Nokia phone and driving a 8 cylinder fancy sports car...

I read this book in 2020.

The Millionaire Next Door teaches us that becoming wealthy isn't about living a fancy lifestyle.

Instead, it's about being smart with money, living below your means, and saving consistently.

The book shows that most wealthy people are not big spenders.

They focus on things like budgeting, investing, and working hard over time.

This book was so difficult to get through.
I have been trying to read one financial book a week. I love Suze Orman, Dave Ramsey. I enjoyed the Millionaire Mind; I found it inspiring. I did not enjoy the Millionaire Next Door.

This book is heavily recommended on so many of the financial online forums and blogs I read, so I borrowed it from my library this week.

I found the first chapter very interesting, and then they lost me. I think the premise of this book could be summarized into one chapter. But then, you can't sell a book on one chapter!

I do not think the writing is good. The authors are annoyingly repetitive. I think they bored their editor so much that the editor didn't catch that they repeat sentences over, and over, and over. The book is fluffed out with tons of boring, didactic charts. The writing is not organized - at times, it seems like streams of conscientiousness writing- jumping around too much.

I think they completely lost my interest on page 75 when they write: "How else does one explain why two experts on wealth are not wealthy? in part, because they spent a combined total of nearly 20 years pursuing higher education."

So on page 106 they tell a great story of Mr. Martin who won't hire advisers who don't have personal accounts of at least $200,000, because otherwise they are "full of baloney." But back on page 75, they admit they are poor themselves! So why should I listen to their advice??

They spend a lot of time on topics that completely lose my interest. To spend pages showing how rich guys typically buy cars by the pound, and then to review how many pounds each car weighs ...this really put me to sleep. They list the cars millionaires typically buy, and then to go on to list pretty much every car in existence. Or to review for pages and pages the ancestral backgrounds of the 3,000 millionaires they happened to pick from geocoded neighborhoods proves nothing to me.

But then the authors lose confidence, and slap a disclaimer- quietly- on page 228. "we have gone out of our way to emphasize that there are no sure steps one can take to become wealthy." . But wait. Then what are the other 254 pages about? I am lost again. Because they spend a whole lot of time enumerating some pretty sound steps that millionaires take to get wealthy (1. they live well below their means. 2. they allocate...)

Most importantly, there were 5.3 million households in America in 1997 (when the book was written) that were millionaires. Yet they only interviewed 3,000 households. To put forth statistics as "typical" based on the low percentage they interviewed can't possibly be accepted as statistical or fact.

On page 249, they review that they chose the millionaires they surveyed based on geocoded neighborhoods- but this goes against what they spent 248 pages proclaiming! They spend the entire book professing that millionaires don't live in certain neighborhoods, then go on to say they only know this because they surveyed certain probable high-net-worth neighborhoods.

With all this said, I am not disagreeing with any of the tenants of wealth accumulation they advocate- I follow them myself, and highly, highly recommend them! So I reluctantly recommend people read the book just to glean that bit, but with hesitance because I understand they will have to sort through boring charts, stereotyping, and bad writing to get advice. Readers would be better off reading a Ramsey book, which is captivating and not doesn't drown out the message with boring stats. There is some good insight in here - live below your means, don't spend 10 years in advanced education with hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans to hold you back, invest your money at an early age, don't cripple your children by making them economically dependent, teach your children to fish, don't get caught up with keeping up with Joneses, work hard, plan, pick a compatible spouse, use a budget, track your spending, etc. All of this is great advice.

According to .05% of the millionaires in America.

Did not finish. Seemed to have a few good points repeated many times in different ways. Here's how I would sum up:

Most wealthy people are frugal, earned their wealth, save their money, and pay attention to their finances. They are often business owners. The people who look rich usually are not.

Got it? OK, then go read something else.

The main theme of this book was – Be frugal to become a millionaire
There was a lot of statistics and numbers thrown in to prove the hypothesis that you need to be frugal to become a millionaire. I am not saying that it is not correct. I just felt this was overdone – too repetitive and dry.
I found the calculation of under-accumulators of wealth (UAWs) and prodigious accumulators of wealth (PAWs) interesting and a better way of calculating of how well financially people are doing instead of using the yard stick of how much one is earning.
This is book is not about how to save or how to invest, it is mainly about how millionaires spend.

There's a lot to say about this book, both positive and negative. It had some great ideas in it, some which are possibly quite revelatory for some people, and some really useful information which I would love to ensure certain people I know read. However, it was also a very dry read, somewhat repetitive and dwelled on some things I didn't think were all that fascinating (like what sorts of cars millionaires drive). It also had a lot of charts, which is fun from a stats perspective and lends credibility, but it's a bit too much irrelevant info to take in.

I honestly didn't care what sort of ancestry millionaires had or what cars they drove, but I saw that the authors were doing the Mythbusters thing and making sure people didn't believe in completely false things.

I felt they spent an incredible amount of this book talking about what happens to the kids of the rich. However, this can be used as a great parental tool to ensure parents teach their kids the right money tactics, whether starting rich or not. It also ends with sensible career ideas to suggest to kids (which make a lot of sense with the reasoning).

In essence, the lessons from the book are to remain frugal, save money and to ensure you keep your money wherever possible. Employ good financial and legal help to ensure you save on taxes, invest wisely and whatnot.

Anyway, if you're frugal and live below your means you're on the right path. Then increase your income without changing your habits and be sure to invest the rest well and you'll be fine.

Когато чуем "милионер", разбира се, си представяме това, което филмите ни показват - луксозни коли, огромни къщи с прислуга, частни полети до скъпи дестинации. Само че много често хората, които живеят така изобщо не са милионери, луксозният им живот често е само назаем и приключва в момента, в който изгубят престижната си работа, бизнесът им тръгне надолу или просто парите от наследството свършат.

The Millionaire Next Door е статистическо изследване на "богатите" в САЩ, но е популярно написана, което я превръща едновременно в книга за финансов здрав разум за всеки.

Авторите събират финансови и социални данни за горната прослойка от населението, а също така провеждат и множество интервюта с хора, които притежават повече от 1 млн. долара, за да видят какви аджеба са те, какво са направили, за да са милионери, как живеят и какво можем да научим от тях.

Това, което откриват с изследването си, е доста изненадващо - образът на средния милионер няма много общо с частните самолети, дизайнерски костюми и богато наследство. Не само, че 85% от милионерите са първо поколение (т.е. направили са сами парите си), но и начинът им на живот е доста... незабележим.

Средният милионер е на 55 години, притежава малък до среден бизнес (2-3 магазина, фирма за услуги или нещо такова), живее в нормална, обикновена къща, кара кола, произведена преди 10 години, има щастлив брак и деца, които не глези, работи по 10 часа на ден и обича да спестява и инвестира парите си.

Ще оставя сами да си направите изводите.

The "secret" to building wealth is remarkably simple, but the devil is in the details. Accumulating wealth is as simple as living below your means for a long period of time and investing the left over money in the never ending bull marke known as the U.S. financial markets. There are a few problems with this. The main problem is that the temptation to live above your means to display your "wealth" to other leads to you never accumulating as much wealth as you should. Your parents have a lot to do with how you view money and ultimately how you act with it.

My only real gripe with the book is that the numbers in it feel very outdated. The book did come out the year I was born after all, 1998. The book says you should only buy a home 1.5 times your salary. That is just bananas in the current housing market we live in. Many of the numbers for incomes, budgets, cars, and goods feel very off. If you adjust $1,000,000 to 2024 dollars using C.P.I. data from the U.S. Federal Reserve it becomes approximately $2,000,000. The cost of like in those 25 or so years has probably more than doubled.

The core concepts of the book stand the test of time. Live below your means and do not display your wealth to others with material items. Don't let your parents subsidize your lifestyle. Raise kids who are self sufficient adults. Don't let cars keep you poor. Know the worth of your time.