So you want to be a millionaire?

books:


	• The Millionaire Next Door Thomas J. Stanley, William D. Danko Pocket, 1998 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 788 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Some interesting stuff

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.

Dated, but helpful

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.

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So you want to be a millionaire?

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

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