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The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising…
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The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy (original 1996; edition 2010)

by Thomas Stanley, William Danko

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4,102562,897 (3.71)25
Business. Finance. Nonfiction. HTML:How do the rich get rich? An updated edition of the "remarkable" New York Times bestseller, based on two decades of research (The Washington Post).

Most of the truly wealthy in the United States don't live in Beverly Hills or on Park Avenue. They live next door.

America's wealthy seldom get that way through an inheritance or an advanced degree. They bargain-shop for used cars, raise children who don't realize how rich their families are, and reject a lifestyle of flashy exhibitionism and competitive spending. In fact, the glamorous people many of us think of as "rich" are actually a tiny minority of America's truly wealthy citizensâ??and behave quite differently than the majority.

At the time of its first publication, The Millionaire Next Door was a groundbreaking examination of America's richâ??exposing for the first time the seven common qualities that appear over and over among this exclusive demographic. This edition includes a new foreword by Dr. Thomas J. Stanleyâ??updating the original content in the context of the financial crash and the twenty-first century.

"Their surprising results reveal fundamental qualities of this group that are diametrically opposed to today's earn-and-consume culture." â??Library Journa
… (more)
Member:MarkKonyndyk
Title:The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy
Authors:Thomas Stanley
Other authors:William Danko
Info:Taylor Trade Publishing (2010), Edition: Reissue, Paperback, 272 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:**
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The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Rich by Thomas J. Stanley (1996)

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» See also 25 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 55 (next | show all)
This book is about money, population surveys, statistics and lifestyle inflation. A great read to adjust your view of the differences between wealth vs income.
Unfortunately, the book is also extraordinarily boring. The first two or three chapters were great because you read the author's findings for the first time. However, these are repeated endlessly throughout the book.
I finished this in one day, while skipping the chapters about buying automobiles, giving cash and trust funds to your spoiled children, and the perils of distributing your estate among heirs.
In the final chapter, you can clearly see this book started out as market research for business that serve the affluent, as it discusses "business opportunities for the coming 10 years" (starting in 1996). ( )
  jd7h | Feb 18, 2024 |
It's a good read but not the kind of book that really tells you to do these 3-5 things to give you the best chance to become wealthy. It more drives home the point that a lot of family's the average person sees and views as wealthy really are not and the ones you may not think are can choose to stop working whenever they would like. Basically live beneath your means. The book also had a lot to say about the dangers of the wealthy not instilling good money management skills in there own children. ( )
  capetowncanada | Nov 25, 2023 |
Executive summary: if you want to be well off when you retire, don't spend so much money. Keeping up with the Joneses is mostly all in your head. Blew my mind ( )
  emmby | Oct 4, 2023 |
Frugality is the main concept of this book. It was published in 1996, but it still holds some relevancy today.

Takeaways:
1. Minimize your realized (taxable) income and maximize your unrealized/nontaxable income (wealth/capital appreciation). Millionaires realize only about 7% of their total wealth each year. Keeping this # as low as possible ensures the greater chance of accumulating wealth. 2. Strive to pay less than10% in federal income tax according to your income. Billionaire Ross Perot achieves this by investing heavily in tax free municipalities, tax-sheltered real estate, and unrealized stock gains (meaning not liquidated). 3. Once you hit a certain threshold of income (e.g. $200k, $300k), it matters less about how much more you make, but more with what you do with what you already have (also shared in Rich Dad Poor Dad). Income does not necessarily equate to wealth. 4. Majority of the wealthy hold on to their securities for 6+ years. Short-term investors, or traders, are immediately taxed on their unrealized gains and contribute a lot of $ in fees to brokerages. 5. More than 80% of the wealthy purchase their vehicles. They also prefer to buy new vehicles rather than old ones, generally for greater satisfaction and reliability. 6. Most people want to be fit, and they have the knowledge to do so; however they lack the discipline. The same applies with attaining wealth and growing upon it: the habits never change. 7. Gift receivers, in general, have a lower propensity to accumulate wealth than non-gift receivers. 8. Many succeed because they have to succeed. They have no safety net. Have no alternative but to exceed (shared in Think and Grow Rich).

Overall, this book isn't bad, but it isn't great either. It's more of an analysis of affluent individuals who've accumulated wealth strategically over the course of several decades. There are some valuable takeaways, but there also isn't anything mind-breaking that you can't already find scouring the internet. The points are rudimentary and the book is pretty mundane and filled with statistics. ( )
  siamm | Aug 20, 2023 |
I read this for a book club I'm in. I was hoping to learn about saving, investment, etc. Really all I learned is that the wealthiest people tend to live well below their means. That seemed pretty obvious to me already. After the first few chapters (where three separate examples are used to show millionaires don't spend money on clothes), everything just sounded redundant and drawn out. As many other reviews have said, this study could have easily been summarized in an article, rather than a full length book.

Additionally, this book is highly outdated. Part of it is due to inflation since it was published, but much of the social structure is also different now. Nearly every millionaire discussed talks about how his wife stays home with the kids, clips coupons, and makes meals. I understand that was the setting when the book was written, but it really does lack relevance to today's society. It's also difficult to read a book that was written during an economic up-swing when the current economy isn't as booming.

Perhaps this was a good read at one point, but I'd say it's time of relevance has passed. ( )
  rhymeandreason | Jul 28, 2023 |
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» Add other authors (1 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Stanley, Thomas J.primary authorall editionsconfirmed
Danko, William D.main authorall editionsconfirmed
Smith, CotterNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Dedication
For Janet, Sarah, and Brad -- a million Christmases, a trillion Fourth of Julys
—T. J. Stanley
For my loving wife, Connie, and my dear children, Christy, Todd, and Daniel
—W. D. Danko
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Introduction
Twenty years ago we began studying how people became wealthy.
The person who said this was the vice president of a trust department.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Business. Finance. Nonfiction. HTML:How do the rich get rich? An updated edition of the "remarkable" New York Times bestseller, based on two decades of research (The Washington Post).

Most of the truly wealthy in the United States don't live in Beverly Hills or on Park Avenue. They live next door.

America's wealthy seldom get that way through an inheritance or an advanced degree. They bargain-shop for used cars, raise children who don't realize how rich their families are, and reject a lifestyle of flashy exhibitionism and competitive spending. In fact, the glamorous people many of us think of as "rich" are actually a tiny minority of America's truly wealthy citizensâ??and behave quite differently than the majority.

At the time of its first publication, The Millionaire Next Door was a groundbreaking examination of America's richâ??exposing for the first time the seven common qualities that appear over and over among this exclusive demographic. This edition includes a new foreword by Dr. Thomas J. Stanleyâ??updating the original content in the context of the financial crash and the twenty-first century.

"Their surprising results reveal fundamental qualities of this group that are diametrically opposed to today's earn-and-consume culture." â??Library Journa

No library descriptions found.

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Haiku summary
"Spend less than you earn"

should be common sense, but some

still want to spend more.

(legallypuzzled)

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Taylor Trade Publishing

2 editions of this book were published by Taylor Trade Publishing.

Editions: 1563523302, 1589795474

 

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