The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy

Great book highlighting the “Americanized” values which exist in the US. The extensive 30 years of research that was done is very eye opening and informative about how to ensure future wealth - be frugal and minimize materialism. The case studies in the book help evaluate your own life, as it’s okay to have nice things and spend more here and there, but makes you consider what percentage of your net worth those things cost you and assess if you are at a level of hyper-consumption. The book has a simple equation for where you should be based on age and income. A household making $80k income annually and living frugally can have a significantly higher net worth (millions) compared to an equivalent household (size & age) where the net income is $150k for example, due to values and proper budget planning. A greater income will have a perceived requirement of societal pressures, so income may be higher, but so will the spending toward materials to reflect a certain lifestyle. A lot of the book’s numbers are in 1990’s dollars, which need to be adjusted to today’s dollars, but the demographics & percentages still hold true and message is clear - the millionaires of our society do not value the material items as much as those who believe you need to highlight such materials (house, car, clothing, private education, etc.) and may not look it all the while it’s become a case of keeping up with the Joneses for non-millionaires. The true millionaires do not get caught up in the lifestyle of appearances. Wealth can be generated within one generation, as is emphasized by the significant percentage of 1st generation wealth, and over time, even first generation citizens become “Americanized”, as highlighted by the longer one spends in the US, their ranking in the millionaire demographic lowers.The moral is if you look wealthy, you may be generating a lot of income, but it may be going toward materials instead of investments contributing toward your net worth. Those who live frugally may catch or significantly surpass equivalent households (similarly sized and aged family) who make significantly more income.This book helped me set financial goals and immediately after reading it, I was able to assess what I really need in my life and cut my next month’s credit card bill in half! A value I’ve never been able to get so low in years. I’ve always been able to afford what I buy, but when it’s going toward materialistic items and not going toward net worth, immediate change was needed. Based on the book’s equation, it turns out I wasn’t going to be a millionaire at my rate and I needed to change something quickly to get on the right track. Highly recommended for anyone.

Although this book is outdated in many ways and there has been much criticism about the authors' research methods, it is still well worth reading. I certainly wish I had read it back when I was in high school or college.The title may give the impression that the book is geared toward materialistic people who are obsessed with getting rich and living the high life, but that's not at all what it's about. In fact, the authors' main point is that most people who accumulate a lot of wealth are not at all interested in living the high life. Rather, they are thrifty and live below their means, with the result that they often don't appear wealthy at all. For example, your next door neighbor who manages a maid service -- not a very glamorous-sounding occupation -- could be surprisingly rich. By contrast, a large percentage of people who appear to be rich -- people living in fancy houses, driving expensive cars, wearing designer clothes -- don't actually have much saved up at all.The authors were surprised to make this discovery, and that is what inspired them to write the book. For years, they have compared the behavior of people who are successful at building or maintaining wealth with those who are not successful. Using elementary statistical analysis, they identify key habits and attitudes that enable people to accumulate wealth -- even if they don't have a particularly high salary. Thus, even if you earn a teacher's salary (as I do), you can still hope to retire comfortably and be a relatively wealthy teacher if you manage your spending and investments well. It does help, of course, to have a large salary, but with bad spending habits you can still end up accumulating nothing. (The authors do recommend choosing your occupation wisely.)The habits that they recommend are very practical. For example, you should keep track of all your expenses so that you know how much you spend each month and year on housing, food, entertainment, etc. Then make a budget and stick to it (or create a false sense of scarcity by stowing away a big percentage of your earnings before you even think about spending anything). Invest time and money in financial planning and research. And very importantly, invest your savings in stocks or other equity, making it your goal to have more of your financial growth come from growth of investments than from taxable wages.Overall, the authors present sound principles for building wealth, and they offer compelling evidence for the effectiveness of those principles. They provide a lot of interesting anecdotes that make the book fun to read most of the time, as well as basic statistical analysis of survey results. Again, although their methods may not be "scientifically rigorous," the main ideas are basically sound. I highly recommend the book, especially to young people who are just getting started in their careers -- regardless of how much money they expect to make.

This is the second time I read this book. It does provide a lot of tips and financial advice. The reason I give it a four star review instead of a five is because the book provides a lot of statistics and trends from the 90's. I think otherwise is still a very good book to read.

If you are not an avid reader this is a very difficult book to keep picking up, however, it was probably one of the most effective financial books I have read in my young adult life. It calls me out on my spending habits, how I treat/view money, and even how I raise my family to treat/view money. I believe every young adult needs to white knuckle themselves through this book to understand *how* to discipline yourself and your spending habits. Fantastically deserving of 5 stars.