The millionaire next door
Can you spot the millionaire next door? Who are the rich in this country? What do they do? Where do they shop? What do they drive? How do they invest? Where did their ancestors come from? How did they get rich? Can I ever become one of them? Get the answers in The Millionaire Next Door, the never-before-told story about wealth in America. You'll be surprised at what you find out. "Why aren't I as wealthy as I should be?" Many people ask this question of themselves all the time. Often they are hard-working, well-educated, middle-to-high-income people. Why, then, are so few affluent? The answer lies in The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's wealthy. According to authors Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko, most people have it all wrong about how you become wealthy in America. It is seldom inheritance or advanced degrees or even intelligence that builds fortunes in this country. Wealth in America is more often the result of hard work, diligent savings, and living below your means. - Jacket.
Stats for nerds
91recommend
216mentions
154people
2007–2026years
60% recommend37% neutral3% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- > Freedom from generational poverty is required.
This is simply false. Oprah grew up on welfare and is a multi-billionaire.
> Telling them to buy more lottery tickets
The math on lottery tickets is negative. The math on stocks is positive.
The book "The Millionaire Next Door" is a recipe for ordinary people becoming wealthy. You can't afford not to read it.
- Nope. It's merit. Jobs, Musk, Bezos, Buffet, all exceptionally hard workers and risk takers.
Saving 20% of your income and regularly investing it is the path to decent wealth for about everyone. See "The Millionaire Next Door".
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Amer...
BTW, a couple years ago, I was being driven home from the car repair shop after I dropped my car off. I struck up a conversation with the driver, who turned out to be a refugee from Afghanistan. He had come to the US a year previously with nothing but the clothes on his back. He got a job, saved his money, bought a car and started a car service. He was telling me all about his plans to expand his business.
The fellow was already well on his way to becoming wealthy.
- A very long time ago, I found myself commuting to work alongside a centi-millionaire who happened to only own one car, a Volvo 740 Estate. His wife drove him to the commuter train station, and he shlepped to work like everyone else.
I was reading a book about paying yourself first, "The Richest Man in Babylon." He spotted that and we had a short conversation about money, in which he recommended another book about personal finance, "The Millionaire Next Door," an enormous amount of which is about not buying into the Upper-Middle Class Trap.
I walked directly to a bookstore, bought it, and while I am not wealthy, what I do have I credit largely to that book. Yes, it's a book that could be a podcast episode or series of blog posts. But no matter how you consume the wisdom or where you get it from, consider this my heartfelt endorsement.
And yes, The Volvo V90 Estate in my garage was purchased used. And even then... We vacillated over spending that much to replace our XC70 Estate, also purchased used.
- Yep this. Avoid lifestyle creep (when you get raises). Invest your money (e.g. world passive mutual fund, or VT ETF). Don't sell investments when the market crashes, just ride it out (assuming you bought diversified fund). Don't stock pick, it's largely gambling and 99% of people can't beat the market doing it. If you must stock pick, do at most, 5% of your investments. Avoid actively managed/high fee mutual funds/ETFs. Research clearly shows, long term they do worse then the market. (And if there is an active fund that does end up beating the market long term, you have no way of knowing which fund that would be ahead of time)
The Millionaire Next Door is a great book, and gives a good perspective on money.
If anyone here is interested, Google the FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early). Even just doing the first 2 letters, Financial Independence, would be huge, and give you way more flexibility.
When/if you retire early, keep doing things to keep your mind and body active. Most people who retire stop doing the things that kept them healthy, and there body deteriorates quickly (with xyz illnesses).
The sad true is that, for many, work forces them to do the basics to keep your body running ok.
- Learned Helplessness - Martin Seligman A Random Walk Down Wall Street - Malkiel The Millionaire Next Door - Stanley Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
Second the Incerto series by Nassim Taleb
- The Millionaire Next Door.
A Random Walk Down Wall Street.
For most people, the challenge is spending less than they make, hedonic adaptation, and making more money (e.g. most people probably change jobs less often than is ideal).
Related
The millionaire mind
5 recommend · 13
Stop acting rich
4 recommend · 6
A Random Walk Down Wall Street
127 recommend · 246
Rich Dad, Poor Dad
96 recommend · 306
The Richest Man in Babylon
56 recommend · 86
The ten roads to riches
2 recommend · 3
