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Summary: learn the lessons of self-made millionaires
Review: Great book. There isn't any spoonfeeding... just statistics that help you draw your own conclusions. There are many lessons to be learned in this book.
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Summary: You'll never look at your neighbor through the same eyes
Review: This book is not the average inspirational RAH! RAH! type of book. It goes beyond that in delivering REAL DATA in the REAL WORLD today. If you are trying to keep up with the Jones, don't. They probably have everything mortgaged to the hilt! You will find yourself as POOR as they truly are. If you really want to know how to become WEALTHY - read this book.
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Summary: Beats the key ideas into the ground- but many need to read
Review: Stanley and Danko do a commendable job of re-presenting academic findings in lay language, complete with anecdotes. This book delivers as advertised. It is simply a cogent description of WHO America's successful wealth-accumulators are, and more importantly HOW they ended up with massive nest eggs toward or at the end of their earning years. They make abundantly clear that the majority of America's wealthy are 1) individuals who did not inherit their wealth 2) individuals who lived well below their means so as to save and invest large portions of employment income, and 3) self-employed, often providing jobs for numerous others. The authors neither promise nor deliver any extensive commentary about the ethical dimensions of workload and investing versus spending behaviors, nor should they. Reviewers decrying the lifestyles of these "prodigious accumulators of wealth" miss the mark. One may take issue with the quote of one surveyed millionaire- "I am my favorite charity", but that is a completely different issue.This book should be read by the legions of Americans who are in for a rude awakening when they can no longer work becuase they have accumulated few assets to work FOR them. Finally, I would challenge any "progressive" thinker who advocates estate taxes for "the rich" to read about who they really are. Where is the justice in confiscating the (already-taxed) fruits of a lifetime of self-discipline to bail out others whose lives have been spent in the trappings of the cushiest lifestyle they could afford paycheck-to paycheck? On that policy basis alone, this book is worth a read. My only beef with this work is that it tends to belabor the same key points, but given the stakes, perhaps that is not such a bad thing....
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Summary: The secret to becoming a millionaire is ...
Review: A book worth reading. But the finding are quite surprising - eg within occupations, choose dry cleaning but where are the property developers ?: in terms of ethnicity being scottish helps but where are the asian eg chinese/korean millionaires ?; finally where are the dot.com millionaires (I know the situation is different in 2003, but surely they were around when the book was published). Certainly the findings would seem to merit a further study eg comparative studies from other industrialised countries (I wonder why no university researchers have done that ?).
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Summary: A real eye opener for the dilusional
Review: So many of us are brought up to earn then spend. This book introduces the reader to a philosophy different than that to which most Americans adhere when it comes to money and its use in life. You don't need to be a finance major to read this one, in fact, I would recommend this book to anyone with a job and a positive life span. This book really delivers. kscrow
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Summary: not so much fun...
Review: I was given this book as a gift and was thoroughly disappointed. This book simply states that you should live below your means, stay out of debt and save money, if you want to be a millionaire. Shocking! The statistical data shows that most millionaires don't live in fancy houses, drive fancy cars, belong to country clubs or eat out a lot. True. Most millionaires are people nearing retirement with large 401(k)s/pensions and houses that have appreciated significantly in value. In order to take advantage of this savings, they'll need to sell their homes and begin to liquidate their 401(k)s. In other words, they will be living off this money as retirees. They will not be dining on caviar and champagne every night nor living on a $500,000 yacht. They will need every dime in this high priced world. In other words, they will not be rich . . . and let's face it, people are buying this book because they want to know how to "get rich" not how to have a safe retirement. I suppose a better title for this book should have been: "A safe retirement is within reach for someone with fiscal discipline". Boring and obvious advice.
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Summary: a very good read
Review: This book uncovers many of the myths that surrond the American Millionaire. This book suggests that most millionaires in America are extremely thrifty and frugal despite the common belief they all drive expensive cars and live in huge houses. This book also distinguishes the difference between being wealthy and having a high income. Overall, it is very interesting and well worth your time.
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Summary: We all know we have to save money to get rich!
Review: The book goes on for about 250 pages talking about how you have to save all of your extra money and invest it in bank accounts to become rich. Well, I think we all knew that saving money was a good thing and we didn't have to read 250 pages to get this. But the book did have some better things to offer. There were some great stories about people that we can al relate to in our lives, the eccentic neighbor, ect., that are all know as millionairs. They have saved up enough assets and have not splurged on anything to the point of becoming millionairs. And it is amazing to see all of the little places where they manage to save money. Maybe only a hundred dollars here, a hundred there, it all adds up and they accumulate for themselves a forturne. This is very interesting and a great way to learn the little things we can do in our lives to save money. Other than that, the book was really bad.
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Summary: interesting
Review: I felt that this book was an eye opener for most of America's common people. MOst would have no idea that the rich can just be like you and me. I felt that Stanley and Danko had more than enough facts and the book got a little boring with all the specific stories that were told. I feel that the book had a good positive message about budgeting money and changing your way of life.
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Summary: Eye-Opening
Review: It seems that everyone has a stereotypical view of what a "millionaire" is. We see someone drive down the street in that just-came-out-yesterday-brand-new SUV and we think they are very wealthy. Better yet, we see someone walk out of that exclusive clothing store with a few bags and then hop into that certain SUV. When we see that person, we assume they are well to do, perhaps a millionaire. What is so great about The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley, Ph.D. and William D. Danko, Ph.D., is that all of these stereotypes are completely dismissed.
The authors do a great job of illustrating right from the beginning, and even advertising, that everyone is very competent of becoming wealthy. The main examples of the book came from an interview/survey done by the authors of the book. The subjects were millionaires, multimillionaires, billionaires, in essence, very wealthy people. Throughout the entire book, statistics are given that show where these millionaires live, what they drive, what they wear, where there children go to school, etc. The whole point of this seemed to be that, everyone can accomplish this. That is where the seven factors to being wealthy come into play.
At the opening section of the book, the survey results are summed up into seven factors that can describe the typical millionaire. These factors were very eye-opening as each factor is not hard to accomplish. The completely illustrate in detail each factor; there is a basically one chapter per factor that explains and give examples of how to achieve and how others did achieve in their own personal lives.
Many of these findings seem to be very surprising at first, but in the end, the entire book seems common sense. This by no means makes this a bad book, if anything, it means it did its job. The Millionaire Next Door simply shows the obvious ways for anyone, no matter what occupation or social status, to accumulate wealth and become a millionaire.
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