Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, But Too Long
Review: There are some helpful bits of information in this book, not the least of which is the recognition that the vast majority of America's wealthy are not featured on "Lives of the Rich and Famous." Most of the wealthy are actually fairly common folk with a propensity to be frugal and invest. This is helpful information for the rest of us who have always believed that to have a great deal of money, you either had to be very lucky, inherit a windfall, or have a really high paying career. Turns out that's not necessarily the case. This book does a good job of helping to dispell some of the myths, such as "high income earners are the most wealthy." This book points out that high income earners are also prodigious spenders, and often their net worth is well below what it ought to be!The down side to this book is that it repeats itself a great deal. You learn over and over again about the spoiled children of the wealthy, and their reliance on "Outpatient Economic Care." You learn over and over again about the fact that roughly 2/3 of the wealthy are private business owners. It is also a little data intensive, which might have been useful for the authors in writing the book, but really is somewhat extraneous for the rest of us. This is good perspective building material, but be prepared for the redundancy.
Rating: 
Summary: Not really impressed!
Review: This book was written years ago and although it was ground breaking information then it basically gives statistics and generalities on the rich. Its message about being frugal and investing is repeated in a number of wealth building books. Not worth the hype!
Rating: 
Summary: An Entertaining, Insightful and Helpful Book
Review: The Millionaire Next Door is a book that will completely change a person's way of viewing the wealthy who reside in the US. It paints an accurate and indepth picture of the true millionaires of our country and how they became that way. The book is very straight forward with lots of statistics, which at times can be tedious, and anecdotes that help explain the different concepts presented in the book. Anyone who reads this book will take a lot away from it and will want to explore the area of affluency and economics in general in greater depth. There were times I could not and did not want to put the book down just because I wanted to learn more and see what it is was I could do to get myself on the path to financial independence. The book is wonderful in the sense that it is well-organized, repeats the most important ideas so that you do not forget them, and makes a very important note that anyone who is dedicated, hardworking, and plays both "offense and defense" has the ability to become financially independent and truely wealthy. Overall this book is brilliant and I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn what it takes to become an affluent member of our community. I would definitely recommend this book to teens and young adults since it will have the most influence on them and interest them greatly since they want to know how to make the most money possible. Anyone who reads this book will not be disappointed and will learn a lot from it.
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Summary: Oh, how I wish I read this 30 years ago
Review: All of my children and children n' laws, Must read or listen to this book. Oh, how I wish I would have read this book in 1971 when I graduated from high school. This book will show you how to accumilate wealth and still live comfortably along the way. Where you end up in life comes from many different choices you make in your life time. This book is your road map to making the choices that will allow you to retire, really retire, and have the nestegg you will need. If you don't read this book until you are my age it still could help you,(not nearly as much) ...It's not over till it's over.
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Summary: save and save!!!!!
Review: it's a very good bbok about how to becoeme wealthy in a single lifetime by having a check on one's own needs and a lot of financial planning.must read for everybody who wants to become wealthy.
Rating:
Summary: An open door into the lives of the wealthy in America
Review: Just so you are warned, in the beginning the book has a hard time catching your attention, and I think it is because of the incredible amount of stats about the rich (and not so famous) of America. This is something you get used to, since it doesn't change: chapter after chapter these two Ph.D's support their research with a massive amount of data. However, the real meat of the book is summarized in these seven common denominators that the authors found underlying all those who succeed at building wealth: 1) They live well below their means. They live frugally by operating on an annual budget, knowing how much they spend in each category, having clearly defined financial goals and spending time planning to achieve them.
2) They allocate their time, energy, and money efficiently, in ways conducive to building wealth. They plan, they budget, they are active investors.
3) They believe that financial independence is more important than displaying high social status. They don't think that you are what you drive: in fact, most of them don't spend money on cars of the current year.
4) Their parents did not provide economic outpatient care: they were not helped economically by their parents, at least not in a way that built financial dependence.
5) Their adult children are economically self-sufficient: they don't stimulate economic outpatient care, they teach them to "fish."
6) They are proficient in targeting market opportunities.
7) They chose the right occupation. To close, I'd like to quote what I consider to be one of the wisest pieces of advise in the book, since it touches on a huge component of the expenses of most people, their home: "If you're not wealthy but want to be someday, never purchase a home that requires a mortgage that is more than twice your householf'd total annual realized income." Amen! Complement this reading with "The Richest Man in Babylon" and you will have paved the ground toward financial independence and building wealth.
Rating: 
Summary: $ave your money
Review: Living in Santa Monica, I have several millionaires next door, and thus it is not suprising that my image of a millionaire is some one in a Mercedes Benz wearing expensive clothes. Dr. Stanley and Dr. Danko present the much more interesting and tangible millionaire case. The most interesting statistic from the millionaires was their answer to the question of
"Is your wife more frugal than you?" With most millionaires answering yes, it reinforces what my friend once said, "Her money is my money. My money is her money. You better go find your purse." The book stresses saving, saving, saving. Ironically, if you read this book, you would see how important it is to save your money and get the book from your library.
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Summary: No secret to 'Millionaire', but it's a wakeup call for some
Review: I think the controversy over this book comes down to whether or not you are comfortable living below your means. That is essentially what the authors suggest as the most assured approach to becoming one of America's wealthiest. A related issue is the reality of what being a millionaire means nowadays. Having a net worth of a million or two just doesn't put you in that elite of a class - that group now comprises 7% of American households (according to more recent business magazines). And it hardly affords you the luxury of a million dollar house, frequent exotic travel, or having your name on the new wing of your local library. But I think the value of the book is to serve as a wakeup call for those who focus too much on immediate gratification and not enough on maintaining some level of comfort in their retirement years. I have to say that the lifestyle of some of the PAWs in the book leaves you feeling that it's not worth becoming a millionaire if it means you're living a middle class life all day, every day. Sometimes you have to splurge - treat yourself to indulgences. I think you can do that and still build some meaningful wealth. If you're someone who takes comfort in focusing on maintaining your quality of life once you stop working, the you are probably already living the life profiled in this book. No need to buy it. But if you are someone who isn't maxing out your 401(k) plan, eats out 3-4 nights a week, and doesn't pay your credit cards off each month, then you could definitely learn something from this book - and you should probably read it before it's too late.
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Summary: See into the lives of the rich and wealthy in America
Review: The Millionaire Next Door - The Surprising Secrets Of America's Wealthy: By Thomas J. Stanley Ph.D., and William D. Danko, Ph. D. This is not a How To Manual by any means of the imagination. It is however a peak into the financial habits and lifestyles of America's rich and wealthy. This book is written by two PH.D., professors, but it is not a mass of techno jargon. The book rings with simplistic knowledge, and easy to understand language. Both authors have been studying the wealthy in America since 1973. Filled with plenty of information, statistics, and interviews, anyone reading this will learn a great deal on the behavior of the rich, as well as money management and frugality. You will get the answers to such questions as these.
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 you ever become one of them? This book has been on The New York Times Best Seller list and I highly recommend this classic! You can find further reviews on outstanding books at [WEBSITE]
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Summary: Great Book For Understanding How To Build Wealth!
Review: "The Millionaire Next Door" by Thomas J. Stanley and William Danko is a fun to read book for anyone interested in understanding America's wealthy, defined by Stanley and Danko as those people who have net worth of $1 million dollars or more. "The Millionaire Next Door" claims that there are seven key factors that lead to wealth accumulation. Included are: 1. Living Well Below your financial means. In other words being frugal. Buying the reliable used car versus the shinny new BMW or Porsche.
2. Spending your time wisely and in ways that lead to building wealth, such as studying investment.
3. Being more concerned about financial independence rather than showing off how much wealth you possess.
This is a book that will make you feel good about yourself if you are a compulsive coupon clipper or if you keep telling your kids to shut the door as they are letting the heat out of the house and it is costing you money. The book claims that it will teach you how to join the ranks of America's millionaires. Who could resist reading such a book? To get rich, you must first learn not to be a hyperconsumer. In other words don't buy a lot of expensive stuff you don't need. You need good "offense" or generating earnings of at least $60,000 or more a year. Then you need good "defense" or saving a goodly portion of what you earn. Then you need to get old. In fact, even if you don't have a million dollars, you can still be "rich" by being a PAW. PAWs or Prodigious Accumulators of Wealth have more money than you would think they would based upon their age and income. In contrast are the wasteful UAWs or Under Accumulators of Wealth. There are also AAWs (Average Accumulators of Wealth) but they aren't discussed much. No mention is made of how much EWOKS tend to accumulate. But, I'm betting those furry little fellows save a lot. So even athletes worth tens of millions of dollars can be a UAW. There is something reassuring in that! There is a lot of interesting knowledge to be gleamed from this book. We learn that 3.5 of every 100 households in America have a net worth of $1 million dollars or more. But that 22 of every 100 households headed by Russians have a net worth over $1 million dollars. Interesting. We also learn that self-employed people account for over 2/3 of the wealthy in America. But Stanley and Danko do not tell everyone to start their own business. That's too risky. In later chapters they do mention some businesses that they believe are poised for growth in the future. Businesses that cater to millionaires. Despite having studied wealth for decades, and holding PhD's, Stanley and Danko seem to have some misunderstanding about the nature of wealth building via entrepreneurship. It is pointed out that many corporate businesses fail to report profits in any given 12 month period. No allowance is made for businesses like amazon.com which are growing rapidly and establishing themselves. Nor is it pointed out that many businesses are started in a half-hearted fashion and will never succeed. And it is pointed out that many businesses demand considerable resources like land for coal mining. But, before this the authors are toting investing in assets that appreciate. Land is one of those assets. We are told that one key factor of the rich is that they minimize their tax bite. The rich tend to pay a much smaller percentage of their overall wealth in taxes than most people. But, here it seems Stanley and Danko are mixing up cause and effect. Yes, the rich think about taxes. But, it is precisely because they have already saved a lot, and have retained wealth that is not taxed, that they pay a smaller percentage of their wealth in taxes. (And, capital gains are taxed at lower rates than income, and if you have more, you can invest more and build wealth via capital gains.) But Stanley and Danko can be excused for any oversight as they hold PhD's and "being well educated has certain drawbacks" with regard to the creation of wealth. And, Stanley has, no doubt, become a millionaire by writing about millionaires. The flaw of pursuing spending to show you are affluent and have financial status is very thoroughly trashed, as it rightfully should be. But, each socio-economic group has its own views about what is "important." All successful people tend to be achievement oriented. Unfortunately, many academics measure success by the degrees you hold or the degree of knowledge to which you have been formally exposed. Because of this "The Millionaire Next Door" misses that there are many successful endeavors which do not demand eight-year degrees. You will sense a certain academic bias in the book toward pursuing education. (Incidentally, that bias seems to vanish in "The Millionaire Mind." --another great book.) (There is some justification to saying education is good. I saw a Census study that said the average life time earnings of someone with a highschool degree is about $1.2 million. It's about $2.1 million for those with a college degree and about $4.4 million for those with professional degrees.) Finally, there is some very interesting food for thought about how wealth will affect your children. I like this book a lot. Peter Hupalo...
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