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Summary: Don't waste your time on this one
Review: I bought this book because of its catchy title and it's track record as a long term bestseller. Unfortunately, it turned out to be one of the worse book I ever read! The only thing I find interesting in the book is the statistics on the financial state and the purchasing habits of the American public. Unfortunately, the authors' interpretation on the data are often, in my opinion, incorrect. If you look carefully, the text portion of the book often incorrectly interpretate data presented in the tables and different parts of the book often contradict. The main theme of the book is to never spend a dollar so you can save up a million dollars in your bank account. I personally don't see the appeal working hard all my life, never enjoy the money I earned, just to have 6 zeros in my bank account. I think most of us want to be a millionaire AND to enjoy the reward that money can bring us.
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Summary: Stanley and Danko's Doctoral Theses Makes Them Millionaires
Review: Anyone wanting to learn how to make money should buy one of Andrew Tobias' books and use this one to stop that kitchen table that you bought 30 years ago from rocking back and forth. Thomas J. (my other car is a Z-28) Stanley and William D. Danko go to great statistical links to explain why your neighbor has more money than you. In fact, this book is overloaded with statistics on everything imaginable.There is some practical information here, but the reader has to be ready to wade through mounds of data and numbers. Much of the information is obvious, too. In a nutshell, want to save a lot of money? Don't spend any! Stanley and Danko have published their doctoral theses and made a lot of money in doing so. Now Stanley is going to tell us about the Millionaire Mind? I haven't looked at that one yet, but I'll bet a quick thumbing of the book will show a lot of charts and stats. Prepare to help Stanley get richer at your expense and prepare to be bored.
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Summary: God save me from statistics.
Review: Stats are great but the inferences weren't that leading. I guess I expected more "how to" instead of "how come".
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Summary: THOMAS SURE CAPTURED MY ATTENTION WITH THIS TITLE
Review: This book sure captured my interest with it's title. I guess all of us wonder what it takes to be a millionare. It's the American dream to be fincianlly independent. I must say, that i have a better understanding of millionares after having read this book. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to accumulate wealth.
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Summary: Are you sure this is for you?
Review: This book is like the Bible to some and pure garbage to others, depending on what you expect. This book is essentially a (long winded) study about the lifestyles of people whose net worth is over one million USD. Most of the people mentioned do not live in the Hollywood Fantasyland, but live a middle-class everyday lives with the satisfaction of being your own boss, paying all the bills without trouble, having no mentionable debt and not having to worry about your financial future. The book is NOT a self help guide, though you can read between the lines and use it as such; Mainly, don't use all your earnings, save at least 25% of your gross earnings and invest them wisely. Use the rest of your earnings to pay for a middle-class, common lifestyle without any fancy trappings. Keep your friends and neighbours in the dark from the truth about your net assets. If you want a self help book to become rich yourself, this book can help but is it the best one out there? No it is not. One good example of a much better book for that purpose is "Eight Steps To Seven Figures". It is clearly a self help book, a real how-to guide. And it is more fun; Instead of having faceless statistics of a supposed study, it gives the names and faces of many self-made millionaires. It is more fun to read and makes more sense.
Rating:
Summary: Well researched and documented. Some good information.
Review: This book will probably go down in history as one of the more unusual books on getting rich. That's because it shatters all the misconceptions modern television has given us about millionaires in society. One could argue that following the advice in this book will make the reader a millionaire. The book is divided into several chapters each detailing the lifestyle of the typical millionaire. The average millionaire lives in a modest home, drives an average car, owns an average business and is awfully darn frugal. This book is more of a "millionaire profile" type book, and I think the title of the book is appropriate. It is not a "how to" book on becoming a millionaire, but I did find much of the information useful. In fact, I was quite surprised at the profile of the average self-made millionaire. The author goes out of his way to dispel many myths about millionaires. There are some downsides. One is that there is a lot of emphasis on frugality. That is different from being cheap. Frugality is fine, but I had a difficult time with the passage in the book describing the guy who was telling his wife that he sold his business for millions of dollars while she was clipping coupons at the kitchen table. I admire thrift, but at least put away the coupons and jump up and down and celebrate for crying out loud. Let's not get too frugal here. Another downside, and I guess the author can't really help it, is all the statistics. I ignored most of them, but scanning through them proved to be somewhat enlightening. The listing of makes and models of cars owned by average self-made millionaires was eye opening. Other than that, all the numbers got a little confusing. One thing I think this book missed, and many books do the same thing, is that there's too much emphasis on getting rich really slowly. Certainly if you drive an average American car, put your kids in public school, keep your expenses low and invest aggressively for years on end, you will become quite wealthy later in life. The question is, what do you do in the meantime? If you spend your whole life accumulating wealth slowly and steadily, what about your good working years? Still, I found this book provided a good balance. After all, we tend to think of millionaires living extravagant and even wasteful lives living "the good life." I wouldn't recommend living too frugally, but a happy medium between the two extremes would be more realistic. Overall, this was a very informative book. Unfortunately, most people won't become millionaires by reading it for a couple of reasons. One reason is that most self-made millionaires are business owners, and another reason is that most people refuse to live within their means and invest for the long haul. The formula is simple: own business, invest on a regular basis and live well within your means. Will most people do that? Probably not. I'm giving this book 5 stars because I found it very well researched and documented. It's not about television stereotypical "millionaires" who live in fancy homes and drive nice cars. The millionaires profiled in this book very likely live next door to all of us. It gives the average person hope that more than an average lifestyle can be attained.
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Summary: Empty! [check that...] Full of useless observations!
Review: I was completely disappointed with the lack of any real content! Sure, I was myself fooled by glancing at its first few pages (at Borders! You don't do that, do you! :) But it's only a collection of trivial observations. The author adds no real information other than boring statistics in an attempt to dress up the pages and add a sense of authority! There's no real added insight into psychology, finance, or anything else of substance.
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Summary: Lifestyles of the rich and obscure
Review: This book is a cut above most 'how to get rich' books, because it is empirical, research-driven analysis of the habits of American millionaires, done over the period from 1973 to just before publication. The authors look at the petit millionaires, not the super-rich, so as to examine the habits of those whose wealth level is achievable in a lifetime. The habits of the group, consisting of those with between $1 and $10 million in assets, reveals that the 'magic' formula is to work hard, not stay in college forever, go into business for yourself, if possible, and live below your means. I'm not at all sure that this wouldn't be the advice of someone who had survived the Great Depression in good shape, but the authors back it up with hard statistical data. Living on less than you earn, staying away from status items, and building wealth over time are three of the keys identified by the authors. Reading this book reminded me again that America is truly the land of opportunity, and that an individual can become wealthy without going to a prestige university, earning a high income, having connections, etc; in other words, the American Dream lives, and those who fail to achieve it frequently have no one but themselves to blame, especially now that this roadmap is available. Lloyd A. Conway
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Summary: with regrets
Review: From personal experience I know this book is right on the money. Had I not given a large gift to UAW'S, invested it' as I have done with mine, I would be leaving them twice as much as I gave. Now it is invested in ,boats.jewels,cars and homes that I pray they won't lose. I pray they won't lose.This a true story.
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Summary: How Explain the Economic Productivity of Russian Americans?
Review: I never suppose that Russian Americans group ranks first in the highest concentration of millionaire households in the United States. There are approximately 22 of every 100 households headed by someone of Russian ancestry has a net worth of $1 million or more. Russians in disproportionate numbers are manager-owners of businesses. (Please read an excerpt from the book in Amason.com.) In all, I think the rich, no matter what part of the world they came from, all share the same values that make them rich. The idea of calculating the PAW and UAW created by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko now became a commonplace in a popular financial literature. A couple of charters in the book are devoted to relationships with children. Authors believe the more dollars you give to adult children, the fewer dollars these children accumulate. I think this is absolutelly right. I truly enjoy reading "The Millionaire Next Door". Anyone wanting to get rich should read this book. "The Millionaire next Door" like the "Richest Man in Bablyon" gives you the why people become millionaires and is a must read for anyone who wants maximum financial success.
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