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

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

List Price: $15.00
Your Price: $10.20
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: It's ok...
Review: As others have said, there's nothing too original in this book except maybe the data that the authors collected. I don't know that the book itself is a good investment since it's not that exciting of a read, and all they do is beat the concepts of saving and investing into you for 250 or so. They can do this for so many pages because they've collected so many statistics on the spending and investing behaviors of the wealthy. It's interesting at best, but nothing you can't learn in any other book, so it isn't an essential item on my personal finance bookshelf.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Applies to only a small percentage of the N.A. pop.
Review: This book is a great statistical analysis of affluent people; however, it does not factor in qaulity of life, morals, or values of the millionaires it uses as examples in the book.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Faulty Logic
Review: I can agree with the basic premise of the book: live below your means and invest wisely. However, I think the authors went overboard in portraying the spenders as almost stupid. Case in point, Dr Smith lives paycheck to paycheck,takes frequent expensive vacations, lives in a 500,000 house, and drives a BMW. He dies at age 70 with no significant wealth. Dr Jones saves 25% of every paycheck, lives in a 170,000 house, drives a used Ford, and never took an expensive vacation. He dies at age 70 with a 6.75 million net worth. The authors of this book spend 300 pages telling us how Dr Jones is a genius and Dr Smith a financial idiot. Hello? I don't know about the rest of you out there, but I would much rather have lived the life of Dr Smith. The authors seem to ignore the pleasure of living this lifestyle. What good is 6.75 million when you are dead?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Must Read For Everyone
Review: I am glad someone is finally complimenting me on my frugality. I had a friend who saw this book on Oprah and bought it and she practically threw the book at me to throw in the trash. She said it didn't make sense at all. The real reason is that it did not agree with her spending habits. I kept the "free" book and loved it. It put me in a positive mind set that you do not have to win the lottery to retire rich. I like the idea of long term money goals instead of getting rich quick and risking it all.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Sure they're happy, but is their waitress?
Review: I liked this book very much, but much less so the people it depicts. The authors say the millionaires describe themselves as happy, but to me they just come off as selfish cheapskates who make their wealth by taking rank advantage of others. I would suggest that the authors, in their follow up work, study the correlation between millionaire auctioneers and other self employed types and exactly how much income tax they pay. What isn't said is that much of their wealth comes from unreported cash income. Also it would be revelatory if the authors described wealth and religion, rather than the more politically correct "ancestry." But if you're willing to pay the high price of paying underprice, you too can become one of the boors this book so aptly describes.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Entertaining retread of good ole' common sense.
Review: So if I want to build wealth, I have to invest? And if I want to have money to invest, I have to save? And if I want to save, it helps to be tighter than a mosquito's you-know-what? Well, golly, why didn't anyone ever write all down before!

Actually, this book just repeats the Calvinist virtues that have always been valued by the middle class - hard work, honesty, frugality, the deferment of gratification, etc. That said, it's a gleefully unapologetic celebration of parsimony and miserly accumulation. The part about weathly people driving junky old cars really was great fun. The advice in this book really isn't new, it's just a very well done repeat of everything my immigrant father taught me by inarticulate example about financial life. And that's not a bad thing.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Too much and not enough
Review: The central theme of living below your means is repeated over and over with numerous numbers and tables. Gets on your nerve mid way through.

90% of the emphasis is placed on saving, and 10% on investing. Hardly a true picture of accumulating wealth.

Curiously, the statistics used to back up the theme exclude those from the ethnic groups such as the African Americans, the Hispanics, and the Asians.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: A thought-provoking book.. This has been my life-changing experience. After completing the book in record time, I began to pay closer attention to where my money is spent and invested. I'm well on my way to becoming a millionaire by the time I'm 50 years old, if not sooner. Thanks for the boost to do what I should have done years ago.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply the Best Financial Book Ever if you want a million!
Review: I am a financial professional and after working all day in the field, I read financial books, magazines etc for fun. Like diet books, there are many degreed people who have written books with vastly different theories on how to get from 1 to a million. This is the first book that draws conclusions form an in-depth and scientifically conducted study. We all know how Michael Jordan and Bill Gates became wealthy but they do not represent how the vast majority of people with a net worth of over $1 million got their piece of the pie. These people are well described in the book and actually represented in my life by my parents and my husband's parents. In my teens and twenties I questioned their teachings dramatically since my peer group at work and socially was sending the message 'get the BMW now!' Fortunately , I had just enough presence of mind to remember that these people were not millionaires and although they might get there someday it wasn't easy to see how they would accomplish this. By following the path laid out by Stanley and Danko's real life millionaires, it seems very clear that even those of moderate income can get to a million dollar net worth. There are other paths - just ask Madonna but the probabilities of getting a millionaire using another method are very low like a lottery. There could be barriers beyond one's control such as serious health problems but barring these types of extremes, there are no excuses, only lack of planning and implementation. Incidentally, by following their methods - my husband and I crossed the million dollar mark this year (our ages 46 & 39) - next step early retirement!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not worth the money or time to read it.
Review: This book is simply clever marketing of common sense money management. It could be reduced down to a couple of chapters. Basically all the advice and anecdotes boil down to is to live within or beneath your means, save a percentage of your income and invest it carefully. There are a few pearls of wisdom, but they are few and far between, and not worth the time it takes to read the book. There are much better books on money management that actually help you construct and realize a plan for your financial health.


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