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The Millionaire Next Door  By  cover art

The Millionaire Next Door

By: Thomas J. Stanley Ph.D.,William D. Danko Ph.D.
Narrated by: Cotter Smith
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Publisher's summary

Who are the rich in this country? What do they do? How do they invest? How did they get rich? Can you 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 by what you find out.
©2000 Thomas J. Stanley, Ph.D. and William D. Danko, Ph.D. (P)2000 Simon & Schuster, Inc., All Rights Reserved, SOUND IDEAS is an Imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster Inc.

Critic reviews

"The implication of The Millionaire Next Door is that nearly anybody with a steady job can amass a tidy fortune." (Forbes)

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A good place to start but watch out!

If you wish to retire as a paper millionaire, the basic advice presented in this book is sound, particularly if you happen to have disposable income. Careful planning, living below one's means, adequate income and proper investing can lead to economic self sufficiency. The book provides many examples of folks who did, indeed find financial success.

But there are issues with some of the advice the authors provide. Single minded dedication to amassing wealth is often penny wise and pound foolish. Living in better neighborhoods might be more expensive, but they are often safer, provide better schools, and may generally provide a better investment in real estate. Saving money by not going on vacation deprives both you and your children potentially life changing experiences. Hoarding money by not giving to charity, or even your own children, does it's own kind of spiritual damage.

The sections involving children are especially worrisome. If one follows the advice in this book religiously, a first generation millionaire family will likely end up a third generation pauper. It is important to teach children self sufficiency, but it is equally, if not more important, to teach one's children to manage million dollar investment portfolios, and to make informed decisions on budgeting and allocations of large amounts of money. After all, a wise person would not leave a large financial legacy without the tools to use it properly.

The generation of wealth is not a goal in itself. In one example presented in the book, a woman expressed the goal to retire with five million dollars. Yet in the process of doing so, they live like paupers. This woman might never see retirement, might never enjoy all that money she carefully hoarded, might forever miss out on the joys and experiences that wealth can provide. Save for retirement of course, but never forget that we only get one life.

And in the end, that's where this book fails. Truly wealthy people certainly plan for the future, invest properly, and save much of their income. Yet they also try to enjoy the fruits of their labor, and they share their wealth as much as possible.

If you are not a millionaire but want to be, read this book. It's much of what your upper middle class parents should have taught you, but it's not everything, If money is all you care about, you will do well to follow the advice in this book. Yet if you wish to lead a rich life, the kind of life full of experiences and learning and yes, even of civil responsibility, you will do well to moderate your zeal of living the frugal life outlined in this book.

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357 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Its OK to drive a Taurus!!

#1.
I have always tried to become rich so I could drive a great car. This book makes it simple. The extra $10k I might spend on a luxury import will translate into $100k less I'll have 15 years from now. Yeah, I get it now.

#2.
I thought that because I ran out of money at the end of the month that I must be saving as much as I could afford at the beginning of the month. Truth is, I am spending whatever is left. Simply put more away and I will be in the same position at the end of the month, penniless but with a higher net worth.

#3.
Finally, I learned that the govt taxes earnings and not necessarily net worth. Once I calculated that I was really paying 40% of my net worth in income taxes, it became painfully obvious that simply increasing my net worth contributions will automatically reduce my income taxes and therefore burn down this 40% ratio from both ends.

I guess I always knew all this, but apparently I needed this great book to tell me knowing but not doing is just as bad as not knowing at all. So if you say to yourself,'I already know most of this stuff', then look around and ask yourself 'Am I the Millionaire Next Door?'.

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251 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

If you aren't inheriting it...

What's so interesting about this book is that unlike the "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and overnight millionaire books that deluge the market, it's based on good research and interviews. This will not tell you how to flip properties or find probated estates. It will tell you how to model the behaviors of people who have been in the same situation you find yourself in and have had the same success you want. Really well done in both content and narration.

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136 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

The Millionaire Next Door

The book brings nothing new: if you start saving when you're young and be frugal (miser is more proper :) and have a good job all along, chances are you will accumulate wealth and be a millionaire when you retire, if any of these conditions are lacking then it will be harder to have the seven figures on your account.
This is obvious. Why save so much if you can't enjoy what your means can buy without resorting to second hand cars and mediocre neighborhoods? Beats me.
Their conclusions were obtained on research done on millionaires that accepted to be paid 100 to 200 dollars an hour to be interviewed, as mentioned on the text. Isn't it obvious that this would force any conclusion on their levels of frugality and their viewpoints to be skewed by the inherent biasing of the sample group? In other words, millionaires that are "frugal" enough to sell their time for a couple hundred bucks an hour are people that are naturally tight with their money anyway. That doesn't imply that millionaires in general behave this way, their research needs revising. Every sparrow is a bird but not every bird is a sparrow.
Apart from that, the text is repetitive and the few formulas given are mediocre at best.
The good effect of reading the book is that in a debt-crazy risk-taking America, a little serious self-examination comes in handy and the book reminds the readers of that. But don't expect the book to bring any original idea or surprising revelation.

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121 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

What

This book details the startling results of a comprehensive study on the wealthy in America. The authors fully explain key concepts about wealth-building that will help the listener identify and change their own bad financial habits. Examples: the difference between "high-income earners" and "the rich"; who the wealthy really are; the characteristics of people who are accomplished accumulators of wealth, usually with very moderate incomes; the self-destructive behaviors of people who earn high-incomes that prevent them from accumulating wealth; what to teach your children about wealth; how the wealthy plan the transfer of their wealth to their children and grandchildren. Although long and full of statistical concepts, this book should be required reading for those who truly want to learn how to increase their wealth. There's no theoretical fluff, multi-level marketing promotion or vague "Rich Dad" slogans here. Just hard data based on actual American millionaires and how they built their fortunes.

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104 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

A bit repetitious, but good information

The overall message in the book is this: if you practice old-fashioned thrift, if you make saving as much a part of your life as spending, if you take the time to learn how to invest, and if you think in terms of wealth (that is, net worth) rather than income, then you, too, can join the ranks of the millionaires next door.

This comes from studies of real millionaires -- not the multi-billionaires of the world, but average Joes and Janes who, at retirement, are worth several million, even though they earned modest incomes during their working years. The book uses data from the study to point to the best saving and spending practices.

The unabridged book does get a bit repetitive, and the reader's slightly monotone voice doesn't help matters. However, repetition of information turned out to be an advantage while listening in the car, since I couldn't always give the book my full attention.

If you want to know how to get lots of money quick so that you can go buy lots of status toys, this is not the book for you. This book is about acquiring and keeping wealth, regardless of your income, so that you can live well and retire well. Flashy toys will only keep you from that goal.

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82 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Light Went on in My Head

I loved it, so much in fact that I just finished "The Millionaire Mind" as well, which was also great. "Next Door" made me see the light as far as why most people don't have anything but toys & debt, and that expensive houses, new cars and fine clothes do not a rich man make, nor will they ever. Living below your means and being frugal is the key if you have good income such as a small business. Do not follow the crowds, or the hot trends, do the opposite. Much better said by he than me of course. It is not a dot-to-dot recipe for wealth, just eye opening insight based on years of research and interviews, much of which is the opposite of what you'd think. Get it!!

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56 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

An interesting piece of sociology

As someone with a degree in economics, I found "The Millionaire Next Door" very interesting with its various methods of evaluating how the 'wealthy' behave. The book provides some great examples of varying perceptions of utility. In fact I have used the buying cars by the pound example more than a few times. Not suprisingly, the vast majority of the millionaires studies subscribe (perhaps unwittingly) to the bathtub theory of economics... make sure that more money is coming in than going out. Unfortunately not enough people follow this sound piece of advice.

As an entepreneur the study of the small business owners were fascinating. I'm still reeling from the fact that scrap metal is the number one producer of millionaires in this country. I passionately recommend this book to anyone that is looking to start their own business. I know that I wish I had read it much sooner than I did.

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47 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Lifestyle Affirmation

To a young adult raised in a family of under-acheivers-of-wealth (UAW's)this book affirms the goals, techiniques, and saving strategies my husband and I have begun implementing in our life together. It is such a relief to hear statistical support for the benefits of saving, investing, and living below one's means. In a nation of UAW's, it is not often one comes across positive feedback for living frugally. I have watched friends, family members, and co-workers squander the income they earn, rack up high debt, and plan for the spenditure of income increases in the future. I will listen to this book again and again.

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37 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Eight hours of repetition of a simple idea

The idea behind this book is a good one: spend far less on material goods than you need to, don't fall into the trap of consumerism and instead save and invest as much of your money as you possibly can and some day you'll be a millionaire or multi-millionaire. There are a few problems with the book, however:

First, it could have been WAY shorter. It could have been a long article on Medium and gotten the same point across (yes, I know it was written before medium.com was created, but you get the idea.) It just goes on for hours explaining again and again who millionaires are, who they are not and how they spend (and more often DON'T spend) their money. Very, very repetitive.

Second, the book hammers home the idea over and over that it isn't who you are that makes you a millionaire, or even how much money you make, it's how much money you don't spend. There isn't a lot of practical advice in there besides don't spend a lot of money during your lifetime, whether that be on cars, clothing, homes, watches, vacations—whatever. Just don't spend money and you'll have a lot of money someday. Perhaps it's as simple as that. It just felt too simple. And too general.

Third—and this depends on personal philosophy—it seems to be about the idea of saving up money simply for the sake of having a lot of money and not needing to worry about money in the future. That's fine, but it fails to address the idea of actually ENJOYING your money now. Or even in the future, it seems. Of course, don't spend like a drunken college student with their first VISA card, but the authors seem to admire people who won't even spend their money once they've accumulated millions. And they advocate not leaving that money to heirs as it will make them into lazy, rampant consumers. And since you can't take it with you...I'm not sure that the end game is really that clear here. Work. Spend as little as possible by denying yourself or convincing yourself to be happy with the minimum in most or all things, and accumulate millions which you shouldn't spend when become a millionaire either and shouldn't leave to heirs.

Again, the basic idea is a good to motivate spending less, reducing consumerism, increasing savings and investment and working toward financial independence—but it could have been much, much shorter, less preachy and less repetitive.

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