The Millionaire Next Door

[Bryan Hancock]

There have been some threads recently talking about working hard, spending less than you earn, etc. so I thought that there would be a thread on the subject book. I couldn't find one so I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread about the book and the subject of the habits of the wealthy. For those that haven't read the book there is a decent synopsis here:

The Millionaire Next Door

To my surprise there was some healthy critisim of the book I dug up too. What was your perception of the book? Are these the habits of the wealthy folks you know? If not, what other traits do you find common across people you know that are wealthy?

[Vikram C.]

Most of my friends are millionaires. I see only two things in the synopsis of the book that are valid for all of them:

1. The spend less than they earn.
2. They take risks when they feel the odds are worth it.

They have one other thing in common, which NC Mark pointed out earlier:
3. They are extremely hard-working and passionate about their businesses. They really enjoy their work.

One other thing that they all have:
4. They are all smart. Not necessarily in an academic sense, but you can see their intelligence when you chat with them. Some of them were also excellent academically while a few have extraordinary streetsmarts.

They do not have anything in common with respect to lifestyle, ostentatiousness, etc. I frankly don't think you are going to become poor if you know how to earn $10 million per year while spending $1 million. You are going to become wealthier that way than if you earn $100K and spend only $50K.

The key to become wealthy is to learn skills related to acquiring wealth. Not wasting money is also important, but the definition of "waste" is really quite subjective. I would say that if you can acquire great amounts of wealth and if you save a good chunk of it, you should be able to become quite wealthy unless your investing skills are terrible.