The Millionaire Next Door

Full title “The Millionaire Next Door : The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy”

This is basically a mix of psychology, sociology, economy and business. I expected beginning will only be interesting, but this book positively surprised me. This book is an amazing chunk of research on social and material relationships among wealth Americans.

By wealthy people authors consider $1M–$10M of accumulated wealth. Study conducted over several years (since 1980). Book was published 1996, however the version I listened to referred to 2005 too, so it was likely an updated edition.

Immigrants and 1st-generation born US immigrants are most likely to get really wealthy. This book states Russians are 1st on the list of millionaires. Germans look really poor – 1/5th of millionaires are Germans. It’s unlikely wealthy guys will be well dressed (1/4 of millionaires never spent more than $289 for a suit). Nobody will wear expensive watch. Most won’t wear a watch, ever. They won’t drive good cars either. If they drive a car, it’ll be at least 3 year old. It’s likely it’ll be 8 year old or more. Most guys marry once. Most married couples never divorce and most stay together till death. Average lifetime of a wealthy millionaire is 75.5 year. Ladies live 9 years longer (good for you!) Most guys marry girls from normal, non-millionaire families and marry girls without hyper-spending habits. Most marry frugal ladies. Most frugal ladies which they marry hold a domestic budget with strict spending plan. Couples live in 1 house most of their lifetime, or at least 20 years. Most people don’t take loans, and most live below their financial status. Most guys do really crappy stuff, that nobody else wants to do, ever.

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As I said–pretty impressive chunk of research.