|
The Millionaire Next Door, Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy (平装)
by Thomas J. Stanley, Ph.D., William Denko, Ph.D.
| Category:
Personal finance, Personal wealth, Success, Self help |
| Market price: ¥ 178.00
MSL price:
¥ 158.00
[ Shop incentives ]
|
| Stock:
In Stock |
|
|
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A personal finance must read to achieve prosperity through frugal lifestyle and improved financial planning. |
| If you want us to help you with the right titles you're looking for, or to make reading recommendations based on your needs, please contact our consultants. |
|
| |
AllReviews |
  1 2 Total 2 pages 16 items |
|
|
Jared Smith (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-29 00:00>
Thomas Stanley and William Danko teach the average American about the elusive habits of the wealthy upper-class in The Millionaire Next Door. Although they didn't tell me anything I felt like I didn't already know, I appreciated that they conducted research and presented hard data that backup up the intuition about the wealthy.
You should guess that small business owners compose the largest group of millionaires in America. Also, it has always been obvious to me that the people who save and invest their money are far wealthier than those who consume. Stanley and Danko over-simplify that assumption. The perception that big spenders are also rich isn't wrong, as Stanley and Danko somewhat mildly point out. When anyone understands the difference between income and wealth-not too difficult of a concept-then a clear springboard is that people who spend their money on consumable goods are not consistently wealthy. That is, of course, unless they make ridiculous amounts of income and can still save a significant amount while spending more in one year than I will make in a lifetime. This point shouldn't be undervalued. There are significant amounts of millionaires that do spend their money - they have high income, high wealth, and high consumption. Stanley and Danko do explain the majority of millionaire's habits, as an average. But remember that there still are 46% of millionaires who drive a car newer than two years old.
I have been interested in personal finance for years, which is why I appreciated reading a book full of reputable data extracted from university research projects. While working as an intern financial advisor for UBS (the large Swiss bank) I was able to look into a few of the habits of the wealthy (one million or more of net worth excluding real estate). And I found that they were heavy savers and not necessarily big income earners.
The book is insightful, and it has reiterated and confirmed some important concepts that I have thought about in the past. One concept that was new to me was how damaging "economic outpatient care" is to families and the financial independence of rich kids. It seems a good idea for parents to help their kids out, but it usually is damaging. Rich kids need to learn to live within their means before getting economic outpatient care. In addition, I didn't know what careers wealthy parents push their kids into. It makes sense after Stanley and Danko explain it, but it was still surprising that they tell them to be Accountants, Dentists, Lawyers, Doctors, etc. It seems like wealthy parents would want to encourage their kids to be entrepreneurs instead, which is where the "real money" is. But because the risk of earning real money is high, they want their kids to have consistent streams of income. Especially considering the ability the parents have to pay for expensive graduate education.
I grew up in a wealthy area of Orange County, California. Many of my friends' parents were big spenders. But I learned important lessons when I found that some of the seemingly more wealthy families turned out to be in financial distress. Big spending doesn't mean big bank accounts-they are inversely proportional. |
|
|
Michael Romano (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-29 00:00>
The author of The Millionaire Mind and The Millionaire Next Door has certainly stumbled onto a great idea: He's become rich by selling his books, written in pseudo-scientific jargon, how rich people live and think based essentially on their self-reported answers to surveys. Actually, that description is a little simplistic, but not far off. I've read both books and they are somewhat interesting for their insight (most multi-millionaires are very, very different from the celebrity trash we all see on TV). However, anyone with a very basic knowledge of statistics and a practical understanding of basic psychology or human nature will have a problem with some of the conclusions that the author alludes to. Such as: People who have their shoes repaired rather than throwing them away, people who have strong religious backgrounds, and people who avoid do-it-yourself home- improvement are more likely to become millionaires. The author frequently makes leaps to conclusions without really analyzing the causal connection. He also relies too heavily on self-reported answers to his surveys. Sure, the deca-millionaire is going to tell you "hard work", "honesty", and "charity" are important to "being successful." But he's not going to necessarily advertise that "off-shore tax evasion", "sticking it to the working class" and "having blue-blood parents" doesn't hurt the balance sheets either. It sometimes seems like the author was born yesterday. One last complaint: The books could be reduced to around 50 pages if all the hokey anecdotes were edited out. They don't add much and almost insult the intelligence of the reader ("To tell you how important it is to save money, let me tell you about Mr. Moneybags and how he saved money and thus accumulated money."). Overall, to be clear, these books are worth reading, but I'd borrow them from a friend (or library) and save your money.
(A negative review. MSL remarks.) |
|
|
An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-29 00:00>
For someone like myself (who used to buy everything and anything), this book was an eye opener. Yes this book might not be for everyone but I laugh at the people who write there is nothing to be learned from this book. That statement says everything I need to know about them. There is something to be learned from everything... it’s just a matter of how you apply it to your own life. Since I started applying disciplines in this book and others, I have been exponentially happier with my life. It’s amazing how we come to believe that we need the new sports car. Commercialism has ingrained it into us that we cant be happy without a big car payment or house we can barely afford with an interest only mortgage. Do you have to live like a pauper as other reviewers suggest? Of course not, it’s all about who you are and how you apply the principles to your own life. This book doesn’t try to change who you are, it does exactly what it advertised... gives insight into the quiet millionaires among us and how they got there. |
|
|
David Moon (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-29 00:00>
Before reading The Millionaire Next Door, I had simple beliefs such as the guy who drove a BMW or a Lexus was the "rich" guy and the guy who drove a beat-up Ford 150 was the "poor" guy. Or the guy who managed to take his family out to dinner was the "rich" guy and the guy who stayed in to eat was the "poor" sap. After reading this book, it changed my point of view completely...
I had read this book about 7 years ago and I have been recommending this book for just as long. The book will convince any reader that the simple truth is "It doesn't matter how much you make, it's how much you save." This one book alone has taught me that people who save, budget and plan are ones that become financially successful.
The book takes case studies of individuals and explains how they have become millionaires. One thing that struck me is that most of the millionaires live like regular people, they don't try to live the excessive lifestyles. For examples, the authors in this book held a conference with several millionaires and they figured that these millionaires would eat fancy foods. Instead, most of the millionaires were hankering foods such as hot dogs, chips and pizza. Very telling indeed.
There are those who play "millionaires" and there are those who are "millionaires". If you want to learn the basic steps in order to become a "millionaire", this book will teach you invaluable lessons. (And no… you don't have to buy that Mercedes in order to know you are rich! |
|
|
An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-29 00:00>
I didn't realize how people are, when it comes down to money. I look at people so differently now, I knew people were irresponsible with money (since I work in the bank), but this is ridiculous. The book explains how money is pasted from generation to generation and how people live beyond there means. This book opens your mind to how the rich really lives and who the rich really are. The rich aren't who you think they are. They are regular people just like you and me. Believe me when you see that guy or girl with that Mercedes Benz you'll take a second look. Read this book it will make you open your eyes wide. |
|
|
Bob Balfe (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-29 00:00>
This was an eye catcher in the airport when I was waiting 5 hours for my next flight (after missing a leg because the airplane was 45 minutes late). I certainly have ambitions of being well off in my later years (and sooner would also be nice) so the flashy "More than two million copies sold" and the dollar bill cover sold me. I had a lot of different thoughts going through my head as I read this book. Each page made you think about choices you have made in life and you quickly do the analysis of whether you are "on track" or not.
In a nutshell this book is excellent for people in their teens, 20's and thirties. If you are in your 40's or higher you may just get pissed off seeing that you probably missed something financially along the way. I know I have to make some minor adjustments in order to meet their criteria but I also think the book presents some rather extreme cases. I guess they are all possible but if you have half a brain you should not end up in the bad side of the book. I was seriously shocked that I did in fact make some pretty good decisions early in life, however, it appears the major decisions I made were completely against the book. I did not go to college directly our of high school. I served in the Marines for seven years. My family has been a single income family for over 90% of my marriage - also against the statistics. And I have never been an entrepreneur - high percentile of millionaires are entrepreneurs. I do save aggressively however I plan on making more IRA contributions for my wife; I also do 100% of my own finance and investment. I have owner the same cars for 6 years and 3 years - a whole chapter was dedicated this. I do think paying for my kids first degree is extremely important and will hopefully do so - meaning I do now think a college education is a huge leap and even a Master's degree is just as important. The key point I took out when comparing my success to those in the book is I have passion for what I do. It makes me good at it because it is fun. I can not learn enough about computers and software engineering. I would rather read technical books than books like this (just look at my book list...). And I just happen to have a career in a time when software engineers are paid well... for now. I am also fortunate to be working for what I consider the best software company in the world - arguable to any Microsoft people. The book keys on all of these things and it is a great read. |
|
|
|
1 2 Total 2 pages 16 items |
|
|
|
|
|
|
