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The millionaire next-door did not become a millionaire by winning the lottery or on Regis Philbin's new game show: Millionaire. Most millionaire's in the United States are people just like you and I except they invest their money on a regular basis and live modest lives. After interviewing over 1000 millionaires, they discovered that the average millionaire makes $131,000 per year but invests up to 15 percent of their income on annual basis. Most millionaires drive regular cars that they bought used for less than $25,000, live-in modest homes, and work in a non-glamour industry. As a matter of fact most millionaires are entrepreneurs that own and operate their own small business.
If you're interested in making it to the ranks of a millionaire then I believe that this book is for you. It may surprise you to find out that that capability is within your reach. As the authors say, you have to learn how to become a PAW (prodigious accumulator of wealth) rather than a UAW (under accumulator of wealth).
The book certainly makes interesting reading for the curious and the serious. Then, the rest is up to you.
There is a lot of good advice and examples (some technical) on how to acheive wealth but the true eye opener is that self-made millionaires adopt a lifestyle which can be surprising...they are frugal. (ie may not be wearing a Rolex!)
This changed my personal outlook on becoming wealthy. For example by keeping my car a couple of extra years...then buying the model I wanted but 1year old instead of new etc.
The book shows us how if we truly adopt a frugal lifestyle it is much more realistic to become wealthy. The great irony I see in this is that to become wealthy you need to focus your life on LIVING and not on THINGS or money itself (ie be frugal).
This book truly demonstrates methods and ways that people who adopt this lifestyle acheive the most in monetary terms.
This book is a definite must buy for anyone interested in gaining serious wealth no matter what your income may be.
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If you're planning to have a mate in you life, you really have to be sure he or she is a wholesome person through and through in order to keep your money from leaving you like crazy. Stanley points out that so many people (we men especially) are highly hung-up on physical attraction (there's a story in this section about a guy who found out about his long-term girlfriend's hidden agenda that will just make you stop in your tracks). We could all definitely learn a lot from the insistence that most millionaires exercise when they consider a mate for the true humanistic attributes rather than money or looks.
The Chapter on "The Economically Productive Household" can really teach you a lot about making your lifestyle more efficient economically even if you don't plan to make a million dollars (see page 282, 3rd paragraph for a really good piece of advice).
If you're looking to buy a house (and make it your home) "The Home" chapter is a definite "must-read". If you're buying and feel you don't have time to read the whole book, at least read this chapter (and this is coming from a 36-year-old single guy who isn't looking to buy a house in the very near future). I assure you it can save you a lot of money and maybe even heartache and stress.
Overall, this book shows good insight on the millionaire as a person. Just as they say, "You are what you eat", You are definitely what and where your mind is. Let Stanley show you where this group of people's minds are so you can get your mind there!
Just as I wrote in my review on "The Millionaire Next Door" I'm giving this four stars because of the profundity of unneeded charts. Just look them over or overlook them so you can enjoy the text.
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The information in this book could have been covered in total in the first audio tape (there are 4 tapes in total). I agree with other reviews saying the information in this book is highly repetitive and slanted towards accounting and finance-- almost to the exclusion of other areas of business.
The other problem with this book is that its almost completely anecdotal. Stanley strays from his core strength shown in Millionaire Next Door. Stanley became a bestseller in MND because he was able to synthesize and capture data based on research and present it in a beautifully coherent fashion. On the contrary, this book is full of stories and anecdotes and is all over the place in the presentation of material.
This book is in an interview format, (Tom Stanley being interviewed by a guy with obviously scripted questions) which I didn't like as much.
One major thrust this book holds is that you need to be a complete problem solver for your customers in all aspects of their lives and business enterprise in order to sell your product to them. An example he provides is a CPA who helps a client's kid get into a top college.
The problem with this approach (that Stanley doesn't acknowledge or address) is that you completely rely on the benevolence of decisionmakers at a given business when you solve all of their other life problems and not overtly sell them anything.
What Stanley proposes is not new to Salespeople like myself. Salespeople like myself have always expanded our job descriptions to help our customers solve all sorts of problems. The problem with Stanley's approach is that it's not as workable as he advocates because there are more takers than givers in the business world. By and large, business decisionmakers in real life don't return favors as the book portrays they do to his "Ace of Aces" examples. Especially when decisionmakers yank you around on price and price alone. Stanley does not have an answer for networking to that type of millionaire.
If businesses and business decisionmakers were as benevolent as Stanley suggests they are -- returning favors as they are given out -- personal concierge services would overtake the planet and salespeople would cease to exist.
Offer your service for free to millionaires in a way that makes you further contacts.
An example is a CPA giving a speech to a trade organization on issues that affect them and perhaps specializing in serving that industry. I didn't need to listen for hours to know this. This should have been a magazine article, not a book.
He also doesn't cover any downside. Most of the stories are simply of people who networked this way and had great success.
I loved The Millionaire Mind and sometimes pass on little tidbits of information gleaned from it. I just told you everything I learned from this book. Every one of dozens of stories was the same lesson with different characters. I listen to a fair amount of audiotapes and this was a rare disappointment.
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