The Millionaire Next Door

This is a book published in the mid ninety's. In fact, I read the second book from Thomas J. Stanley (The Millionaire Mind) previously and I love that book so much. As such, I had been looking forward to read this book ever since... Fortunately, I finally found this book thanks to a buddy...

Well, relatively... I think this is a better read compares to the author's second book. I found this first book more "enterprising" compares to the second one. Obviously, there are tons of repetition stuff in the author's second book.

The best part is... although this is a book from mid ninety's; the ideas and inspiration are still applicable in current era. The more I read it, the more I see what I am lacking... End up; it serves as a good guidelines on what I should be focusing on... After all, the route to millionaire is nothing different from those days compares to current days...

Furthermore, there are certain discussions on the next generation. Overall, this is not only a book about millionaire for adults. It is also a book that provides guidelines on how to nurture next generation. For example, the author quoted that: "The more dollars adult children receive, the fewer dollars they accumulate, while those who are given fewer dollars accumulate more." How true... This is extract from the chapter about "Economic Outpatient Cares". It serves as an excellent guideline for young parents like me. Listed below are the other two excellent guidelines for young parents:

Kids are very smart. They will not follow rules that their parents themselves do not follow. We (my wife and I) were well disciplined parents... We lived the rules... we taught by example... They (the children) learned by example. 

Cash give them too many options. Media, especially TV controls the value of our young. There's too much emphasize on consumption...What I have always told my children (is) if you need to make a major purchase, you first must fund a good bit of it yourself.

The only flaw is... I found this book still not as details and not as attractive compares to "All the Money in the World ". Honestly, "All the Money in the World" is my all time favorite book. Obviously, the differentiation lies with the sample collections. "All the Money in the World" is more focus and studies collected seem more wider and practical. Meanwhile, "The Millionaire Next Door" is more general and the details is no-where near "All the Money in the World".

Overall, this is a nice book to explore. As such, rating wise; I am giving 8/10. I appreciate the efforts done by the author in collecting and analyzing the whole millionaire sample. After all, not everyone can stay close with millionaire all time. This book is going to remain on my library for quite some time. If I can go through "All the Money in the World" three times, this book surely deserved my second attention in the future...

Lastly, some significant nice quotes:

Have you ever noticed those people whom you see jogging day after day? They are the ones who see not to need to jog. But that's why they are fit. Those who are wealthy work at staying financially fit. But those who are not financially fit do little to change their status. 

To build wealth, minimize your realized (taxable) income and maximize your unrealized income (wealth/ capital appreciation without a cash flow).

If your goal is to become financially secure, you'll likely attain it... But if your motive is to make money to spend money on the good life,... you're never gonna make it.

Money should never change one's values... Making money is only a report card. It's a way to tell how you're doing. 

Products change people. If you acquire one status product, you will likely have to purchase others to fill up the socially conspicuous puzzle. They are a threat...