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The Millionaire Next Door (book review)

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Eaton Turner
The Millionaire Next Door (book review)

Nowadays, literature includes numerous books devoted to the questions how people become rich and what the main secrets to changing life in one day are. People need to believe that there is nothing impossible in their life, and such books give them faith, presenting the examples of people who became rich by following certain guidelines.

The Millionaire Next Door written by Stanley and Danko is not a typical book that teaches how to become rich. It is considered to be the personal financial adviser that demonstrates the way of thinking of millionaires. At the same time, it is full of financial lessons that everyone could study and apply to their own life. The task of this essay is to describe the main theme of the book and outline the message that is sent to a reader through the information gathered by authors during their research.

The main idea of the book is to show the way of life and business strategy of separate individuals with a net worth over of a million dollars, and it is done with the help of the statistics gathered by the authors. This book shows the readers the real essence of wealth and illustrates the life people used to have before they became millionaires. It is surprising that most millionaires are living ordinary life and could be one’s neighbors. Probably, this is why the book was titled this way. There are a few interesting aspects concerning the information the book contains:

  • Over 80% of American millionaires are the first-generation rich;
  • 97% of millionaires have their own home;
  • About 50% of rich people own certain business.

The Millionaire Next Door is a research made by Thomas Stanley and William Danko in order to discover the way ordinary people became wealthy and their way of life after they became millionaires.

The first part of the book is devoted to the list of seven main characteristics of wealthy people. Then, all of these characteristics are detailed in order to show in a simple way the main traits of rich people and explain why these features are essential.

Wealthy people always live beyond their means. Actually, rich people are frugal. Millionaires often implement multiple extraordinary solutions in order to save their money. It is necessary to note that they value quality much more than image; thus, they are ready to pay for goods and services of excellent quality only if they really need them.

They tend to spend their time, energy, and money effectively to increase their wealth. Rich people always plan their budget and strategy of future investments in order to gain maximum profit. Usually, they start working in the early age, and that is the reason why they get the understanding of value of money and the responsibility that everyone bares while developing certain kind of business. Moreover, there is one idea presented in the book that states that those people who spend their time buying good things have less time for planning their personal budget.

Millionaires pay more attention to the personal financial independence rather then the high social status. Authors of The Millionaire Next Door spent much time researching the things that have value for rich people. They discovered that usually, rich people do not drive fancy cars. They have average models and use them for years since they feel comfortable in these cars. Nevertheless, authors preferred to devote a chapter to the matters concerning the process of buying cars, indicating models, prices, etc. that rich people usually prefer. That is a detailed research that shows a few specific objectives of this process and underlines the aspects that rich people take into consideration while choosing a car.

Usually, wealthy people appear to be not financially supported by their parents. A research held by Stanley and Danko shows that most millionaires were not financially encouraged by their families. Moreover, authors state that there is a direct connection between amount of money children receive from their parents and their personal financial success in future. Thus, those children who get less money from their parents accumulate more in future, and those who get more money from their parents are not likely to accumulate this money in future.

In one of the chapters of the book, authors provide the results of the research that lead to the conclusion that giving money to adult children totally destroys their ability to accumulate money and reduces their chances to succeed in their future life. There are many ideas concerning the specific features of adult financial education. Such information should be available and properly presented to adults in order to form the right understanding of the value of money.

Millionaires have extra knowledge and intuition about choosing specific market opportunities to get profit. Stanley and Danko prove that the best way to get money on the market is to sell goods or services to those customers who already have money.

Proper occupation choice determines future financial perspectives. There is an evident fact that shows that self-employed people are four times more likely to become millionaires in future than those who work for others. People of different occupations have equal opportunities to become rich. However, all people use them in different way. That is the reason why some people are more successful than others. In addition, it is important to note that people could be successful with any kind of business. Most millionaires used to have rather ordinary business: they sold shoes, owned cafe, practiced surgery, etc. The only thing they know is that only real desire to become reach and endless efforts made in order to achieve one’s aim could give expected results.

The task of this essay was to focus attention on the book The Millionaire Next Door and analyze its main idea in order to understand the main issues that authors wanted to convey to their readers. There is no doubt that it is more than just a book as it presents the portrait of modern wealthy and powerful person that has proper understanding of value that money have.

Unfortunately, the information presented in the book is poorly organized, and it is rather difficult to focus attention on its essence and spend much time reading it. Being patient is the only way to get all the useful information that this book could present. Nevertheless, it contains a great portion of motivation for achievement of financial independence in future in the form of seven features that millionaires paid attention to (people are able to start changing their habits to achieve a desired aim).

There is no doubt that special financial education should be implemented at the school level in order to teach children accumulate money and think the way millionaires do. Such information should be available online and as a special class. Moreover, it should be properly presented to adults in order to form the right vision and understanding of the value of money.

One of the aspects that the book conveys to its reader is connected with the fact that millionaires are the same people as others. Difference lays in the understanding of one’s aims and the proper ways of achieving them. There is no great secret hidden in the book; thus, it contains a research that is based on the statistics and provides evidence to support all the information.

This post was written with the help of the author: Eaton Turner is a bachelor in English philology and literature at California University. Eaten is currently working as one of the best writers at the EssaysWriters.com He also studies feminine psychology 

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