Too Short for a Blog Post, Too Long for a Tweet 293

Here are a  few excerpts from a book I recently read, "The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy," by Thomas J. Stanley.

The large majority of these millionaires are not the descendants of the Rockefellers or Vanderbilts. More than 80 percent are ordinary people who have accumulated their wealth in one generation. They did it slowly, steadily, without signing a multimillion-dollar contract with the Yankees, without winning the lottery, without becoming the next Mick Jagger. Windfalls make great headlines, but such occurrences are rare.

Also note that the average American buyer of a new motor vehicle paid more than $21,000 for his most recent acquisition. This is not much less than the $24,800 paid by millionaires! Moreover, not all of these millionaires purchased new vehicles. How many indicated that their most recent vehicles was used? Nearly 37 percent. In addition, many millionaires indicated that they traded down recently - that is, purchased lower-priced vehicles than they had before.

Most of these millionaires' high-income, low-net worth neighbors make the wrong assumption.  They assume that by focusing their energy on generating high incomes, they will automatically become affluent. They play excellent offense in this regard. Most are positioned in the top 3 or 4 percent of the income distribution for all U.S. households. Most look the part of millionaires. Yet they are not wealthy. They play lousy defense. They conclude, “It’s much easier in America to earn a lot than it is to accumulate wealth.” Why is that the case?  Because we are a consumption-oriented society.