The Millionaire Next Door review/thoughts by Victor Sutherland of The Group Real Estate
My thoughts on the book “The Millionaire Next Door” by Thomas J Stanley Ph. D. and Wiliam D, Danko
Ph.D.
This is one of my new favorite books. My 6 year old daughter has told me twice in the past 2 weeks
“Daddy I know what your goal is in life…to have a million dollars before you turn 40”. My first reaction
to this was to explain to her that money isn’t everything and that is just my money goal, not my life goal.
After thinking about it more I am glad that I am open about finances in our household and have taught
my kids the importance of setting goals and working hard to achieve them (this is the same 6 year old
who wouldn’t let us go home after working on a fourplex because “Daddy we can’t leave a dirty mailbox
for the people who are going to move in”). I know I’m not the best parent in the world, but I was pretty
proud of my little girl that day!
So this book isn’t the most exciting read at first so you have to push past the first couple of chapters to
get into the good stuff. If you saw me driving around with a silly grin on my face in the past couple of
weeks I was probably listening to one of the stories from this book. I read the book and then listened to
the audio version and I don’t know if it was just because it was the 2 nd time I went through it or not but
the audio version just gets me excited to live a lifestyle conducive to the millionaire next door…which is
not what most of us picture.
Most of us picture the millionaire as one driving a fancy car, lives in a fancy house, goes on expensive
trips, buys expensive clothes, and generally lives an extravagant lifestyle. In reality most of the
millionaires in America live in a modest neighborhood, drives used cars, and are frugal with their money.
They became millionaires that way and enjoy that lifestyle. “Keeping up with the Jones” is not
something that interests them. One of my favorite stories from the book is about a millionaire who had
some vendors or business associates who wanted to buy them a Rolls Royce. He actually ended up
turning down this offer since he felt it would affect his lifestyle…he couldn’t throw his dead fish in the
back, park at the dives of restaurants he liked, and be treated differently by the people around him
based on what he drives.
This book also addresses the difference between those who accumulate wealth, and those who just get
paid a lot of money. Many high earners don’t actually accumulate wealth because they live such a lavish
lifestyle that even though they make a lot they spend it all so never actually accumulate wealth. Many
of the “millionaires next door” didn’t earn a high income; they simply lived a boring, frugal life of being
smart with their money. Although I’m not a millionaire yet, this is why I drive a 2001 Nissan Altima that
my wife and I bought over 10 years ago. She thinks people won’t trust a Realtor who drives an old car
but I know that true wealth builders will actually see that as a sign of someone who knows how to
accumulate wealth and can help them do that with their real estate goals!
