He was afforded no respect from his wife's parents and was treated almost like a handyman. In time, the younger daughter married and her husband went to work for his father-in-law. The elder daughter rebelled against this and was cut off from her father's largesse, but the younger daughter stayed within the fold. The father was very domineering and believed that women should be in the home. Millionaires are often independent mindedĪ decent chunk of the book spoke of the story of two sisters, both from a wealthy household. This was deemed a far more valuable arrangement than a few thousand dollars in the short term. Often this was because the dealer also reciprocated by using the millionaire's business or referring clients back. They would often return to the same dealer over and over again. Millionaires, in contrast, value their own time more highly, and also value dealer loyalty and service more highly than a short term dollar gain. Eventually he wore one dealer down to selling him the Porsche for barely more than dealer cost price. He shopped around all the dealers, playing one off against the other, biding his time. Millionaires value more than moneyĪ striking story in the book discussed a UAW who spent a total of 60 hours getting a deal on his new Porsche. Obviously, it makes sense that part of the reason millionaires are millionaires is that they have kept enough of their money to amass a nice pot in order to be financially free. They often don't live in upscale neighbourhoods, just ordinary areas of town, often next door to blue-collar workers and state school teachers. The book finds that millionaires don't, as a rule, wear $5,000 watches or drive expensive German cars. That's a lesson no-one want to hear, right? we all want a magic bullet, a quick fix, a fool-proof method for wealth creation. The most striking of these are the key lessons from my reading of the book. It is clear that there are patterns of behaviour which make a person far more likely to become a PAW and possibly a millionaire. The book focuses on the accumulation of wealth, or the lack of accumulation, and draws clear distinctions between what the authors call Prodigious Accumulators of Wealth (PAWs) and Under-Accumulators of Wealth (UAWs). There are some clear lessons drawn from authors Thomas Stanley and William Danko‘s comprehensive study of the habits and action of millionaires. The premise of the book is that your average American millionaire doesn't really act as you would expect them to. Well, what an excellent book! I could end the review there, but I thought I'd start off on the right foot! The Millionaire Next Door is a study into the behaviour of American millionaires, and though it is twenty years old now, the lessons it teaches are as powerful now as they were back then.

The millionaire next door review