I just finished reading "The Millionaire Next Door" by Thomas J. Stanley & William D. Danko. In a nutshell, this book gives an inside glimpse into wealth in America. This book isn't meant to help someone become or even aspire to be a millionaire. Instead, I find it to focus on our perceptions of society. Are we to look up to the guy with the new foreign car? What are status symbols? Why do Americans crave to have certain material possessions to quantify their life and prove their worth to someone?
This book goes on to describe how it is the people you would never expect to have a million + saved up and attributed to their name that do. It is the guy in the pick-up truck who has worked a construction job his whole life who actually has more of a net worth than the business executive who may make more annually but has an extravagant lifestyle he must keep up with -- this comes at a price -- a high one. Of course, this isn't the scenario EVERY time but it is an important lesson to how we are to judge people.
How does one accumulate wealth? Not necessarily being born into it or winning the lottery or even having a high paying job can gurantee it...frugality is the key. Wealth takes a huge amount of sacrifice, discipline, and hard work, qualities that are positively discouraged by our high-consumption society.
This book goes on to describe how it is the people you would never expect to have a million + saved up and attributed to their name that do. It is the guy in the pick-up truck who has worked a construction job his whole life who actually has more of a net worth than the business executive who may make more annually but has an extravagant lifestyle he must keep up with -- this comes at a price -- a high one. Of course, this isn't the scenario EVERY time but it is an important lesson to how we are to judge people.
How does one accumulate wealth? Not necessarily being born into it or winning the lottery or even having a high paying job can gurantee it...frugality is the key. Wealth takes a huge amount of sacrifice, discipline, and hard work, qualities that are positively discouraged by our high-consumption society.
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