Millionaire Next Door - The Book

[Car-Guy]

It's MUCH easier to become a "casual" millionaire now than back in 1996. I don't know the numbers (I'm betting someone does) but now 25 years after MND came out, a million might only be worth the equivalent of say, $700K.

~$585k according to the inflation calculator I use. Or saying it another way, if you had $585k in 1996, you had the spending power then of a million today...


But I can understand why you may have thought it was more like 700k over 25+ years... Hey, Jay Powell missed his inflation numbers too and he was only looking at the next quarter!

 

[Major Tom]

It's MUCH easier to become a "casual" millionaire now than back in 1996.

I like the term "casual millionaire". Yes, that's what I am - a casual millionaire! It implies a level of nonchalance about my wealth, as I lay around in this heat in my studio apartment, comfortable in the knowledge that I will never work another day in my life.

I think I might name my next cat Jeeves, to complete the illusion of my imagined great fortune

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Of course, as we've discussed on other occasions, a $Million isn't what it used to be <snip>

Yes, Dr. Evil had to learn that lesson, apparently:

 

[RetireeRobert]

Yes, Dr. Evil had to learn that lesson, apparently:

 

[corn18]

I hate to use hyperbole, but I think this book saved my life. At the time I read it, I was making $350k / year and had a net worth of minus $200k. We were in debt up to our eyeballs and had very little to show for it. I read it and that put me on the path to change. Then my wife read it and she was on board. Luckily I was making a lot of money so we could cut spending and get out of debt quickly. Then the savings started increasing and I retired this year @ 55. What a ride.

 

[Ronstar]

^ good for you! Congrats!

 

[ZachTB]

I finally got around to reading "The Millionaire Next Door" book.
...
I'm not sure what all the hype is about.
...
Maybe I read the book too late in the game. As I read through each story all I could think was "Duh", that's obvious....

This book just failed to capture my attention. I didn't find it interesting, so it took me a long time to read it. I'm glad I'm done with it, but it kind of burned me out and I'm not eager to start another book now.

Similar reaction for me; but then again, my parents were the type discussed in the book. It seemed to me that the authors were marveling at the fact that millionaires weren't conspicuous consumers!

Upon a second reading, I didn't get that sense as strongly; I think it was more along the lines that they expected their readers to be surprised by their findings. Also remember that the authors were marketing professors, so they were sharing the results of their survey-based research. Interesting to certain academically-inclined nerds like myself, but not so interesting to most people.

For me, the biggest value came in Chapters 5 and 6 [Ch. 5 - Economic Outpatient Care; Ch. 6 - Affirmative Action, Family Style]. I found it very instructive to see some of the mistakes that the wealthy sometimes make when it comes to 'helping' family members.

I almost quit reading before I got to those chapters. But I'm really glad I didn't!

 

[audreyh1]

I hate to use hyperbole, but I think this book saved my life. At the time I read it, I was making $350k / year and had a net worth of minus $200k. We were in debt up to our eyeballs and had very little to show for it. I read it and that put me on the path to change. Then my wife read it and she was on board. Luckily I was making a lot of money so we could cut spending and get out of debt quickly. Then the savings started increasing and I retired this year @ 55. What a ride.

Congrats to both of you!

 

[nvestysly]

DW and I read the book back in the mid to late 1990's and didn't realize it was "new" at the time. We were nowhere near retirement at the time but definitely working toward some version of FIRE. I agree the book is somewhat of a "duh, that's obvious" sort of scenario but reading it during that time of life definitely provided credence to our financial path.

We've given the book as a gift to people who are early in their financial lives with the hope that at least some of the ideas will "rub off" on them. Some of the gift recipients have indicated they didn't take time to read the book. Others indicated the book had too many statistics and was difficult for them to read. Some indicated becoming a millionaire was not achievable so they didn't want to even try! Oh well, we tried to throw a life preserver to a few folks. Guess I can't be concerned about what they chose to do with it.

 

[Blue531]

The Millionaire Next Door was one of the first financial books I ever bought in 1996, along with Your Money or Your Life. TMND was very influential to me and helped to shape my mindset about money, frugality and building wealth. I became a PAW -prodigious accumulator of wealth after reading it. I reread it often as I do many of the financial books that I own because I just enjoy them so much. I was already frugal before I read the book, but became even more so after because the book made me see that I could achieve FI.