Apparently, my interview with Dave Ramsey on September 30th hit a cord when I mentioned that only a minority of people who own/occupy homes valued at $1M or more are millionaires. In my latest book, Stop Acting Rich, I use the term millionaire to refer to those households with net investments of $1M or more. This is not the …
The Money Pit and The Decline of Enhanced Millionaires Read More »
In my interview on The Dave Ramsey Show yesterday, I discussed the relationship between where one lives and the ability to accumulate wealth. Here is a continuation of the discussion from my new book, Stop Acting Rich. Most of the self-made millionaires I have studied have one thing in common: They were able to build wealth …
Why is it that some people worth $10 million, $20 million, $30 million own few or no luxuries whatsoever? They know that satisfaction in life is not a function of what you can buy in a store. As you will come to learn in these pages, these people were conditioned by their parents to live …
Why is it that most of the millionaire next door types do not cheat on their taxes? One of the reasons is that on average they only pay the equivalent of 2.1% of their net worth in income tax each year. From The Millionaire Next Door that is $79,000 in tax and a net worth …
Part 2 of 3: The Millionaire Next Door. . . Swiss? Cheese only. Read More »
When I was a boy, we lived in a small apartment in a blue-collar section of the Bronx. Just a quarter mile away was the wealthiest neighborhood in New York City, a residential community called Fieldston, aka Mansionville! I was nine years old. I told my eleven-year-old sister, “I’m disgusted with the marginal propensity of …
Consumer indulgences do not make one wealthy. In fact, they are substitutes of wealth, not complements. I once had an interesting experience while presenting these and related facts to a group of fund-raisers from colleges and universities, hospitals, youth groups, and a variety of eleemosynary organizations which were responsible for identifying prospective donors. I explained …
The recent passing of Eunice Kennedy Shriver jogged my memory about the first and only time I had the pleasure of meeting this extraordinary woman. We were both main platform speakers at the Million Dollar Round Table’s (MDRT)national convention of 14,000 superstars from the insurance industry. The MDRT is the trade association composed of the …
Last Thursday (August 6, 2009), I was listening to Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio. I consider him to be the best and brightest radio host in America. I also admire him because he has been saving 40% of his income every year since he started working. Mr. Cowherd pointed out that 92% of the millionaires …
I was called by a salesperson who targets millionaires; he markets “tax-advantaged concepts.” He had seen an article in USA Today in which I was quoted about the size of the millionaire market in each state. He wanted my list of the names and addresses of America’s millionaires. I informed him that I did not have …
A reader recently sent me this note about one of his clients . . . Hello, Tom: A client of mine, Fred – A Millionaire Next Door Type, is a tire dealer . . . claims he has three kinds of customers: onezys, twozys, and threezys. When a buyer walks into Fred’s store. . . …