I love "The Millionaire Next Door" ( TMND) so much that I buy it 100 copies at a time to give away as gifts. That book is a financial planner’s dream book because it explains in detail what we as a profession know about how most people become wealthy in America. Do buy that book - it is fabulous.
This book is a disappointing follow-up. The typical millionaire that Stanley profiles here has a $600, 000 income and a $9 million net worth. There are not too many people that I know that could believe they will ever earn that kind of income or have that kind of net worth. However, I do know many people who make $60, 000, $80, 000, $125, 000, $150, 000 or some other achievable income who do become millionaires or even multimillionaires. There is not much that they are going to find in this book that they are going to connect to, while TMND is chock full of "how to’s" to become an "every day" millionaire.
This book is much too long, it is poorly edited, and as a result it is plain old boring. It reminds me of the boring textbooks I had to read in college. I was often incredulous that the person who wrote TMND could have written this book! He has obviously lost the good editor he used in the past. The book says in 400 pages what easily could have been said in 150 pages. It is full of mind numbing details and statistics.
I love to tell people that if you want to become a millionaire, then imitate millionaires. Dr. Stanley does a fabulous job in TMND delineating what millionaires really do:
Get out of debt and stay out of debt.
Save money; always pay yourself first. Spend less than you make. The typical millionaire saves 15-20% of their income.
Buy used cars and do not lease cars. You’ll have plenty of time to drive luxury cars after you are rich - don’t do it while you were becoming rich as it will really slow down your efforts.
Buy a house and live in it for 20 years. If you upgrade every five years to keep up with the Joneses, you will never become rich.
Track your spending. Live frugally. Spend your money on what is important to you and not what will impress the Joneses. Do not spend money on "status artifacts" as Stanley calls them.
You do not need to make a ton of money to become a millionaire. If you follow steps one through five above long enough, you will eventually become a millionaire.
If you are in a business where your target market is people with at least a $10 million net worth and an income of at least $600, 000, then it might be worth your time to slog through the tiresome details in this book. Otherwise, buy TMND and you’ll know how Tom Stanley earned such a good reputation.
Jan Dahlin Geiger, Certified Financial Planner( tm) , Author of "Get Your Assets in Gear! Smart Money Strategies