A Book Review: The Millionaire Next Door

The surprising secrets of America's wealthy.

Can You Spot The Millionaire Next Door?
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Who are the rich in America? What do they do? Where do they shop? What do they drive? How do they invest? Where did their ancestors come from? How did they get rich? Can I ever become one of them?

​The Millionaire Next Door has hit a nerve across America, smashing onto best-seller list in The New York Times, BusinessWeek, the Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly. This book is one of the books that is changing people's lives—and increasing their net worth!

Why aren't I as wealthy as I should be?

Many people ask this question of themselves all the time. Often they are hard-working, well-educated, middle-to-high-income people. Why, then, are so few affluent? The answer lies in this book!

This is the never-before-unearthed story about America's rich—and how they got that way. According to the authors Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko, most people have it all wrong about how you become wealthy in America. It is seldom inheritance or advanced degrees or even intelligence that builds fortunes in the said country. Wealth in America is more often the result of hard work, diligent savings, and living below your means.

This book will tell you the seven common denominators that show up again and again among those who have accumulated wealth.

In this book, you will learn, for instance, that many millionaires bargain shop for used cars, pay a tiny fraction of their wealth in income tax, raise children who are often unaware of their family's wealth until they are adults, and, above all, reject the big-spending lifestyles most of us associate with rich people.

In fact, you will learn that the flashy millionaires glamorized by the media actually represent only a tiny minority of America's rich. Most of the truly wealthy in the said country don't live in Beverly Hills or on Park Avenue—the live next door.

Stanley and Danko have been studying  the wealthy in America for 20 years. Using their two decades' worth of surveys, interviews, and data available nowhere else, they have compiled a detailed picture of who the rich are and how they live that will change forever your perception of what being wealthy really means.

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About The Authors
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Thomas J. Stanley, PH.D., is an author, lecturer, and researcher who has studied the affluent since 1973. His work is frequently cited in national media. He is the author of Marketing to the Affluent, a best-selling book selected as one of ten outstanding business books in America by the editor of Best of Business Quarterly.

William D. Danko, PH.D., is a associate professor and chair of marketing at the University at Albany, State University of New York. His publications have appeared in the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Advertising Research, and other leading journals.

In 1973, Dr. Danko assisted Thomas J. Stanley with his first study of the affluent. Since then, he has collaborated with Dr. Stanley on numerous academic and consulting studies.