Thomas J. Stanley : Millionaire Next Door Author; Researcher; Expert

Beverly's good friends often joke about the worst place a toy shopper could be during the Christmas season: standing behind her at the Toys-R-Us check out counter! More often than not she is in line with multiple shopping carts loaded to the hilt.  This is because one of her favorite pastimes is to provide toys for hospitalized children.  Beverly believes giving is enhances her self image.  It is one of the rewards that she receives from being a top producer of income.  Her high income and frugal lifestyle enable her to be so very generous.  On average she donates about 30% of her...

This case study may brighten your day.  Sara Blakely is the youngest selfmade woman to join this year's billionaire's club-turning $5,000 in savings into a new retail category:  shapewear, according to Forbes, March 26, 2012. Ms. Blakely once had her heart set on going to law school, but according to the Forbes article, she performed poorly on the LSAT exam for law school admission.  So what if she lacked high analytic intellect? Only 9% of decamillionaires, both men and women, indicated that their choice of career was based upon aptitude test results [The Millionaire Mind]. Like most people who are destined to succeed, she...

In The Millionaire Next Door I quoted the words of a corporate sales professional, a millionaire whom I interviewed.  He like other self made millionaires said that he had a "go to hell fund. . . just in case my employer suggests (insists) that I leave Austin for corporate headquarters in Rottenchester."  He never had to leave Austin and he added, "PTL."  In other words, [the millionaires next door] have accumulated enough wealth to live without working for ten or more years. I was reminded of these words of wisdom after reviewing an email from Ms. F who currently resides in a lovely community in the...

Melissa from Scotland contacted me about a BBC news article which mentioned that a Scottish midwife, Jean Alexander, had left 1.6M pounds to a multiple sclerosis charity.  The article mentioned that Ms. Alexander was considered to be a shrewd investor in the stock market.  I suspect that she was not only shrewd, but also generous and lived below her means.  I have consistently found that people from Scottish ancestry in America account for a disproportionately large share of the millionaire next door population.  As I wrote in The Millionaire Next Door: No other ancestry group has such a high concentration of millionaires from such...

Harry T. is 24 years old and wants to be a "millionaire one day."  But he has grave concerns that he will be unable to find a spouse who will support his goal. It seems that there is a big obstacle in preventing many men in getting rich even if he goes and follows all of your great ideas of playing great defense. The problem is women. How does a young man in his 20's find a suitable wife that is not a Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian-like? It seems that many women strive to act and look like them. They...