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

The national survey which served as the base for The Millionaire Mind represented a fraction of the top 1% of the wealth holders in America.  Some of the myths about these people are that they were all straight A students, scored at the top on the SAT, attended elite private schools, etc.  The average SAT score for the sample was 1190.  Their most frequent grade in both high school and college was "B."  Their GPA in college was 2.9.  They typically did not qualify for admission to an "elite" college or university.  But there were a few who, in spite of their mediocre credentials, somehow made it into the...

The Millionaire Mind contains a chapter entitled "The Home."  The millionaires (733) in the book represent a fraction of the top 1% of wealth in America.  On average their homes have a market value of approximately $1.4M (or about 2.5 times the original purchase price 12 years earlier).  Their average net worth is $9.2M. About 4 in 10 (39.9%) have no outstanding mortgage balance.  Fully 2 of 3 (66.0%) have a mortgage balance under $300,000.  The median number of bedrooms is four; baths, 3.5. What do most of these millionaires have in common?  They, like the couple presented below, purchased...

by Sarah S. Fallaw, Ph.D., Director of Research, AMI Research Many successful people report having moments of clarity or EUREKA! experiences when it comes to business opportunities. In fact, 29% of millionaires reported stumbling across a great business opportunity as part of their career path, and 39% reported using intuition for business ideas (see The Millionaire Mind, Chapter 5). For some, intuition and opportunity can lead to lucrative and exciting work. For example, in The Millionaire Mind, Jim lost it all in real estate, only to discover that he was highly successful at...

In my last blog, J.R. profiled his father-in-law who is the CEO of a major public corporation.  He provided considerable evidence that his father-in-law is the millionaire next door type.   Interestingly most senior corporate executives understate their wealth.     Dear J.T.: Thank you for your insightful profile.  My research over the years has found that senior executives of public corporations are more likely to be of the balance sheet variety than they are of the income statement affluent type. Certainly there are CEOs who live in sprawling multimillion dollar mansions that look more like castles than homes.  Yet these are in the minority.  But...

In a recent Fortune editorial, Nina Easton writes  ". . . don't blame the rich: a defense of the 1%."  Instead of constantly criticizing the 1 percenters most people could learn a lot about accumulating wealth through understanding the habits of these wealthy people.  She states succinctly: It's entertaining to wail about the fat cats and the greedy rich.  But if we're serious about addressing widening inequality, we should figure out what the 1% is doing right-- and apply some of those ideas to closing the gap. Again, the original title of The Millionaire Next Door was "That's Why They're Wealthy."  One of...