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

During the past two years J.C. Penney has implemented a dramatic change in its marketing strategy.  It called for greatly reducing the number of coupon/special on sale pricing and related promotional methods.  Its old method was replaced with the so-called stable, every day price point method.  And, according to The Wall Street Journal, this new strategy called for an abrupt reduction in the design and marketing for Penney's private label offerings.  Historically, however, one half of the company's sales came from its private label merchandise.  And often these offerings have received high praise from consumer experts. When these changes began to unfold, I thought...

Two recently published articles caught my attention.  And, bear with me, they are related!  In the first one, Bob Dudley, the well respected CEO of BP, is quoted:  Employment is difficult in many places.  But anybody who goes through petroleum engineering, chemical engineering there will be jobs for them. . . .  . . . they will have phenomenal opportunities. In past blogs, as well as in Stop Acting Rich, I have mentioned that engineers in general are quite productive in transforming income into wealth.  Even more productive are professors who teach petroleum engineering, chemical engineering, mining engineering, etc. The second article deals with...

I was delighted to learn of one of my reader's (Mr. RK) transition from being a member of the income statement affluent segment to one in the balance sheet affluent population.  Congratulations! The examples (of income statement types) are endless.  My personal example was similar.  Professionally, I'm an engineer.  I'm really good at math and people pay me to solve problems.  Financially, I sucked.  That's a hard thing to have to admit to yourself, especially with my (high) income and profession where 'I know all the answers.' Most engineers are members of the balance sheet affluent segment.  In Stop Acting Rich, I suggested...

In a recent New York Times article, the topic of  fake artwork was discussed.  Most millionaires [about 92%], however, do not have to worry about owning fake artwork because they don't own art that has any market value.   Art comes under the broad heading of tangible/collectibles.  I once wrote an article about the tangible/collectible myth for American Demographics.  Surprisingly under 6% of the typical millionaire's assets are held in such tangible or collectible forms such as antiques, coin and stamp collections, precious gems or WORKS OF ART. But I wrote this article more than 25 years ago.  Have things changed since then? ...

Debt is like jail- easy to get in, hard to get out.  As an example consider the data recently published by The Federal Reserve: more than 2 million Americans 60 and older own a combined $43 billion in student loan debt the average debt among the 60 and older set is $19,000 115,000 of US seniors [are having their] Social Security garnished to pay old loans Millionaires are different. From the national study of 944 millionaires in Stop Acting Rich, it was determined that only 1 in 9 had a negative net worth at time they graduated from college. People often underestimate how difficult it is to repay student loans.  No...