Book #10: The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko

I've seen this book on bookshelves forever, and always thought it looked really boring. I'd never had any idea what it was about, but kind of put it in the same class as Seven Habits of Highly Effective People--something that only business people read. (And yes, Seven Habits is actually on my bookshelf of things to read right now.) But someone recommended it while we were in Provo at the same time as Get a Financial Life, so I checked it out from the library. I secretly love reading non-fiction/advice books like this because I feel like they're such easy reads that I don't have to invest much emotion or time into, although I'm sure I don't get as much out of them as I could.

Anyways, I did really enjoy this book. Since I somewhat understand how surveys and research work after my brief introduction to scholarship, I found all the data they found very interesting. Obviously, they've got their thesis/theme they're trying to emphasize throughout the book, so I felt like they were sometimes unfairly emphasizing some of their data at the expense of other responses. But I have to say I wasn't SUPER surprised by all of their conclusions about how "real" millionaires make money and consume--because it seems like the most logical way to live anyways.

Reading this book makes me wonder if my parents are closet millionaires, because they fit all of the elements: they buy used cars, they live very frugally, we (their children) never knew how much money we had (and still don't), they don't give us any substantial economic support now that we're married. Since this was the way I was raised, I've always assumed I'll continue to live that way once Tommy and I have an income. Now that we are just living off of grad student stipends, we haven't stressed too much about budgeting (beyond not spending above our immediate means), saving, or investing, and we are obviously living very frugally. But this book just provided one more motivation to live this way once we have some money--because we'll eventually be MILLIONAIRES!