For my birthday, one of the gifts my girlfriend got me was a book called The Millionaire Next Door. I asked for this book because I’ve heard so many good things about it, not to mention it’s been a New York Times best seller for years. I’m only about 2 chapters through it but already I have learned some amazing statistics about the make up and habits of todays American millionaires.

The book isn’t a tell-all book on how to get rich quick. It’s not a biography of celebrity millionaires. From what I’ve read so far, the stories are about self-made first generation millionaires…your mechanic shop owners, manufactured homes dealers, and other small business owners. It talks about the people you see on the street that you think are blue collar, but are actually worth $5 million. The book talks about people who are really wealthy, not the high income/high spenders that the media portrays as wealthy.

Just because someone makes $200,000 a year doesn’t make them wealthy. You have to know how to invest your money and put it to good use. If you make $200,000 a year as a lawyer, but have a high lifestyle ($80,000 Mercedes, $10,000 watch, $5,000 suits and so on) you make look like you’re extremely wealthy, but in reality when you’re spending $180,000 of that $200,000, you’re actually not worth that much.

The book just puts into perspective about who the true millionaires are. It’s not saying that professional athletes aren’t millionaires, it’s just saying that based on their age and annual income, they are not wealthy.

I can’t really get into much of the book because I’m only about 40 pages deep. I just have it finished in a week or so, and then I will give it a full review. If you want to read more, just check out the Amazon reviews provided in the link above.