Stop Acting Rich: . . . And Start Living Like a Real Millionaire

Preface

Thirty years ago, I first defined the blue collar affluent, aka the millionaire next door, in a speech and paper that I delivered on behalf of the New York Stock Exchange. This began a lifetime journey of identifying and profiling the myths and realities of the rich.

I discovered that not all millionaires have high social status. In fact, those who are among the least productive in transforming their incomes into wealth are in the higher-status occupations. In a 1980 national study of multimillionaires, I found that half of the millionaires in America do not live in upscale neighborhoods. In 1988, I wrote my first book, Marketing to the Affluent, which essentially discussed how to market to the "millionaire next door." After reading it, one of my colleagues at Georgia State University, Dr. David Schwartz, author of the perennial mega-bestseller The Magic of Thinking Big, suggested that I broaden my work to appeal to a much larger general audience. I followed Dave's advice and wrote The Millionaire Next Door (1996), which answered the question: Who is the typical millionaire in America? This bestselling book exploded many common myths about the wealthy in America, revealing that their low-profile and frugal lifestyle were pervasive among this group.

After the success of The Millionaire Next Door, I continued my research with The Millionaire Mind (2000). In this book, I revealed the factors that millionaires, who had three times the wealth as those in The Millionaire Next Door ...