Thomas J. Stanley

One of the reasons that millionaires are economically successful is that they think differently.

Thomas J. Stanley

In many ways, it is not how much one earns annually that counts: It is how one lives each year. It is how much one saves and invests annually that really matters.

Thomas J. Stanley

Wealth is more often the result of a lifestyle of hard work, perseverance, planning, and, most of all, self-discipline.

Thomas J. Stanley

Conversely, those people whom we define as being wealthy get much more pleasure from owning substantial amounts of appreciable assets than from displaying a high-consumption lifestyle.

Thomas J. Stanley

But it is easier to purchase products that denote superiority than to be actually superior in economic achievement. Allocating time and money in the pursuit of looking superior often has a predictable outcome: inferior economic achievement.

Thomas J. Stanley

1. They live well below their means. 2. They allocate their time, energy, and money efficiently, in ways conducive to building wealth. 3. They believe that financial independence is more important than displaying high social status. 4. Their parents did not provide economic outpatient care. 5. Their adult children are economically self-sufficient. 6. They are proficient in targeting market opportunities. 7. They chose the right occupation.

Thomas J. Stanley

Interestingly, self-employed people make up less than 20 percent of the workers in America but account for two-thirds of the millionaires.

Thomas J. Stanley

To build wealth, minimize your realized (taxable) income and maximize your unrealized income (wealth/capital appreciation without a cash flow).

Thomas J. Stanley

It’s easier to accumulate wealth if you don’t live in a high-status neighborhood.

Thomas J. Stanley

Be tough … life is. In other words, there is no promise of a rose garden.

Thomas J. Stanley

Ownership of a business is the base upon which most people become independent.

Thomas J. Stanley

I am not impressed with what people own. But I’m impressed with what they achieve. I’m proud to be a physician. Always strive to be the best in your field…. Don’t chase money. If you are the best in your field, money will find you.

Thomas J. Stanley

Wealth is not income; income is not wealth.

Thomas J. Stanley

If you love what you do, your productivity will be high and your creative intelligence will emerge.

Thomas J. Stanley

Financially independent people are happier than those in their same income/age cohort who are not financially secure.

Thomas J. Stanley

Happiness in life has little to do with what you wear, drive, eat, or drink. The people with the greatest satisfaction are those who live below their means.

Thomas J. Stanley

Note also that 12 percent of INC. magazine’s top five hundred business entrepreneurs are first-generation American.

Thomas J. Stanley

You have a much better chance of becoming wealthy if you do not try to emulate the consumption habits of those with high occupational status.

Thomas J. Stanley

Who becomes wealthy? Usually the wealthy individual is a businessman who has lived in the same town for all of his adult life. This person owns a small factory, a chain of stores, or a service company. He has married once and remains married. He lives next door to people with a fraction of his wealth. He is a compulsive saver and investor. And he has made his money on his own. Eighty percent of America’s millionaires are first-generation rich.

Thomas J. Stanley

Multiply your age times your realized pretax annual household income from all sources except inheritances. Divide by ten. This, less any inherited wealth, is what your net worth should be.

Thomas J. Stanley

Overspending in anticipation of future financial wealth will not make anyone rich.

Thomas J. Stanley

Be less concerned with the prestige that may come with owning something,

Thomas J. Stanley

Who are those who are happy? Typically they are those who spend below their means while building wealth and ultimately becoming financially secure.

Thomas J. Stanley

Money should never change one’s values…. Making money is only a report card. It’s a way to tell how you’re doing.

Thomas J. Stanley

Interestingly, the millionaires I interviewed in Oklahoma and Texas, for example, had the same set of traditional American values as those whom I interviewed in New York City and Chicago. The large majority was keenly interested in being financially independent. That’s why they lived below their means.

Thomas J. Stanley

Satisfaction in life is not a function of what you can buy in a store.

Thomas J. Stanley

If you want to become financially independent and stay that way, you should not try to accomplish this goal by emulating the consumption habits of vain celebrities or the high-consumption glittering rich.

Thomas J. Stanley

The advertising industry and Hollywood have done a wonderful job conditioning us to believe that wealth and hyperconsumption go hand in hand.

Thomas J. Stanley

A study conducted by Ryan Howell, an assistant professor of psychology at San Francisco State University, and presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, showed that people are made happier by experiences than by things.

Thomas J. Stanley

Many people who display a high-consumption lifestyle have little or no investments, appreciable assets, income-producing assets, common stocks, bonds, private businesses, oil/gas rights, or timber land.

Thomas J. Stanley

Kids are very smart. They will not follow rules that their parents themselves do not follow. We (my wife and I) were well-disciplined parents…. We lived the rules … we taught by example…. They (the children) learned by example.

Thomas J. Stanley

Many highly successful people have survived significant downgrading by authority figures.

Thomas J. Stanley

Whatever your income, always live below your means.

Thomas J. Stanley

Contrary to popular belief, however, most of the self-made millionaires I have studied have one thing in common: They were able to build wealth precisely because they never lived in a home or neighborhood environment where their domestic overhead made it difficult for them to build wealth. In essence, they ran their households like a productive business. It is not only about how much you make (or generate in sales). More important, it is how much you keep. And the “keep” component begins and ends at your home address.

Thomas J. Stanley

If you’re not yet wealthy but want to be someday, never purchase a home that requires a mortgage that is more than twice your household’s total annual realized income.

Thomas J. Stanley

Good health, longevity, happiness, a loving family, self-reliance, fine friends … if you have five, you’re a rich man.

Thomas J. Stanley

It is far more attainable to become a millionaire through hard work and saving than it is likely to become a celebrity millionaire, win the lottery, or inherit from a mysterious rich aunt.

Thomas J. Stanley

You are much more likely to become wealthy in the future if you enjoy your vocation. The effect of positive energy and emotion that can be directed into one’s career cannot be understated.

Thomas J. Stanley

Great offense and poor defense translate into under accumulation of wealth.

Thomas J. Stanley

The True Measure of Wealth When I use the term “millionaire,” I refer to those with investments of $1 million or more. “Investments” include such items as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, equity shares in private businesses, annuities, net cash value of life insurance, mortgages and credit notes held, gold and other precious metals, certificates of deposit (CDs), T-bills, savings bonds, money market funds, checking accounts, cash, and income-producing real estate. Basically, anything of value that is reasonably liquid.

Thomas J. Stanley

Have you ever noticed those people whom you see jogging day after day? They are the ones who seem not to need to jog.

Thomas J. Stanley

We have become a society that seeks to emulate their consumption lifestyle to the detriment of our financial health. We have been acting rich but we aren’t rich—by any means.

Thomas J. Stanley

Millionaires who may never in their lives have had an annual earned income of $100,000 or more. They invest regularly and wisely. Their entire consumption lifestyle is congruent with the types of home and neighborhoods in which they live.

Thomas J. Stanley

Type Bs tend to marry men who are not likely to produce high incomes. They tend to be less well educated than the women in the Type A category. The parents of Type B housewives often subsidize their daughters’ household income in order to help their daughter’s family maintain a minimum middle-class lifestyle.

Thomas J. Stanley

Most rich people become wealthy and stay that way because they are frugal and are investment-, not consumption-, oriented.

Thomas J. Stanley

You cannot enjoy life if you are addicted to consumption and the use of credit.

Thomas J. Stanley

I’m in control of my own destiny. ? Risk is working for a ruthless employer. ? I can solve any problem. ? The only way to become a CEO is to own the company. ? There are no limits on the amount of income I can make. ? I get stronger and wiser every day by facing risk and adversity.

Thomas J. Stanley

I am a tightwad. That’s one of the main reasons I completed a long questionnaire for a crispy $1 bill. Why else would I spend two or three hours being personally interviewed by these authors? They paid me $100, $200, or $250. Oh, they made me another offer—to donate in my name the money I earned for my interview to my favorite charity. But I told them, “I am my favorite charity”.

Thomas J. Stanley

We live in a time when it has never been easier to act rich than to actually become rich, even with the devastation of the financial crisis.

Thomas J. Stanley

The more dollars adult children receive, the fewer dollars they accumulate, while those who are given fewer dollars accumulate more.

Thomas J. Stanley

Most millionaires do invest in quality stocks, but they don’t intend to make a fortune by doing so. They don’t believe that ups in the stock market, after netting out fees and taxes and downturns, can outpace the returns they get from their own business, or as being a partner in a productive law firm or medical practice. Note that a component of the “one’s own business” domain is “living below my means.” The self-designated wise investors, risk takers, and those who invest in their own businesses have this in common: they are significantly more likely to “live below their means.

Thomas J. Stanley

Explaining their economic success. Among those factors were integrity, discipline, social skills, a supportive spouse, leadership qualities, and having a love for one’s vocation. Among the least important were luck, investing in the stock market, and having high academic achievement.

Thomas J. Stanley

Too many people spend as if money (their earned income) is the most easily renewable resource.

Thomas J. Stanley

The foundation stone of wealth accumulation is defense, and this defense should be anchored by budgeting and planning.

Thomas J. Stanley

The media has convinced people to admire the consumption behavior of high-income-producing celebrities. Young people believe that consumption is good and hyperconsumption for prestige brands is even better. This is straight out of the handbook How to Act Rich instead of Being Rich.

Thomas J. Stanley

We define the threshold level of being wealthy as having a net worth of $1 million or more. Based on this definition, only 3.5 million (3.5 percent) of the 100 million households in America are considered wealthy. About 95 percent of millionaires in America have a net worth of between $1 million and $10 million. Much of the discussion in this book centers on this segment of the population. Why the focus on this group? Because this level of wealth can be attained in one generation. It can be attained by many Americans.

Thomas J. Stanley

More people look richer than they really are, and the really rich often don’t look anything like what we think they should look like.

Thomas J. Stanley

The foundation stone of wealth accumulation is defense, and this defense should be anchored by budgeting and planning.

Thomas J. Stanley

Media, especially TV, controls the values of our young.

Thomas J. Stanley

People tend to associate with others who have similar attitudes, interests and activities, and beliefs.

Thomas J. Stanley

But these self-employed people are four times more likely to be millionaires than those who work for others.

Thomas J. Stanley

We all have bought into the image over substance; looking beautiful is more important than actually being beautiful.

Thomas J. Stanley

The “some college,” “four-year college graduate,” and “no college” types who have high incomes often had a head start on many well-educated workers.

Thomas J. Stanley

The typical American millionaire reported that he (she) never spent more than $399 for a suit of clothing for himself or for anyone else.

Thomas J. Stanley

That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest. [Henry David Thoreau]

Thomas J. Stanley

It costs more but it is worth it?

Thomas J. Stanley

Know first who you are; then adorn yourself accordingly. [Euripides]

Thomas J. Stanley

Even most multimillionaires in America don’t live in expensive homes. I recently tabulated the 2007 IRS estate data (the latest data available) for those decedents with an estate valued at $3.5 million or more. I estimated that the median market value of a decedent’s home was $469,021, or less than 10 percent of their median net worth.

Thomas J. Stanley

The greatest detriment to building wealth is our home/neighborhood environment. If you live in a pricey home and neighborhood, you will act and buy like your neighbors. In other words, human beings have an innate tendency to act and be like those around them—to fit in—and even to compete (in a neighborly way, of course). The type of home we live in and where we choose to live often takes the greatest toll on our financial wealth, and from it, all other perils flow.

Thomas J. Stanley

Do they buy used cars to reduce the “economic pain”? No, they purchase new cars every three years.

Thomas J. Stanley

If you make a good income each year and spend it all, you are not getting wealthier. You are just living high. Wealth is what you accumulate, not what you spend.

Thomas J. Stanley

Me, me, me is dull, dull, dull.

Thomas J. Stanley

On average, millionaires spend significantly more hours per month studying and planning their future investment decisions, as well as managing their current investments, than high-income nonmillionaires.

Thomas J. Stanley

America is often referred to as the land of the free. But most people in this country are not really free. They are tied to debt and a treadmill existence in terms of earning a living.

Thomas J. Stanley

Young people believe that consumption is good and hyperconsumption for prestige brands is even better.

Thomas J. Stanley

It’s much easier in America to earn a lot than it is to accumulate wealth. Why is this the case? Because we are a consumption-oriented society.

Thomas J. Stanley

If you’re not yet wealthy but want to be someday, never purchase a home that requires a mortgage that is more than twice your household’s total annual realized income.

Thomas J. Stanley

They became millionaires by budgeting and controlling expenses, and they maintain their affluent status the same way.

Thomas J. Stanley

In spite of our wealth and income, the typical member of our group has never spent more than $41,000 for an automobile or $4,500 for an engagement ring. Neither our spouses nor we have ever spent more than $38 (including tip) for a haircut. Fully one in four of us has never spent more than $24 for a haircut; $340,000 for a home; $30,900 for a motor vehicle; or $1,500 for an engagement ring. Some of us, about 7 percent of those who are married, did not have to purchase an engagement ring. It was passed down from one of our relatives.

Thomas J. Stanley

Earning to enhance spending should not be one’s ultimate goal.

Thomas J. Stanley

Wealth is rarely gained through the lottery, with a home run, or in quiz show fashion. But these are the rare jackpots that the press sensationalizes.

Thomas J. Stanley

It’s like the fellow who wrote the book on one hundred clever things to say to attractive women. But the guy did not know any good-looking women.

Thomas J. Stanley

Have you ever noticed those people whom you see jogging day after day? They are the ones who seem not to need to jog. But that’s why they are fit. Those who are wealthy work at staying financially fit. But those who are not financially fit do little to change their status.

Thomas J. Stanley

People are made happier by experiences than by things.

Thomas J. Stanley

Eighty percent of America’s millionaires are first-generation rich.

Thomas J. Stanley

You are where you live.

Thomas J. Stanley

For all high-income earners (those earning at least $100,000 annually), the relationship between education and wealth accumulation is negative.

Thomas J. Stanley

Don’t chase money. If you are the best in your field, money will find you.

Thomas J. Stanley