Nearly four-fifths of them had made their money mainly through investing in employer-sponsored retirement plans. The three most common careers among them were engineer, accountant, and teacher. However, like Stanley and Danko, Hogan’s team found that most millionaires worked in ordinary, even boring jobs. Only 31% of them averaged more than $100,000 in household income per year, and only 7% had averaged more than $200,000 over their careers. Only about 11% had a net worth over $5 million, while the rest had between $1 million and $5 million. The millionaires Hogan and his team interviewed weren’t quite as well off as the MNDs. Nearly half said their families were middle-class, and over 30% described them as lower-middle or lower-class. Only 21% of them had grown up in upper-class or upper-middle class homes. Only 21% of the millionaires they spoke to had ever inherited any money, and only 16% had inherited $100,000 or more. Hogan’s team also found that most millionaires are self-made. The group included “welding contractors, auctioneers, rice farmers, owners of mobile-home parks, pest controllers, coin and stamp dealers, and paving contractors.” The authors noted that many of them worked in businesses most people would label as prosaic or even dull. Most of them worked between 45 and 55 hours per week. Their median income was $131,000 (about $228,000 today), and about two-thirds of them earned that money working for themselves. Typically, they were the first generation in their family to be wealthy and had not inherited anything from their parents. The millionaires next door (MNDs) whom Stanley and Danko talked to had an average net worth of $3.7 million (about $6.4 million in today’s dollars), and most of their fortunes were self-made. And like Stanley and Danko before him, he found several interesting - and often surprising - things these folks tended to have in common. With a team of researchers, he interviewed over 10,000 American millionaires. Twenty years later, Hogan decided to see whether Stanley’s and Danko’s findings still held true in the 21st-century economy. After surveying more than 11,000 millionaires and personally interviewing over 500, they found the average millionaire looked quite different from most people’s idea of one. So they started seeking out people with high net worth.
When Stanley and Danko set out to study the wealthy, they started by looking in upscale neighborhoods, only to discover that most people in those areas weren’t really rich. Danko, written in 1996 and updated in 2010, and “ Everyday Millionaires,” written by Chris Hogan in 2019. A more accurate picture of their lives appears in the books “ The Millionaire Next Door” by Thomas J. This is the opposite of how the invisible rich live. For $79 (or just $1.52 per week), join more than 1 million members and don't miss their upcoming stock picks. Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendations have an average return of 618%.
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When people think about what it means to be rich, they often picture scenes out of the 1980s TV series “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” and successors like MTV’s “Cribs.” These shows toured the fabulous homes of the glitterati, dwelling lovingly on luxurious features such as massive swimming pools, fleets of cars, private jets, and gold-plated bathroom fixtures. If you aspire to become a millionaire, learning how these real millionaires live could be the key. These people belong to the “invisible rich.” They have plenty of money, but they don’t splash it around - which is one reason they have so much. A real millionaire is much more likely to be the old guy in line behind you at the supermarket with a fistful of coupons, or the neighbor who’s always out in her garden pulling weeds in her torn dungarees.
The people in these pictures could be real millionaires, but they could also be living the high life on credit. What do you see? A man in a custom-made suit behind the wheel of a luxury car, smoking an expensive cigar? Or maybe a woman dressed from head to toe in designer clothes, sitting in a cafe sipping a cappuccino while surrounded by shopping bags from high-end stores? Close your eyes and picture a millionaire.