The Millionaire Mind

The Millionaire Mind
Author Thomas J. Stanley
Country United States
Language English
Genre Finance Book
Published 2000 April 1, 2000 Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC
Media type Hardback
Pages 416
ISBN 978-0-7407-1858-8
OCLC 47920746
Preceded by The Millionaire Next Door
Followed by Millionaire Women Next Door

The Millionaire Mind, published February 1, 2000 by Thomas J. Stanley,[1] draws from the author's research of America's affluent to examine the ideas, beliefs and practices of the segment of the financial elite that use little or no consumer credit. The book debuted at #2 on the New York Time Bestseller list on February 18, 2000 and received press and reviews from Fred Barnes, Katie Couric and Donald Trump.[2]

Summary

Following up the bestseller The Millionaire Next Door, The Millionaire Mind analyzes the common environmental and lifestyle factors that preceded and resulted in this researched segment's ability to accumulate wealth. The book raises the following questions:

What success factors made them wealthy in one generation?
What part did luck and school play?
How do they find the courage to take financial risks?
How did they find their ideal vocations?
What are their spouses like and how did they choose them?
How do they run their households?
How do they buy and sell their homes?
What are their favorite leisure activities?

Dr. Stanley's research on how the average American millionaire attained financial success are based on in-depth surveys and interviews with more than 1,300 millionaires. Personal details from this research are shared in the book include memories from their school days, personal thoughts on being "the smart kid in the dumb row," making difficult financial decisions, selecting a vocation and spending habits.

Criticism

Author, professor and finance consultant, Donald Mitchell criticizes The Millionaire Mind saying, "because of the way the sample was selected, you won't get much variety...[and that a] control group is essentially missing....[3]

Web blogger, Jim Lippard, also criticizes Stanley's work with a similar accusation, stating, "This is a deeply flawed book. It purports to be a description of the characteristics and attitudes that make wealthy people wealthy, but it is based mostly on their self-assessments without comparison to a control group. I suspect that this heavily underplays the role of random chance in success, and attributes causation where there is only correlation. Further, the author displays clear biases on a number of topics, which leads him to engage in ad hoc interpretation of his data, sometimes to argue for conclusions that are contrary to the clear implications of the data—such as his arguments for the importance of religion in the lives of millionaires."[4]

Reviews

Commentary by Tom Butler-Bowdon from the book 50 Success Classics
The Bainvestor
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

Other

Author of Millionaire Mind Thomas J. Stanley official website and blog

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-7407-1858-8
  2. Time line of author's achievements
  3. Mitchell, Donald (February 10, 2001). "A Limp Follow-On to The Millionaire Next Door". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2009-09-09.
  4. Lippard, Jim (July 2, 2006). "Review of The Millionaire Mind". The Lippard Blog. Retrieved 2009-09-09.
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