About two-thirds of us who are working are self-employed. About 70 percent of us earn 80 percent or more of our household's income. * I am a fifty-seven-year-old male, married with three children. Who is the prototypical American millionaire? What would he tell you about himself?(*) Guy of the group said, 'Oh, we forgot we were in Texas!' I don't own big hats, but I have a lot of cattle. They looked all over my office, looked at everyone but me. When my British partners first met me, they thought I was one of our truck drivers. His neighbors were postal clerks, firemen, and mechanics.Īfter he substantiated his financial success with actual numbers, this Texan told us: He lived in a modest house in a lower-middle-classĪrea. But he drove a ten-year-old car and wore jeans and a buckskin shirt. He owned a very successful business that rebuilt large diesel engines. We first heard this expression from a thirty-five-year-old Texan. This concept is perhaps best expressed by those wise and wealthy Texans who refer to our trust officer's type as Officer leases, while only a minority of millionaires ever lease their motor vehicles.īut ask the typical American adult this question: Who looks more like a millionaire? Would it be our friend, the trust officer, or one of the people who participated in our interview? We would wager that most people by a wide margin would pick the trust An even smaller minority drive foreign luxury cars. Only a minority drive a foreign motor vehicle. Most millionaires are not driving this year's model.

Our friend also drives a current-model imported luxury car. We know from our surveys that the majority of millionaires never spent even one-tenth of $5,000įor a watch. We have found this is not the case.Īs a matter of fact, our trust officer friend spends significantly more for his suits than the typical American millionaire. They think millionaires own expensive clothes, watches, and other status artifacts.

His view of millionaires is shared by most people who are not He made these comments following a focus group interview and dinner that we hosted for ten first-generation millionaires. The person who said this was a vice president of a trust department. The millionaires who look like millionaires? These people cannot be millionaires! They don't look like millionaires, they don't dress like millionaires, they don't eat like millionaires, they don't act like millionaires-they don't even have millionaire names. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of American's Wealthyīy THOMAS J. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

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The millionaire next door wikipedia