To boil this book down into its most basic premise is to say: Be more stingy because the millionaires all are. Most people claim to know this, but this book will make you understand it (and maybe even apply it).

The authors provide a wealth of evidence (excuse the pun) on why you need to start saving and stop spending so much. While it might come across as a little preachy sometimes, there are enough interesting case studies and personal anecdotes that will keep you interested.

While the numbers might be a little outdated, this book is more relevant than ever with consumerism as it is today. I would highly recommend this book if you are interested in building your wealth and need a bit of inspiration.
( )

This book is about money, population surveys, statistics and lifestyle inflation. A great read to adjust your view of the differences between wealth vs income.
Unfortunately, the book is also extraordinarily boring. The first two or three chapters were great because you read the author's findings for the first time. However, these are repeated endlessly throughout the book.
I finished this in one day, while skipping the chapters about buying automobiles, giving cash and trust funds to your spoiled children, and the perils of distributing your estate among heirs.
In the final chapter, you can clearly see this book started out as market research for business that serve the affluent, as it discusses "business opportunities for the coming 10 years" (starting in 1996). ( )

It's a good read but not the kind of book that really tells you to do these 3-5 things to give you the best chance to become wealthy. It more drives home the point that a lot of family's the average person sees and views as wealthy really are not and the ones you may not think are can choose to stop working whenever they would like. Basically live beneath your means. The book also had a lot to say about the dangers of the wealthy not instilling good money management skills in there own children. ( )

Executive summary: if you want to be well off when you retire, don't spend so much money. Keeping up with the Joneses is mostly all in your head. Blew my mind ( )

Frugality is the main concept of this book. It was published in 1996, but it still holds some relevancy today.

Takeaways:
1. Minimize your realized (taxable) income and maximize your unrealized/nontaxable income (wealth/capital appreciation). Millionaires realize only about 7% of their total wealth each year. Keeping this # as low as possible ensures the greater chance of accumulating wealth. 2. Strive to pay less than10% in federal income tax according to your income. Billionaire Ross Perot achieves this by investing heavily in tax free municipalities, tax-sheltered real estate, and unrealized stock gains (meaning not liquidated). 3. Once you hit a certain threshold of income (e.g. $200k, $300k), it matters less about how much more you make, but more with what you do with what you already have (also shared in Rich Dad Poor Dad). Income does not necessarily equate to wealth. 4. Majority of the wealthy hold on to their securities for 6+ years. Short-term investors, or traders, are immediately taxed on their unrealized gains and contribute a lot of $ in fees to brokerages. 5. More than 80% of the wealthy purchase their vehicles. They also prefer to buy new vehicles rather than old ones, generally for greater satisfaction and reliability. 6. Most people want to be fit, and they have the knowledge to do so; however they lack the discipline. The same applies with attaining wealth and growing upon it: the habits never change. 7. Gift receivers, in general, have a lower propensity to accumulate wealth than non-gift receivers. 8. Many succeed because they have to succeed. They have no safety net. Have no alternative but to exceed (shared in Think and Grow Rich).

Overall, this book isn't bad, but it isn't great either. It's more of an analysis of affluent individuals who've accumulated wealth strategically over the course of several decades. There are some valuable takeaways, but there also isn't anything mind-breaking that you can't already find scouring the internet. The points are rudimentary and the book is pretty mundane and filled with statistics. ( )