http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/SavingandDebt/P80541.asp
interesting more stuff----
Time is money. Never was that more true than during the Internet boom, when billion-dollar fortunes were created virtually overnight and stocks tripled in a day. Who had time to waste building a fortune the old-fashioned way, over several decades?
Today, the Internet gold rush has gone bust. But the public is still hooked on this idea: You, too, can be an instant millionaire -- or at least, marry one.
Our obsession with millionaires (or wanting to be one) doesn't always jibe with reality. Want to think like a millionaire? Come back down to earth and forget about instant riches. A study of more than 1,000 millionaires yields some surprising conclusions. They aren't jet-setters flying here and there, and they aren't the fashion models shown on television. They didn't make their money overnight -- or during market hours.
Yet that is what many of us have come to expect. Becoming a millionaire on television is not a new idea. But when John Beresford Tipton sent Michael Anthony out to deliver that million-dollar check (in the 1950s show, "The Millionaire"), it was considered a true oddity and a life-changing event. And marrying a millionaire isn't a new concept, either, in spite of the fact that the women's movement thought it had passed beyond that dependency. It's only the "instant" part of this age-old tradition that has changed the game.
When the hare beats the tortoise
If television is the mirror of our society, then it surely has caught the mood of the times. Faster than even the Federal Reserve can create new "money" through its control of the nation's banking reserves, game-show contestants get rich in between commercials. The hare beats the tortoise every time, and there is no long run in this race.
So who needs to attend to the age-old principles of building wealth? Why bother spending less than you earn -- and invest the difference -- to create wealth? Many people wonder: "Why place a premium on traditional values?" Whether in business or personal life, values and valuations have been turned upside down.
Since tech stocks fell through the floor, hardly anyone expects to get rich overnight on high-flying stocks. Even the TV bride who married the millionaire quickly learned that appearances can deceive.
No longer do college students expect to become instant millionaires by starting dot-com companies, akin to high school students dreaming of becoming NBA all-stars. Sure, a very few with great talent will make it to the top, but the rest will have to rely on other skills to take them through life.
Motivated by business, not by wealth
And if you ask those who've already become millionaires what their lives are like, you might be surprised. I highly recommend the new book, "The Millionaire Mind," by Dr. Thomas J. Stanley, author of the best seller "The Millionaire Next Door." He surveyed nearly 1,000 of the nation's millionaires, and what he found may surprise you. First, he sorted out those who were "balance-sheet" millionaires and those who simply lived an affluent lifestyle while burdened with debt. Balance-sheet millionaires tended to own their homes without a mortgage, while those who merely lived a wealthy lifestyle carried jumbo loans. Millionaires with assets between $2 million and $5 million live, on average, in homes that are valued at $355,000 (based on the Internal Revenue Service database figures).
The millionaires in his survey tend to have started businesses, and have built their wealth by finding a profitable niche. They tend to love what they do and are motivated by building the business, not by building wealth.
They live comfortable lifestyles, but are not wasteful. In a fascinating example, most of the millionaires in the survey report they buy expensive shoes, but almost all have them resoled. For the most part, they remain married to supportive and responsible spouses who run economically productive households -- from clipping coupons to buying household supplies in bulk. Bottom line: They spend less than they earn.
When it comes to investments, these millionaires look to the stock market primarily as a place to grow capital once their businesses have matured. They are not speculators in the markets, rarely visit a casino and almost never buy lottery tickets. Of course, you might figure that they don't need to speculate, since they're already wealthy. But perhaps these stable qualities are the reason they got wealthy in the first place.
Two common characteristics
There's one other surprising component of this survey. Most of these millionaires were not at the tops of their classes in school, nor did they score the highest on their SATs. To the contrary, many were only average students, or had been told by their teachers that they'd never succeed. As a result, they developed a determination and resilience that helped them in business, and they learned to compensate for lack of academic skill by learning leadership through other means, such as through sports.
The two characteristics that all the self-made millionaires have in common: They think differently from the crowd, and they have a strong belief in themselves.
Now, it could be argued that all the millionaires in Stanley's survey were "old" millionaires -- at least, that they made their millions in the Old Economy. That's how they showed up on the databases of the IRS and Census Bureau, which were the sources for finding his subjects.
But do you really believe the basic rules of creating -- and keeping -- wealth have changed just because technology is changing the way we communicate, shop and plan? That's quite a leap.
Yes, you might be one of the very few techno-geniuses who create a new technology that is appreciated by the market. And you might either be employed by or invest in one of those new companies. But in the long run, the attributes of "The Millionaire Mind" seem universally useful in coming out ahead in the long run. And, after all, that's how you really keep score -- over the long run.
. He's such a big talker, someone needs to ask him how "daddy's business" is doing.
