Quotes from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy

258 pages

Rating: (52.5K votes)


“Whatever your income, always live below your means.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“Good health, longevity, happiness, a loving family, self-reliance, fine friends … if you [have] five, you’re a rich man….”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“I am not impressed with what people own. But I’m impressed with what they achieve. I’m proud to be a physician. Always strive to be the best in your field…. Don’t chase money. If you are the best in your field, money will find you.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“Wealth is more often the result of a lifestyle of hard work, perseverance, planning, and, most of all, self-discipline.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“Many people who live in expensive homes and drive luxury cars do not actually have much wealth. Then, we discovered something even odder: Many people who have a great deal of wealth do not even live in upscale neighborhoods.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy



“It’s easier to accumulate wealth if you don’t live in a high-status neighborhood.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“One of the reasons that millionaires are economically successful is that they think differently.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“If you’re not yet wealthy but want to be someday, never purchase a home that requires a mortgage that is more than twice your household’s total annual realized income.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“If your goal is to become financially secure, you’ll likely attain it…. But if your motive is to make money to spend money on the good life,… you’re never gonna make it.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“Money should never change one’s values…. Making money is only a report card. It’s a way to tell how you’re doing.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy



“Great offense and poor defense translate into under accumulation of wealth.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“Be tough … life is. In other words, there is no promise of a rose garden.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“Multiply your age times your realized pretax annual household income from all sources except inheritances. Divide by ten. This, less any inherited wealth, is what your net worth should be.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“The foundation stone of wealth accumulation is defense, and this defense should be anchored by budgeting and planning.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“it matters less how much more you make than what you do with what you already have.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy



“Have you ever noticed those people whom you see jogging day after day? They are the ones who seem not to need to jog. But that’s why they are fit. Those who are wealthy work at staying financially fit. But those who are not financially fit do little to change their status.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“To build wealth, minimize your realized (taxable) income and maximize your unrealized income (wealth/capital appreciation without a cash flow).”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“His view of millionaires is shared by most people who are not wealthy. They think millionaires own expensive clothes, watches, and other status artifacts. We have found this is not the case.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“it is very difficult for a married couple to accumulate wealth if one is a spendthrift. A household divided in its financial orientation is unlikely to accumulate significant wealth.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“How can well-educated, high-income people be so naive about money? Because being a well-educated, high-income earner does not automatically translate into financial independence. It takes planning and sacrificing.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy



“The “some college,” “four-year college graduate,” and “no college” types who have high incomes often had a head start on many well-educated workers.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“Most people will never become wealthy in one generation if they are married to people who are wasteful. A couple cannot accumulate wealth if one of its members is a hyperconsumer.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“Financially independent people are happier than those in their same income/age cohort who are not financially secure.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“Allocating time and money in the pursuit of looking superior often has a predictable outcome: inferior economic achievement. What are three words that profile the affluent? FRUGAL FRUGAL FRUGAL”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“It’s amazing what you can do when you set your mind to it. You’ll be surprised how many sales calls you can make when you have no alternative except to succeed.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy



“Wealth is not the same as income. If you make a good income each year and spend it all, you are not getting wealthier. You are just living high. Wealth is what you accumulate, not what you spend.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“What if he had taken full advantage of the tax-advantaged benefit from the time he was first employed? Today he would be a millionaire. Instead, he is on the perpetual earn-and-consume treadmill.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“If you make a good income each year and spend it all, you are not getting wealthier. You are just living high. Wealth is what you accumulate, not what you spend.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“Victor wants his children to become physicians, lawyers, accountants, executives, and so on. But in so encouraging them, Victor essentially discourages his children from becoming entrepreneurs. He unknowingly encourages them to postpone their entry into the labor market. And, of course, he encourages them to reject his lifestyle of thrift and a self-imposed environment of scarcity.”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy


“our youth are told that buying expensive items is normal behavior for affluent people. They are led to believe that the wealthy have a high-consumption lifestyle. They learn that hyperspending is the main reward for becoming affluent in America. Why”
― quote from The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy



Popular quotes

“Dear ignoramuses,

Halloween is not 'a yankee holiday' celebrated only by gigantic toddlers wearing baseball caps back to front and spraying 'automobiles' with eggs. This is ignorance.

Halloween is an ancient druidic holiday, one the Celtic peoples have celebrated for millennia. It is the crack between the last golden rays of summer and the dark of winter; the delicately balanced tweak of the year before it is given over entirely to the dark; a time for the souls of the departed to squint, to peek and perhaps to travel through the gap. What could be more thrilling and worthy of celebration than that? It is a time to celebrate sweet bounty, as the harvest is brought in. It is a time of excitement and pleasure for children before the dark sets in. We should all celebrate that.

Pinatas on the other hand are heathen monstrosities and have no place in a civilised society.”
― Jenny Colgan, quote from Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop of Dreams


“Perfect! You guys are the same age. I bet you have a lot in common.”
Classic adult logic. Reid and I are vaguely the same age, so of course we’re basically soul mates. It’s like horoscopes. Somehow I’m supposed to believe that I’m similar in some meaningful way to every single person born on my birthday. Or every single Sagittarius. I mean, I barely have anything in common with Cassie, and we were born six minutes apart.”
― Becky Albertalli, quote from The Upside of Unrequited


“Something inside me had dropped away, and nothing came in to fill the cavern.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Norvegų giria


“Love just enough. What's enough? Enough to hold. When it hurts, you're loving too much. Just enough to hold. Anything more than a handful and you're in trouble.”
― Sarah Winman, quote from A Year of Marvellous Ways


“No one speaks for God—not even the prophets (who speak about God).”
― Reza Aslan, quote from No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam


Interesting books

The Black Book
(7.7K)
The Black Book
by Orhan Pamuk
The Iron Butterfly
(9.3K)
The Iron Butterfly
by Chanda Hahn
Beautiful Malice
(6.5K)
Beautiful Malice
by Rebecca James
Pack Challenge
(16.8K)
Alpha
(13.6K)
Alpha
by Rachel Vincent
The Hour of the Star
(10.2K)
The Hour of the Star
by Clarice Lispector

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.