How to become millionaire with money

In the New York Times Best-Selling book ‘The Millionaire Next Door’, Thomas J. Stanley interviewed 300 self-made American millionaires to fi nd out how they think, how they earn their money and how they spend their wealth. What he discovered was a shocking revelation that made his book an instant best-seller. It was discovered that many people who had high paying jobs, drove the latest luxury cars and wore the latest designer clothes and who appeared to be have millions to spend, were usually broke with a low personal net worth. Most of these professionals and senior executives of multi-national companies were what he termed ‘Under Accumulators of Wealth (UAW)’. In contrast, those who were actual millionaires (that is those with a net worth of over US$1 million) lived very frugally and well below their means. Eighty-percent of them were born poor or from middle class families. They wore inexpensive suits and never bought a watch that cost more than S$500. Most of them drove secondhand cars, never bought the latest models of vehicles and they usually invested a minimum of 20% of their income in the stock market or private businesses. He termed these people ‘Prodigious Accumulators of Wealth (PAW)’. I must admit that when I was much younger, I too had the same distorted beliefs about how real millionaires lived. When I was a kid, I used to admire and envy people who drove the latest Porsche Boxsters and who lived in Penthouses and lived lavish lifestyles. My millionaire Dad (who never bought a brand new car in his life until he turned 50), used to tell me that these people were in reality quite broke and it was really the bank who owned their houses and their fl eet of cars. He said that they were one paycheck away from going broke. I never really understood what he meant until much later on in my life.