Who would you rather be? A 'hunter-gatherer' or a 'cultivator of wealth'?
Written: Sep 08 '06 (Updated Sep 08 '06)
Product Rating:
Pros: highly inspiring, copious research, essential reading for anyone who yearns for financial independence
Cons: none
The Bottom Line: Profile of self-made women millionaires, their lifestyle and backgrounds, with emphasis on widely-varying paths to fortune, common elements and basic wealth-building concepts that every reader should take to heart.
jc_hall's Full Review: Thomas J. Stanley - Millionaire Women Next Door: T...
Dr Thomas J. Stanley, PhD, has been studying millionaires for three decades and is the author of The Millionaire Next Door, a book that debunked widely-held misconceptions about the lifestyle of the immensely wealthy. In Millionaire Women Next Door, Dr Stanley turned to a hitherto unexamined group of very successful women, specifically female self-made millionaires who not only did not inherit any of their fortune, but often came from very modest backgrounds.
By collecting and studying data from a national survey of profitable female self-employed business owners, analysing in-depth case-studies of and essays written by economically successful women, and utilising secondary data sources such as the Internal Revenue Service and the US Census Bureau, Dr Stanley was able to obtain information as wide-ranging as net worth, backgrounds, paths to fortune, charitable nature, habits, values and lifestyle.
A good percentage of the women millionaires Dr Stanley profiled are self-employed business owners, and the first sections of the book deal with these women, some of whom had very supportive and encouraging parents, and a smaller percentage who did not. The former group he termed Alpha women and the latter Beta women. What I enjoyed reading most in this book are the much-prized lessons taught by the Alpha parents to their young daughters, with emphasis on empathy for others, as well as responsibility, initiative and leadership. Even more inspiring are the struggles of the Beta women who transcend their upbringing by neglectful and sometimes abusive parents to become as successful as their Alpha counterparts. Not one of these Beta women were bitter, and all give significantly to charity, just like the Alpha women.
A smaller percentage of millionaire women profiled were not self-employed small business owners, and Dr Stanley acknowledges that not everyone is suited to owning their own business. The section on ‘Part-Time Work, Full Time Satisfaction’ profiles those who make use of real-estate (both commercial and residential) to rise from a ‘Hunter-Gatherer’ (someone who works day to day for an income) to a ‘Cultivator of Wealth’. Obviously, the latter status is one to aspire to, though most of us belong to the former, in that losing our job would mean loss of the all-important paycheck which happens to be our sole means of livelihood. How many of us know people who live from paycheck to paycheck? Is that any way to live?
“Most Americans are not free. They are chained to their paycheck…The women profiled herein will not tolerate such an existence. They are a different breed. They are free. They are cultivators of wealth and satisfied with life. They are in control of their own destiny.”
All these women are ‘Balance Sheet Affluent’ as opposed to being ‘Income Statement Affluent’. This is Dr Stanley’s way of telling you that, by and large, they do not earn tens of thousands of dollars a year. People who do (highly-paid professionals, CEOs, etc) tend to work long hours and spend as much (if not more) than they earn, and flaunt their wealth in heavily-mortgaged million-dollar homes, high-end luxury cars and exotic vacations. Whereas the millionaire women profiled here live in middle-class neighbourhoods where the trappings of wealth are nowhere near as important as their families, friends, and active volunteer work in their community. Indeed, most despise overt display of wealth, live modestly, and yes, in many cases, frugally.
But what’s the point in becoming a millionaire if you can’t enjoy spending the money, I hear some of you cry? Well, the rest of you will agree that financial independence is not about the money, it’s about the freedom. What prices the knowledge that you have enough to see you comfortably through retirement, that not only will you not be a burden to your loved ones, but could actually help your children out with their first home or your grandchildren with their education? There is no price to financial and emotional security, none at all to self-esteem and pride in being wise enough to save and invest when you could have instead splurged and gained short-lived pleasure by hyper-consuming.
So you say you’re not suited to owning your own business. And your finances are in no state to allow you to dabble in real estate. Hold on a minute. Dr Stanley is not about to give up on you yet. There is a section on ‘Alternate Routes…’ which profiles a highly successful (and equally charitable) car sales professional, professors who had modest earnings but who lived frugally, saved and invested wisely, as well as housewives who do not work outside the home but took control of the family finances and surpassed all expectations (especially their husbands’) by accruing a substantial fortune by investing their husbands’ earnings.
Fact is, it’s easy to be in denial where our own personal finances are concerned. But is it wise? Wives should read the section about leaving finances in the hands of husbands and sons should read the section about taking care of the family business that’s promised to him, until it’s sold from under him, that is. There’s truly no-one better to trust and depend on other than yourself.
Millionaire Women Next Door is much more than a profile of successful business women. It’s not a slick, promise-the-impossible, how-to book. It’s a highly personal look at the philosophy of economically successful women who refused to toil in a world of hunters and gatherers, and elected instead to become cultivators of wealth, and at the same time give back to the people who have nurtured them, people less fortunate than themselves, and their communities. It offers wide-ranging advice on the right attitude to have on your path to success, invaluable lessons to teach your children, and even what businesses to avoid if you’re thinking of starting one (the profitability of small businesses is tabulated among the appendices). Most of all, it’s an inspiring and motivational read that will have you rethinking your future in practical, financial terms. A must-read for anyone who yearns for financial independence. And isn’t that everyone?
The author of the bestselling The Millionaire Next Door now explores the meaning of wealth and the avenues that female entrepreneurs have traveled--ex...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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