# 273: Money
Story behind the Passage
With a client today, we talked a lot about wealth and money. He had experienced how it is to always chase the money but never really become happy. That, of course, is something that we have all read in books somewhere but many of us do not ever experience it because we never actually have that much money. As I thought more about this, this book that had been sitting on my shelf for so many years came to my mind: The Millionaire Next Door. I think, I never really read the whole thing but the title of the book and its cover simply symbolize the topic of money. I personally have been thinking a lot about money. But I think the issue was even more prominent when I was young — like really young, a kid.
Many people strive to become rich when they are kids, I guess. They want to make it; they want to live the American Dream, and they want to be better off than their parents. Even the person I talked to today showed the same pattern. He wanted to make up for something that other people in the family had messed up and it started driving him. I wonder how much this aim of “making up for something” drives all of us. But maybe there are also people who just have no such reason. But they still chase money a lot because it is natural; because they need to save the financial status of the family or of the social circle they live in.
When I picked up the book just now and read through the introduction again, what struck me was one of the first sentences. It talks about who the rich actually are and what we usually think people look like who are considered “rich.” Here is the passage:
Twenty years ago we began studying how people become wealthy. Initially, we did it just as you might imagine, by surveying people and so-called upscale neighborhood across the country. In time, we discovered something odd. 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.
That small insight changed our lives. It led one of us, Tom Stanley, out of an academic career, inspired him to write three books on marketing to the affluent in America, and made him an advisor to corporations to provide products and services to the affluent. …
Why are so many people interested in what we have to say? Because we have discovered who the wealthy really are and who they are not. And, most important, we have determined how ordinary people can become wealthy.
As a writer, I read this as a perfect kick-off for a book. Of course, everybody would love to learn how ordinary people can become rich. But what really struck me on this page is this organic interest that grew out of this mission or purpose to really learn who the rich actually are and how they get there. That is not the only thing that really struck me, however. As I read the passage above it really rang a bell because I noticed that I actually know so many people who are just the way that the authors describe it.
My Learnings
“Usually the wealthy individual is a businessman who has lived in the same town for all of his adult life.” This sentence struck me so much because it immediately became clear to me that it is true. I know some guys who are just like that and they are very well off. Maybe they are not millionaires or billionaires but they are very wealthy. In addition, they are just the way that the authors describe rich people. You would never ever guess that they are rich! You only know that if you know them quite well. The closer you know how they live, the more you know about what they enjoy. The most important thing that they spend their money on is: maximizing the value of their life time. And that does not mean quantitative value. It is not things that they spend most money on, it is events and experiences.
Is it not so funny that you often think of rich people as jetsetters, people living in so many places at the same time? Yes, they might be living in several places at the same time but what the sentence is actually saying is that they have one home in one city and that the city very often is the city that they were even born in or at least grew up in, the city where their family still lives and where their roots are. In short, it sounds like a really, really boring person we are talking about.
But you know what — I think that is the secret behind all wealth. The secret is that you have found your roots and these roots enable you to make clear and ultimately good decisions. These are the decisions that make you wealthy because you are focused and determined. This is another thing that I know about people who are truly wealthy in my surroundings. Yes, they live well below their means exactly because that is their decision; because everything you buy you have to worry about, and worries are not what makes you happy; worries or not the things that make you wealthy either.
“Affluent people typically follow a lifestyle conducive to accumulating money.” There is not much more to add to this. Lifestyle determines how happy you are and ultimately how wealthy you are. This applies to anybody, not just the rich. But I think the rich have figured out a pattern that they stick to — rigorously. They do not alternate, they do not switch, they do not reinvent the wheel. They make a decision what to focus on and then they adhere to it just like any successful entrepreneur. It is therefore little surprise that small-business entrepreneurs are amongst the wealthiest. The most important thing is that they have done this themselves. They were not born into the world of the rich and supposedly beautiful. They built up all the wealth themselves. That is the most important thing that makes you proud of your own achievements; of the hard work that it took. And this makes you humble.
Being humble and wealthy go along well together.
Reflection Questions
1) Which people do you personally know who are really wealthy? Do the criteria apply to them?
2) What characterizes “rich people” according to you?
3) If you were “rich” — what kind of lifestyle would you prefer?