Guzzo the Contrarian

Have you read The Millionaire Next Door, The Millionaire Mind, or The Richest Man in Babylon yet? If you have, then you’ll know that most millionaires aren’t very different from the rest of us. They just have a focused mindset about what it takes to become wealthy, and are extremely persistent in achieving their goals.

So, I thought I would mention an interesting article that I read today at SmartMoney.com about the mindset of most millionaires that highlights exactly what I mean. Daren Fonda describes a few key aspects in his post, “10 Things Millionaires Won’t Tell You“, that I’d like to share.

1. Millionaires are good savers:

Don Crane, a small-business owner in Santa Rosa, Calif., certainly sees the value of everyday saving. “We can afford just about anything,” he says, adding that his net worth is over $1 million. But he and his wife both grew up on farms in the Midwest — where nothing was wasted — and his wife clips coupons to this day. In fact, most millionaires come from middle-class households, and roughly 70 percent have been wealthy for less than 15 years, according to the AmEx/Harrison survey.

2. Millionaires are frugal:

They may not buy the 99-cent paper towels, but millionaires know what it is to be frugal. About 80 percent say they spend with a middle-class mind-set, according to a 2007 survey of high-net-worth individuals, published by American Express and the Harrison Group. That means buying luxury items on sale, hunting for bargains — even clipping coupons.

3. Millionaires avoid unnecessary debt:

Regardless of how they built their nest egg, virtually all millionaires “make judicious use of debt,” says Russ Alan Prince, coauthor of “The Middle-Class Millionaire“. They’ll take out loans to build their business, avoid high-interest credit card debt and leverage their home equity to finance purchases if their cash flow doesn’t cut it.

Of course there are other aspects, like entrepreneurship, but these three key qualities are represented in almost every book written about the millionaire mindset. So, everytime I get to thinking about that big screen flat T.V. calling out my name, I just ask myself “Do I really need it?”