Glen W. Bell, Jr., the founder of the Taco Bell restaurant chain, recently passed away (see The New York Times). After taking Taco Bell public, Mr. Bell sold it to Pepsico for $125 million. At that time, the chain had 868 restaurants. Today there are more than 5,000 Taco Bell stores operating worldwide. All toll …
In a recent article from Vanguard reviewing my latest book, Stop Acting Rich, the author referred to the story about “a restaurant with bugzappers.” This topic generated a lot of comments. Here are the details from the book. After I interviewed an entrepreneur from Texas with a net worth in the mid eight figures, he told …
Among the millionaire types profiled in Part I, what are some of the occupational groups that tend to have higher wealth indices than the norm? Some of these include: self-employed business owners (non-retail); executives of privately held corporations (see: The Millionaire Next Door); educators (and those married to an educator, see Stop Acting Rich, pp. …
Recently, Dave Ramsey magnanimously invited me to be a guest on his show. During the interview, Dave asked me about the changes I had noticed among Americans since the recent economic meltdown. One of the changes I mentioned was the precipitous decline in the number of people who advised me that “$1 million (in net worth) – …
A producer from ABC’s 20/20 news magazine television show once asked if I could identify neighborhoods where the millionaire next door types live. After checking my database, I pinpointed several neighborhoods where these people resided. The resulting televised program certainly raised eyebrows. Most of the homes depicted were in the $200,000 to under $400,000 price range. …
Why did I write The Millionaire Mind? Because many of those who read The Millionaire Next Door felt that the “frugal” millionaires profiled there were too monk-like! I refer to the millionaires in The Millionaire Mind as 27-percenters, i.e. only 27 percent of those people who live in homes valued at $1 million or more are …
When I was a boy, we lived in a small apartment in a blue-collar section of the Bronx. Just a quarter mile away was the wealthiest neighborhood in New York City, a residential community called Fieldston, aka Mansionville! I was nine years old. I told my eleven-year-old sister, “I’m disgusted with the marginal propensity of …
People often ask me why I write books. I get a great deal of satisfaction explaining how millionaires become wealthy in one generation. But also, I have given more than 3,000 lectures. You cannot inventory these lectures. To earn a living as a lecturer, you have to keep lecturing! But with a book, once it …
Monumental changes are taking place in the economic environment, especially among the affluent in America. But don’t worry about the millionaire next door types. Their population continues to grow. However, I do feel the need to disseminate my ideas about the implications of these changes in a more timely manner. It requires two to three …
How did I first get involved with conducting focus groups of millionaires? It first happened when I headed up the National Affluent Study for a consortium of the top 50 financial institutions in America. As part of the study a series of focus groups were to be conducted across America. There was only one problem. …