Reddit reviews The Millionaire Mind

Being a millionaire isn't. Most people who are extraordinarily wealthy typically have average to slightly above average intellect. A large swath don't even complete college. This book does a pretty good job of exploring the idea. Here is another relatable article.

The Millionaire Mind is a book based on such a study you describe:

The Millionaire Mind targets a population of millionaires who have accumulated substantial wealth and live in ways that openly demonstrate their affluence. Exploring the ideas, beliefs, and behaviors that enabled these millionaires to build and maintain their fortunes, Dr. Stanley provides a fascinating look at who America's financial elite are and how they got there.

The Millionaire Mind https://www.amazon.com/dp/0740718584/ref=cm_sw_r_wa_apa_i_BY2LDbJYPQRD8

I reccomend reading a book like "The Millionaire Mind" and "Dare to Lead: Uncommon Sense and Unconventional Wisdom from 50 Top CEOs." Not everyone plays dirty to win though difficult decisions do arise in any long-running, large business. I really came to enjoy "The Millionaire Mind" because it valued thrifty living and being honest and personable rather than cutthroat, cutting corners, and playing fast and loose.

1. Habit and The Millionaire Mind are extremely good reads
   
   
2. I'm fond of indian sitting
   
3. Linkin Park and Eminem
   
4. Very much
   
5. I do take it into consideration
   
6. I manage my own investments
   
7. Be fluent enough in business Mandarin

You're going to need about 2 million saved/invested if you don't want to eat your seed corn (so to speak) and make that money last another 40 plus years.

You can invest directly with Vanguard, Schwab or Fidelity and avoid the sleazy bankers.

Are you in the military and have a TSP? It is a very good program. If you are working for a private contractor do they have a 401K and you should be investing in a Roth IRA.

I would recommend Four books to get you started:

• Common Sense on Mutual Funds by John Bogle.
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Common-Sense-Mutual-Funds-Imperatives/dp/0471392286/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1498405283&sr=1-3&keywords=Common+sense+on+Mutual+funds
  
  
  
• The Boglehead's Guide To Investing
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Investing-Taylor-Larimore/dp/0470067365
  
  
• The Millionaire Next Door and the Millionaire Mind.
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1498405326&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Millionaire++next+door
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Mind-Thomas-J-Stanley/dp/0740718584/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0740718584&pd_rd_r=ZAD0ZV4E79MXHZDZTE2B&pd_rd_w=SlHQm&pd_rd_wg=h8174&psc=1&refRID=ZAD0ZV4E79MXHZDZTE2B

Exactly. But the sediment prevalent in many of the comments, and in society in general, is that you need to have "x" to be successful. And that "x" is unattainable so you shouldn't bother to try. I disagree. The vast majority millionaires are first generation rich. J. Stanley covers this in a number of his books. And his blog.

The studies in his books are far more in depth but his blog post sums it up best. "Yes you do have a greater chance of becoming a millionaire if you attend the top rated school in America. But the majority of the most economically productive people in America did not attend an elite college of university. Success is more about how you focus your mind upon opportunities and less about your absolute level of analytic intellect. "

Anyone wondering about wealth:

Read The Millionaire Mind

Read Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Read The Millionaire Next Door

These books highlight the differences in how people talk to their children about wealth.

>I really don't buy that one's wealth can indicate so much about an individual's character.

It very well may be that it's not necessarily "wealth" that indicates these tendencies, but rather these tendencies seem to correlate with a higher likelihood of attaining that higher level of wealth at some point. From the research that I've seen, these tendencies are present in the majority of the test sample.

>I have a feeling that socioeconomic status of your family is much more important than whether or not they are 'excessively educated".

It could. I think the level of education point was meant to demonstrate either:

• Concordant with their tendencies towards entrepreneurship and working more hours, they value entering the market as soon as possible at the expense of further education, and seem to view a bachelor's degree as the minimum bar to clear before "getting to work."
  
  
• Concordant with their tendencies towards frugality and heavier emphasis on financial planning, they generally view continued education beyond the minimum as a poor return on investment.
  
  It's not really clear, unfortunately. The research on this topic is not particularly deep or ubiquitous, and is primarily reliant on what's effectively a census -- it's not as a result of controlled experiments or peer-reviewed psychology materials. It's demographics, polling, and interviews, which can establish trends and correlations but not the full explanation of the "why" behind it.
  
  Additionally, these tendencies are simple majority percentages, and while some show very clear trends (hours worked, age, level of education, starting economic class, etc) in the form of very high percentages, others are in the 55-60% range, which is not always indicative of a trend and could be in the margin of error for any conclusions that might be drawn.
  
  >Have a source for all those stats?
  
  There's a few. To be fair most of this is recalling my notes from a freelance article I did 6-7 years ago on the traits of millionaires. I used these two books and an aggregate of data I found on Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and a few others. As I stated earlier in my post, the data and the methods behind it appear to be sound, but they don't provide the amount of depth that I'd prefer.
  
  >The rate of millionaires who are 3 generations of less removed from an immigrant has no bearing on how likely everyone else is to become one, unless you are assuming there is a fixed amount of millionaires in the U.S. or those are two separate statistics.
  
  I may have misrepresented that one, or at least worded it poorly. The research showed that people whose grandparents or parents were immigrants to US achieved millionaire status at a higher rate than those who came from families that have been present in the US for longer than 3 generations.
  
  Overall, even if the research isn't perfect, it still seems to clearly demonstrate to me that the incentives behind work are far more complex than what OP posited.

probably not exactly what you're looking for, but http://www.amazon.com/The-Millionaire-Mind-Thomas-Stanley/dp/0740718584

I struggled personally with this question for about 5 years. I used to work for a huge tech company, with good pay and great benefits. Before getting the job there, I went to a college which had a partnership with this company. The company provided money to school, and school provided a steady supply of well trained workers. We had "ambassadors" come down from the company to sell us on how awesome it was to work there. My college friends and I looked at getting a job there as like winning the lottery ( we were from poor working class communities ). This was how life was supposed to work, go to college, get a good stable job at a big company with great benefits. Profit and happiness. This company prided itself on innovation and challenging the status quo which is exactly what I wanted.

After three months there, it became very apparent that this was not what it was all cracked up to be. I was overpaid and underutilized. I spent most of my time performing mundane tasks that require little or no thought, except for strict adherence to procedure. This shook my world view to the core. I had done what society said was the path to success, and was miserable. So I began researching and soul searching to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, and how I wanted to live it. Time and time again I encountered advice that said follow your passion. It seemed to be everywhere I looked, and I'd like to share some of the major things that inspired me to do just that:

An interview with Demetri Martin: At around the 10 minute mark he talks about his choice to leave law school and become a comic. The big quote for me was, "Ok...when I wake up in the morning, what activities would I look forward to doing...what, physically, could I spend my time on, that I get excited about...[and] how can I get money for that." That seemed like a pretty good formula for happiness.

Several TED Talks:

Dan Pink on Motivation: This whole talk. I wanted to work for or build a company that accepts and utilizes this research.

Cameron Herold on Entrepreneurs: This whole talk, but one of the primary things for me is at the beginning where he talks about the bad idea of getting a tutor in French as a child, which he sucks still at, instead of getting a tutor in speaking, which he is great at. Basically, play to your strengths to get exponential returns on effort, instead of clawing to work on things you suck at to make minimal returns on effort.

Chip Conely: Measuring what matters.

Gary Vaynerchuck: Do what you love.

The book The Millionaire Mind: Main concept for me, follow your passion and the money will follow. The thought being, if you care about something, you will work harder at, producing a better quality product or service than something you only marginally care about.

And probably one of the biggest things was my grandfather. He has ran his own business for longer than I have been alive. He absolutely loves what he does and gets paid very well to do it. He is constantly winning awards for his work. If you ever brought up retirement to him, he'd respond by saying, "What else would I do with my time? I love my work, I'll never retire, I may slow down, but I'll never retire."

Currently my life is a personal experiment to test whether or not following your passions will pay off, and if it doesn't at least I know the following quote won't apply to me: "I do not regret the things I've done, but those I did not do."

TL;DR: Follow your passion!