Millionaire Women Next Door

Here's a different yet fascinating book I picked up somewhere a while back, Millionaire Women Next Door : The Many Journeys of Successful American Businesswomen . I'm not in that category (yet!) but it's interesting to read and see how many traits I admire and, hopefully, share.

Most of these women have a pretty frugal lifestyle. They enjoy themselves but they do and buy things because they enjoy them, not to impress anyone or make a show. They're very charitable, giving away more than 7% of their income on average, a much higher percentage than the national average. Most were raised in nurturing families and encouraged to earn their way, have plans, and be independent. A small subset had very unnurturing parents and families however and still managed to succeed way beyond the norm. Interesting to me was the statistic that over half of them paid their entire way through college! Very few went to private schools, but more than half of them pay for the private schools of their grandchildren.

What's interesting to me is that many of them, despite their successes, seem to set up their children to not be as successful or independent. I know I've read before that it is fairly common for one generation to earn wealth, the 2nd to enjoy it, and the 3rd to lose it. Many of them are taking away the opportunities for self-sufficiency and independence by providing financially for their children and grandchildren. So while they themselves live well below their means, they often set up their children to live above their means.

About half have been divorced. I think that's about the national average these days. So money certainly doesn't buy true love! Most rank themselves as happy.