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We selected our CPAs based on two criteria. First, the CPAs were recommended by professors of accounting. Second, the CPAs were initially hired out of college by major accounting firms and later started their own successful accounting firms. We find that many of the very best CPAs and financial planners follow this career path.
Choose the one who has the highest concentration of PAWs as clients. You may have to explain the concept to them.
THEY BELIEVE THAT FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN DISPLAYING HIGH SOCIAL STATUS.
Mr. Allan, as well as those people whom he has backed financially, have never felt that their purpose in life was to look wealthy. According to Mr. Allan, “That’s why I’m financially independent”:
If your goal is to become financially secure, you’ll likely attain it…. But if your motive is to make money to spend money on the good life,… you’re never gonna make it.
products change people. If you acquire one status product, you will likely have to purchase others to fill up the socially conspicuous puzzle. Before long, your entire lifestyle will have changed.
Fifty percent of the millionaires we surveyed never spent more than $29,000 in their entire lives for a motor vehicle.
This equates to less than 1 percent of his net worth.
Those millionaires who lease vehicles are a minority—fewer than 20 percent.
More than 80 percent of millionaires purchase their vehicles.
What types of motor vehicles do millionaires drive?
the F-150 pickup is the number-one vehicle sold in America.
The fact is that two out of three purchasers or leasers of foreign luxury motor vehicles in this country are not millionaires.
63.4 percent prefer and buy new cars.
many people who have high-status artifacts, such as expensive clothing, jewelry, cars, and pools, have little wealth.
My family in Nebraska understood the value of a dollar. Dad used to say seeds are a lot like dollars. You can eat the seeds or sow them. But when you would see what seeds turned into… ten-foot-high corn… you don’t want to waste them. Consume them or plant them. I always get a kick out of watching things grow.
Most of these millionaires’ high-income, low–net worth neighbors make the wrong assumption. They assume that by focusing their energy on generating high incomes, they will automatically become affluent.
His success in accumulating wealth is based on living well below his means.
Gift receivers frequently are underachievers in generating income.
their parents on both sides were poor. Berl and Susan were successful because their parents gave them something other than money. Each was the product of a disciplined home life. Berl and Susan were not only well disciplined; they also taught themselves how to deal with adversity, and adversity made them what they are today—successful millionaires.
Whatever your income, always live below your means.
Teach your own to live on their own. It’s much less costly financially, and, in the long run, it is in the best interests of both the children and their parents.
What happens when “weakened children” become adults? They typically lack initiative. More often than not, they are economic underachieves but have a high propensity to spend.
The more dollars adult children receive, the fewer dollars they accumulate,
The most successful business owners are the ones who put much of their own resources behind their ventures. Many succeed because they have to succeed. It’s their money, their product, their reputation. They have no safety net. They have no one else to rely upon for their success or failure.
Their goal was to have a daughter who would “never have to worry.” But the method they used yielded just the opposite result. People often attempt to shelter their children from the economic realities of life. But such shelters often produce adults who are in constant fear of tomorrow.
Courage can be developed. But it cannot be nurtured in an environment that eliminates all risks, all difficulty, all dangers.
Parents often ask us how to instill courage in their children. We suggest that children be exposed to the sales profession.
If you are wealthy and want your children to become happy and independent adults, minimize discussions and behavior that center on the topic of receiving other people’s money.
Never tell children that their parents are wealthy.
They will not follow rules that their parents themselves do not follow. We [my wife and I] were well-disciplined parents…. We lived the rules… we taught by example…. They [the children] learned by example.
my plan will not distribute money to my children until they are forty years of age or older. Because in this way my money will have little effect on their way of life at that age. They will have already adopted their own lifestyle.
he never gives his children cash gifts, not even now that they are adults.
Stay out of your adult children’s family matters.
Never start a conversation with “When I was your age, I already had…”
Teach your children to achieve, not just to consume. Earning to enhance spending should not be one’s ultimate goal.
I am not impressed with what people own. But I’m impressed with what they achieve. I’m proud to be a physician. Always strive to be the best in your field…. Don’t chase money. If you are the best in your field, money will find you.
Tell your children that there are a lot of things more valuable than money.
It’s easier to make money honestly than [dishonestly] in this country. You will never exist in business if you rip people off! Life is the long run.
most business owners are not millionaires and will never come close to becoming wealthy.
Most of the millionaire business owners we have interviewed would not encourage their children to take over such a business.
What is risk? Having one source of income. Employees are at risk…. They have a single source of income. What about the entrepreneur who sells janitorial services to your employers? He has hundreds and hundreds of customers… hundreds and hundreds of sources of income.
I get stronger and wiser every day by facing risk and adversity.
the person who deals with risk every day, who tests his or her courage every day. In this way, he learns to conquer fear.
most millionaires do not drive luxury cars. Most luxury car drivers are not millionaires.
