Quotes from Thomas J. Stanley

most people want immediate gratification. They don't want to trade a prize of, say, a camper van for eight years in night school, even though a college degree can translate into a value equivalent to more than a dozen vans. THE

More than in the 1990s, the proliferation of technology makes us like mice in the Skinner box, constantly touching our phones to get the next pellet of news, drivel, or consumer goods. Scientists have linked activity and satisfaction from screen time with dopamine and equated its use to other addictive habits.

More than 80 percent have been married couple with children in which the wife did not work full time. What message did this send to the daughters of such couples? pg 182

The role of enlightened parents is too strengthen the weak.

It is not her intention to create another generation of weak sisters.

The Rings give them educations. Such gifts are intended to enhance their grandchildren's discipline, ambition, and independence.

What happens when you tell the average American adult that he needs to reduce his spending in order to build wealth for the future?

The affluent, especially the self-made affluent, are frugal and price-sensitive concerning many consumer products and services. But they are not nearly as price-sensitive when it comes to purchasing investment advice and services, accounting services, tax advice, legal services, medical and dental care for themselves and family members, educational products, and homes.

Changes in consumer preferences can also affect profits. So can the actions of our government.

Many successful business owners have told us that they enjoy short periods of rough times in their chosen industries because they weed out much of the competition.

Most of these parents pay all or a significant portion of their sons' and daughters' tuition and fees for training. Their vote is with their hard-earned money.

What is "the relationship between realized income and wealth"? (SOI Bulletin, Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, vol. 2, no. 4, Spring 1985) What does he find? That people accumulate significant wealth by minimizing their realized/taxable income and maximizing their unrealized/nontaxable income.

The first-generation affluent are typically entrepreneurs.

They became millionaires by budgeting and controlling expenses, and they maintain their affluent status the same way.

Their children will have it better. They will not have to take significant risks. They will become physicians, attorneys, and accountants. Their capital is their intellect.

PAWs need to achieve, to create wealth, to become financially independent, to build something from scratch.

Read Sternberg's Successful Intelligence.

That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest. —Henry David Thoreau

until recently…. [She] really enabled him….

Is the "pride of new car ownership"—and that's all it is, pride—worth $20,000?

Why are so few people in America affluent? Even most households with six-figure annual incomes are not affluent. These people have a different orientation than does Johnny Lucas. They believe in spending tomorrow's cash today. They are debt-prone and are on earn-and-consume treadmills. To many of them, those who do not display abundant material possessions are not successful. To them, nondisplay-oriented people like Johnny Lucas are their inferiors. Johnny

Nevertheless, we wanted to make Mr. Bud feel that we fully understood the food and drink expectations of America's decamillionaires. So after we introduced ourselves, one of us asked, "Mr. Bud, may I pour you a glass of 1970 Bordeaux?" Mr. Bud looked at us with a puzzled expression on his face and then said: I drink scotch and two kinds of beer—free and BUDWEISER!

The affluent tend to answer "yes" to three questions we include in our surveys: Were your parents very frugal? Are you frugal? Is your spouse more frugal than you are? This

More often than not, UAWs allow "significant others" to determine their financial lifestyle. Interestingly, these "significant others," or reference groups, turn out to be more imagined than real.