The Millionaire Next Door
I have been reading ‘The Millionaire Next Door’ by Stanley and Danko for the past couple of days. I am a slow reader. And this book is probably one of my first few non-fiction books and definitely my first personal finance books. This book was recommended by most of the personal finance bloggers I read every day. Some of their reviews are here:
I have probably completed the first couple of chapters in the book. It reminds me so much about how my dad earned and saved money. He went to work in a very early age because he had to take care of his family. Though my grandfather had not left the family in a bad shape, I can say that it was not enough to sustain a family. My dad joined a small company as a worker and he owns the company today. He has never used a credit card and he has never had a car. He plans for every major event in the family. He paid for our tuition till we completed college and paid for our wedding. He is 60+ and still works everyday. He wakes up early at 5am and goes over the accounts. He owns 4 houses, a lot of agricultural land and his company without owing anything to anybody.
The book is also true about how my dad gave us whatever we wanted. He wanted us to have those things that he did not have growing up. This probably made me a spend-thrift for a few years in my life. I do not regret a second of those times. I spent then and so I am ready to save now.
For such an aspiration, I can probably say that I have started this journey rather late compared to him. Every now and then when I think about how I should handle our finances, I try to think how my father would have handled this. This book has increased the respect I had for my dad and for those first generation PAWs.
