You're Not That Different From a Millionare

As a member of the MTV watching era, I have come across programs like Cribs and My Super Sweet 16 . This is the way Vh1 describes their corresponding, well-liked series The Fabulous Life

Get a fast paced, top class joy ride through the realm of luxurious living and extravagance. Inside the most exclusive communities in Hollywood to gold-plated Wall Street, we're getting you deep inside the lifestyles of the affluent and celebrities, using their enormous careers to their far more massive properties to the things they're doing in their self-indulgent leisure time. It is a truly outrageous way of life where five-star is par for the course, custom-made is a prescribed, and the VIP therapy is nonstop. Dropping a million bucks? That's chump change. With fleets of luxury vehicles, tricked-out mega-mansions, and much more, these superstars and billionaires are living what we call The Fabulous Life.

Yet somehow is the common millionaire blowing $100,000 on their kid's sweet 16? No, definitely not.

Sensationalism is entertaining. Perhaps for this reason so many people stick to the photos of millionaires shelling out a lot of cash in crazy ways and think that that is definitely just how the affluent truly act.

The truth is that high net-worth men and women do spend, preserve and accumulate their money differently compared to the average person and Joan, just not in the way that many most people think.

Generating Revenue

“1/3 of all millionaires made their money by running their own business.”

- Harrison Survey

"Of America’s millionaires, 80% are first generation rich. That means they got up, left the caves, killed something, and drug it home."

-Dave Ramsey

“Over half (59%) of the self-made millionaires surveyed came from poor or ordinary backgrounds.”

- BBC

Investing & Saving Money

“84% of millionaires say they spend with a middle-class mindset”

- AmEx/Harrison Survey

“Affluent households, including those with income above $100,000, tend to be heavier coupon users than those with lower incomes...”

- SmartMoney

“Real millionaires pay about $16 for a haircut at a traditional barbershop… Only 5.7 percent of millionaires surveyed nationally paid $1,000 or more for their most recently acquired suit… The watch he wears every day was purchased at a Wal-Mart store for $15...”

- Smart on Money

“86% of those who drive prestige makes of motor vehicles are not millionaires... The median price for paid for the most recent motor vehicle purchased by a millionaire was $31,367.”

- Thomas Stanley

“Forty two per cent of those interviewed for the biggest ever market research survey of Britain's millionaires said that they spent less than $500 a year on clothing.”

- BBC

“A third of millionaires (38%) spend under $60 a week on their weekly food shopping.”

- BBC

As you have seen, becoming money rich requires a economical kind of mindset. "Luxury rides," "huge properties," and "ridiculous lifestyles" aren't characteristics of the average millionaire's living; although they tend to be the pictures regularly associated with the upper tax brackets.

Switching your budget requires taking on the proper frame of mind. That's why I figured it a smart idea to end with a few of T. Harv Eckers Secrets of the Millionaire Mind:

Rich individuals are committed to being wealthy. Poor people wish to be rich.

Rich individuals focus on opportunities. Poor individuals concentrate on obstacles.

Rich individuals think “both”. Poor people think “either/or”.

Rich people focus on their net worth. Poor people concentrate on their working income.

Rich individuals manage their money well. Poor people mismanage their cash well.

Rich individuals have their money work hard for them. Poor people work hard for their money.

Rich people constantly learn and grow. Poor people think they already know.