Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

One person pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.
-Proverbs 13:7

I have not yet read Thomas J. Stanley's book "Stop Acting Rich...and Start Living Like a Real Millionaire" but I have it on reserve at the library. The synopsis is that "many pretenders have become very good at generating income and enjoying a high standard of living," but "if people stop acting rich, they can achieve the kind of happiness money can't buy."

In other words most millionaires don't look or act like they are millionaires. Only fakers do that. He backs up this argument by pointing out anyone can be a millionaire if they are smart about it, even teachers! Stanley pointed out that "there are more than 350,000 millionaire educators." He backs up his contention by pointing out a number of interesting things including:

• 86% of all prestige or luxury makes of motor vehicles are driven by people who are not millionaires.

• Typically, millionaires pay about $16 (including tip) for a haircut.

• Nearly 4 in 10 millionaires buy wine that costs about $10.

• 3x as many millionaires live in homes worth less than $300,000 than there are living in homes that cost $1 million or more.

• The #1 shoe brand worn by millionaire women is Nine West. Their favorite clothing store is Ann Taylor.

Crazy, eh? So is it the money that fakers are trying to imitate or the imagined lifestyle? Obviously in many if not most cases it is not both. This reminds me of a statistic I saw a few years ago. Almost 50% of Americans are living pay check to pay check. Around 20% of Americans making over $100,000 a year are living pay check to pay check.

Gotta love the fakers, they'll do anything to keep up with the Joneses even if the Joneses are not making as much money as one might think. And there's a lot of Joneses out there!