On February 28, 2015, Thomas Stanley died in an automobile accident at the age of seventy-one. He was a business professor at the University of Georgia and coauthor of the New York Times bestseller The Millionaire Next Door. Shortly after his death, Yahoo finance writer Mandi Woodruff revisited the book and wrote an article on the key traits that most millionaires have in common.1 Seven are noted below and my intent is to provide a biblically based perspective on each of these traits. The portions in the numbered paragraphs are quotes from Woodruff’s article; following each quote is my comment.
1. “They (millionaires) live well below their means. In their research, Stanley and Danko found most millionaires weren’t heavy spenders. The majority spent less than $200 on shoes and only half could justify paying more than $235 for a wristwatch. Another surprising finding: two-thirds of the millionaires they surveyed said they followed a household budget.”
My comment: Christians recognize that all assets belong to the Lord, including money, and therefore, we humans are simply stewards of God’s resources.2 Living modestly and within a budget are wise (biblical) stewardship practices.
2. “They allocate their time, energy and money efficiently, in ways conducive to building wealth. For example, the authors found that millionaires were more likely to invest time planning their household finances than, say, shopping for a car. On the flipside, most people would have a lot more fun allocating time comparing car prices than sitting down with a financial planner and figuring out how much more money they have to save to be able to stop working at a certain age.”
My comment: Efficiency is God’s way but it must be used to obey God’s will. Jesus lived efficiently, that is, he did not waste his time, talent, or treasure. For example, when he multiplied food, he had his disciples collect the leftovers.3 Efficiency, however, should not trump caring for the poor—remember the gleaning principle.4 Nor should efficiency be used to justify greed, which is idolatry.5 Building true wealth, that is intangible wealth that God values, has eternal value. Therefore, temporal wealth, such as money, only has value in this existence and should be used to efficiently build eternal wealth.6
3. “They believe that financial independence is more important than displaying high social status. They inoculate themselves from heavy spending by constantly reminding themselves that many people who have high-status artifacts, such as expensive clothing, jewelry, cars, and pools, have little wealth.”
My comment: Human beings were created by God and exist at his pleasure and for his purpose.7 Financial independence is therefore not a primary objective of a disciple of Christ; the primary objective is to live aligned with the will and ways of God. Furthermore, seeking social status is pride, which clearly should not be the focus of a disciple. But when considering the relative value of financial independence over high social status, the former is more consistent with a biblical worldview if one defines financial independence to mean obeying God with the stewardship of his resources.
4. “Their parents did not provide ‘economic outpatient care.’ Millionaires rarely become millionaires in their own right if their parents are constantly financing their lives. Otherwise, they risk becoming too financially dependent to make their own way.”
My comment: The role of parents is to produce self-governing children under God, that is, children who are responsible to find and fulfill their life purpose according to the will and ways of God.8 Success is not measured by money but by obedience to God.9 Producing true success may have a high financial price tag and parents need to be willing to pay it, if so led by the Lord. Consider for example the price the father of the prodigal son paid for his son to come to his senses.10
5. “Their adult children are financially self-sufficient. Teaching kids to be self-sufficient not only encourages them to create their own financial security but ensures that they won’t be draining their parents’ finances later on.”
My comment: This goes with the prior point. Producing self-governing children walking in the will and ways of God means they will be financially responsible but they still may need help from their parents and, possibly, grandparents. For example, grandparents may be led to provide some financial assistance for private school tuition for their grandchildren. These decisions should be made based on the leading of the Lord consistent with the objective of building financial stewardship skills in children.
6. “They are proficient in targeting market opportunities. Essentially, the wealthy become wealthy often by targeting occupations that serve other wealthy people (that’s their ‘market’). That’s where the real money is, Stanley and Danko argue. Jobs that serve the wealthy—for example, estate planning, law, and accounting—often come with bigger paychecks.”
My comment: The opportunity to become financially wealthy should not be the primary driver in career decisions. Christians should seek to find and fulfill their divinely ordained calling and be content with what God provides to support them in their calling. In other words, followers of Christ should make pursuing the will and ways of God their primary objective, knowing that God will provide for their real needs at the standard of living God chooses.11
7. “They chose the right occupation. The authors found that roughly half of the millionaires they interviewed owned a business of some sort, but the vast majority said they would not encourage their children to follow in their footsteps. Millionaire couples with children were five times more likely to send their children to medical school than other parents in America and four times more likely to send them to law school, according to their findings.”
My comment: Each disciple of Jesus Christ has a specific work assignment from the Lord.12 We humans do not have the right before God to choose careers based on income potential. Rather, we have the responsibility to discern the vocational call of God on our lives and to pursue this call. Christians should not make vocational discriminations based on the perceived socio-economic status associated with any particular occupation. We should faithfully serve those we are called to serve regardless of what they can do to seemingly make us financially wealthy or socially superior.
Comparing the seven empirically observed traits for millionaires against a biblical perspective, one can see there is some alignment and some misalignment. Specifically, the misalignment is related to pride, narcissism (a form of pride), and mammon worship. For Christians, these traits of misalignment should not be embraced.
Given this misalignment, why do people following these, largely worldly, principles enjoy any success? This is an example of common grace—the grace that allows people in rebellion against God to have some level of success in this world. But the success is limited; there will be an end to it.13 Therefore, resist the temptation to define success based on worldly practices because they seem to produce temporal wealth. Rather, embrace a higher ethical standard of success—obedience to the will and ways of God.
If you want eternal success, then you must build wealth that God values.14 If you live next to a millionaire who has built his tangible wealth based on the principles of the book The Millionaire Next Door, then you need to understand that his tangible wealth is temporal.
The only way to build intangible eternal wealth is to find and fulfill your purpose in alignment with the will and ways of God. This is real wealth. This is real eternal success.
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1. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/author-of-%E2%80%9Cthe-millionaire-next-door%E2%80%9D-dies-%E2%80%94-7-key-insights-from-his-book-213300777.html.
2. Psalms 21:1; 1 Corinthians 4:1-2,7.
3. Matthew 14:13–21.
4. Leviticus 23:22.
5.
Colossians 3:5.
6. http://strategieswork.net/publications/gleanings/2015/2015-10.html.
7. Genesis 1:26–28.
8. Proverbs 22:6.
9. John 17:4.
10. Luke 15:11–32.
11. Matthew 6:33.
12. Ephesians 2:10.
13. Psalms 73.
14. Luke 12:13–21.
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