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How a Millionaire's Brain Works

fortunewatch.com

11–20 of 27 posts

Re: How a Millionaire's Brain Works

#11
This story makes lots of sense. Most of these millionaires live on a month to month basis, there4 they need to save every little dollar. To me money buys time. Forget a Ferrari, get a prius. besides, the new millionaire means 5M+

Re: How a Millionaire's Brain Works

#12
post #3

A millionaire doesn't even have his own private parking space? Sounds fishy :)

Parking spaces in NYC can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. As a mere millionaire you can expect to spend 10-20% of your net worth on a parking space.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/12/us/12parking.html?ex=11899...

NY may not be the best place in the world to start your startup, but it will certainly cause you to reevaluate your notion of what it means to be a millionaire. Less valuable, maybe, but also much more achievable.

Re: How a Millionaire's Brain Works

#13
post #8
post #4

I've heard that a lot of billionaires are extremely frugal. They'll do things like drive three hours to save a couple hundred bucks on a new car. Apparently because they get solicited for money all the time, a lot of them get very paranoid about being taken advantage of.

That's a good idea if your time is worthless. "Penny-wise and pound-foolish"

It's not really to save money though. It's more like after getting dozens of emails a day begging for money, some percentage just develop a complex and have trouble trusting others.

Re: How a Millionaire's Brain Works

#15

An insight into how billionaires think in NYC comes from Mayor Bloomberg who takes the subway to work. That's way cheaper than parking in Manhattan. John.

You mean how Bloomberg has his SUV motorcade take him to the express subway that is 20 blocks from where he lives.

Re: How a Millionaire's Brain Works

#16
post #9

This is not how any millionaire I know's brain works. Maybe I know an unrepresentative sample, but most focus their ingenuity on novel ways to create wealth rather than novel ways of avoiding expenditure.

novel ways to create wealth + novel ways of avoiding expenditure = novel ways of get rich & stay rich!

Re: How a Millionaire's Brain Works

#17
post #9

This is not how any millionaire I know's brain works. Maybe I know an unrepresentative sample, but most focus their ingenuity on novel ways to create wealth rather than novel ways of avoiding expenditure.

I have a client that drives a $130,000 car, but won't stock paper towels in the rest room.

Another sends clerks home when it gets slow, but will have me spend 50 hours (at substantially higher rates) chasing down a 23 cent imbalance in his books.

Another shares a corporate jet, but won't let his people eat at their desks to save on cleaning crew expenses.

I know one who will make his lunch companion get out of the car to find a parking meter with time already on it. Really.

I could go on and on...

Many people say, "Thats how they got rich." Bull. They're just stupid and cheap.

I know many millionaires of both kinds. IMO, it boils down to this: How did you get your money and, if you lost it all, how would you get it back?

The confident ones are not cheap. The inheriters are.

Re: How a Millionaire's Brain Works

#19
that story is either fiction or that specific millionaire is dumb. it takes a significant amount of time (i.e. several minutes to hours to days) to get a loan. a person driving a ferrari would not invest the time for that amount of money.

Re: How a Millionaire's Brain Works

#20
post #17
post #9

This is not how any millionaire I know's brain works. Maybe I know an unrepresentative sample, but most focus their ingenuity on novel ways to create wealth rather than novel ways of avoiding expenditure.

I have a client that drives a $130,000 car, but won't stock paper towels in the rest room. Another sends clerks home when it gets slow, but will have me spend 50 hours (at substantially higher rates) chasing down a 23 cent imbalance in his books. Another shares a corporate jet, but won't let his people eat at their desks to save on cleaning crew expenses. I know one who will make his lunch companion get out of the ca…

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