BOOK SUMMARIES
Book: Everyday Millionaires
Author: Chris Hogan
Purchase: Print | eBook | Audiobook
Citation: Hogan, C. (2019). Everyday millionaires : how ordinary people built extraordinary wealth--and how you can too. Brentwood, Tennessee: Ramsey Press.
Three Big Takeaways:
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There is absolutely no reason why someone with the right information shouldn't retire with at least $1 million in net worth. It doesn't matter where you live or what you do. (pg. 7)
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79% of millionaires reached millionaire status through their employer-sponsored retirement plan. That's right, the boring retirement plan your company probably offers is the most important piece to millionaires' financial success. (pg. 41)
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Albert Einstein said, "Compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world. He who understands it earns it. He who doesn't pays it. Compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe." (pg. 195)
Other Key Ideas:
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There were almost 11 million millionaires in 2017. That makes up 3.3% of the United States population. On the other hand, unemployment was at 3.7% in 2017. (pg. xvii)
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If someone sees a wealthy person driving a Tesla, it's a lot easier to assume the owner came from a wealthy family than to think about how hard the other person must have worked and how much they sacrificed to be able to afford a $100,000 car. (pg. 20)
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84% of millionaires built their wealth on their own. Millionaires are no more likely to receive an inheritance than their broke neighbor who's living paycheck to paycheck. (pg. 23)
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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. (pg. 29)
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The average millionaire hits the $1 million mark at 49 years old. (pg. 52)
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If someone earning the median US household income of $59,000 started investing the recommended 15% of their income at age thirty, they'd have over $1 million by age 55 - and that's if they never got a single raise! (pg. 53)
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The average monthly student loan payment for someone in their 20's is $351. If that student avoided student loans, started his or her career without that payment, and invested that $351 into a mutual fund every month instead, they'd have almost $3 million by age 65. (pg. 67)
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We don't place any importance on where a candidate went to college. A candidate with a $50,000 degree has the same shot at getting hired as a candidate with a $250,000 degree. (pg. 70)
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All the millionaires I know are lifelong learners; they're always looking for ways to increase their knowledge, because they know every new idea they can put into practice will make an immediate positive impact on their lives, business, and wealth. (pg. 73)
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One-third of millionaires never had a six-figure household income in a single working year. Only 31% of them averaged $100,000 household income a year, and only 7% averaged a $200,000 household income over the course of their career. In fact, when we asked 10,000 millionaires what they did, the top three answers were engineer, accountant, and teacher. (pg. 73)
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In 1956 Earl Nightingale explained in "The Strangest Secret" why some have success while others fail. He said it all comes down to one simple truth: "We become what we think about." (pg. 94)​
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The average millionaire drives a four-year-old car with 41,000 miles on it. And eight out of ten millionaire car buyers drive it away debt free without carrying a car payment behind them. Cars.com reports that the average new-car payment is $509 a month. If you would instead put that $509 into a mutual fund you would have $1.1 million in thirty years. Anyone can become a millionaire in America - even if you only invest the average car payment. (pg. 134)
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The average millionaire lives in a 2,600-square-foot house that they've lived in for seventeen years. Millionaires don't feel the need to upgrade, and they aren't looking for bigger and better simply because they can afford it. Instead, they stay put and actually pay the darn thing off. We found that it took millionaires an average of 10.2 years to pay off their homes. This is important, because it puts their home entirely in the asset column of their net worth and it wipes their biggest debt off the liability column. On average, one-third of a millionaire's net worth comes from their primary residence. (pg. 155)
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A $225,000 mortgage at 4% interest on a thirty year loan will cost $161,640 in interest. A fifteen year loan will cost $74,520 in interest. You will save yourself $87,000 and have your house paid in half the time. Go with the 15 year loan whenever possible. (pg. 157)
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I don't care how many degrees you have or how smart you think you are, education will make you better. There is always more to learn, and millionaire-minded people never stop learning. Here's an idea: read a book. You can fit a thousand degrees' worth of reading into your Kindle, so get started. The answer to pretty much any question you can imagine is already written in a book somewhere; all you have to do is go find it. (pg. 176)
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The typical healthy, sixty-five-year-old couple can expect to spend $266,600 on Medicare premiums along throughout their retirement years, and that doesn't even include out-of-pocket expenses or long term care costs. (pg. 218)​