Biography of William Danko

William Danko scored a double coup when, with co-author Thomas Stanley, he published, The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy in 1996. The book is a serious, statistical look at a segment of U.S. society: those households--more than three and a half million in number--whose net worth exceeds one million dollars. In addition to being a sociological study, the book has also become a popular how-to guide, landing on the New York Times bestseller list and earning a one million three hundred thousand dollars paperback advance from Pocket Books.

The Millionaire Next Door was no overnight sensation. The two men went through the exhausting process of surveying and interviewing millionaires over a twenty year period. Thousands of such people received the team's surveys, the responses from which provided the raw data for their investigation. Among the major findings is the fact that the typical millionaire is not so different from--and indeed probably lives next door to--his or her less- wealthy neighbors. Eighty percent of millionaires, Danko and Stanley found, are self-made, and two-thirds are self-employed, often in blue-collar businesses that they own in fields such as construction, dry cleaning, and scrap metal. Millionaires-to-be tended not to be the best students back in high school, but often placed in the middle academic tier of students--"the smartest kids in the dumb row."

What has set such people apart has been their drive and their frugality. Millionaires work hard, and they save much and spend relatively little of what they earn. Contrary to popular assumptions, the typical millionaire is more likely to shop at Sears than at Brooks Brothers, and to buy relatively inexpensive clothing and cars. Not surprisingly, most of the millionaires located and surveyed by the authors are male due to differences in pay scales and career routes between the genders characteristic of the two-decade period preceding the survey. The writers found that the archetypal figure typically remains married to his first wife, a woman who shares her husband's frugality and keeps tight reins on the family budget. In contrast to the retiring lifestyle of the millionaire, the authors contend that high-living professionals who take expensive vacations and purchase luxury cars and clothing are likely to be burdened by debts.