Recent research shows that single-digit millionaires, at least, are generally far more mindful about how they save, spend and invest their money.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/06/your-money/skimping-on-the-splurges-even-as-a-millionaire.html
“It’s interesting because it’s less about greed,” Ms. Polito said. “They’ve come from the middle class, the working class, and they still believe they’re part of the 99 percent, no matter what, because that’s how they identify themselves"
I think people don’t change much. Just because they have finally worked and saved up a fair amount of money, doesn’t mean they are going to just start blowing it. Especially if they have slowly gained net worth, I don’t think they are going to change the habits that got them to that point.
Imo it’s better than the other way around
It reminds me of the book -millionaire next door.
My in-laws are, technically, millionaires, who accumulated wealth slowly, over decades of living frugally, saving a lot, investing wisely, and being lucky with (modest) California real estate. The parents were teachers. My husband never had a new bike when he was a kid; vacations meant low-cost camping; all the children were expected to pay for part of their college expenses, either through part-time jobs or earned scholarships. They never went to fancy restaurants, bought their few cars with cash and drove them into the ground. Mother-in-law regularly looks over sales flyers from the nearby market, buys only what’s on sale. In many ways I envy their discipline; in comparison, DH and I have been very dissolute with our money 
^^^ Describes my parents to a tee. Mom’s now 90, dad left us a year ago. Mom still pinches her pennies…convinced she needs to save for her old age!
When there is outrage against the undeserved wealth at the top 1-5%, it’s these people that are included in that grouping.
Is someone who owns a million dollars property considered a millionaire? If you leave in one of those most expensive states that pretty much everyone in a middle class.
I felt like I was reading our autobiography, especially holding on to low cost cars for 10 years. I just got rid of my 15 year old car and it pained me to do so. As I was reading the MOG dress thread, I cringed at the prices of some of the suggested dresses. I can’t imagine spending that much on a dress for one occasion. $200 would be my upper limit and that would give me pause. I only buy things on sale and clip coupons. Both H and I were raised in middle class families that were careful with money. We learned by example. All of my kids are frugal too. Although we are “millionaires” we still worry about having enough for retirement.
The problem with the term “millionaire” is that its definition is static, and what it actually meant in our pre-world war grandfathers’ times has nothing to do with what it means today. You have kids with the right degree today making a hundred times more than what a 1930-40s guy got with a reasonable job. Millionaires in the those days were the oil, railroad, banking, and other such families, and their equivalents would be the groups like the Silicon Valley billionaires.
Couple that with BD’s observation which explains why some of us who grew up in modest circumstances see nothing wrong in washing and reusing plastic spoons or driving Ford Tauruses with over a 100K miles. So we may indeed be “suffering” from a combination of not needing a lifestyle we deem extravagant while being cautious about losing the comfortable but not extravagant life we enjoy now.
My parents are millionaires and not with real estate. With the investments from being frugal their whole lives. My mother still saves bread wrappers and tinfoil for leftovers. They rarely eat out and when the do, use a coupon. Live in a modest home and won’t pay the monthly fee for Netflix. Only have one car.
After watching them, part of me saves like they do and doesn’t waste. But another wants to enjoy life while I still can and give to my kids while they can use it, not when I’m gone and won’t need it any more. My parents will leave us a lot of money. But all of my siblings and I are fairly well off. We don’t need it and sure could have used it when we were struggling.
The behavior described is pretty typical of most people I know whose net worth is in the $1MM - $5MM range. They’ve worked hard for 30+ years, saved, invested and didn’t splurge often if at all. One of dh’s colleagues makes 2X what he does, yet still checks the weekly sale ads at Publix and loves to find a bargain when shopping. None of them seem to be frugal just for the sake of pinching pennies, but because they have certain goals in mind. Some are buying (modest) first homes for their children, others have bought vacation homes for use by their entire family, and some wish to provide for children with various challenges including chronic health problems.
I enjoyed this article and it reminds me of the philosophy of the subjects of The Millionaire Next Door. Just because you have money doesn’t mean you have to flaunt it. I have also known people with very expensive homes and lavish lifestyles who are very heavily in debt. I’d rather live below my means and derive pleasure from small treats.
MIL, who will be 93 next month, still thinks she has to save for her old age. It’s that Great Depression mentality. But they’ve seen prices rise from what they were used to seeing when they were young. It’s likely a great shock that a car that used to cost a person $4,000 back in the 60’s (their frame of reference) now costs $40,000. Hotels back then were $50 a night for a very nice place are now $200 a night for an average place. Bread was 30 cents a loaf and is now $3.00. And on and on.
As structural engineers, we find that our toughest clients are wealthy homeowners. They almost always try to talk us down on our bill, and sometimes imply that we’re overcharging. We are very conscious of keeping costs down for our clients, so that’s annoying. I wonder if they do the same thing with their accountants and attorneys!
My 92-year-old mom also scrimped throughout her lifetime and recently passed the single-digit millionaire mark thanks to a soaring stock market (thanks, Obama) 
rather than real estate. She was a SAHM, and dad a middle-management employee who never made in the six figures, but they saved and invested. Almost every time we speak, she will point out how high the per-share price of one of her stocks has gone…and since she has like 5,000 shares it has made her modestly rich. Still, I sometimes point out that these are paper profits…the money is not really yours until you sell.
TatinG, dh and I are already prone to bemoaning the difference in the cost of everything now (but we try to limit those comments to just each other.) Not only have prices of many things gone up far more than increases in starting salaries, but it seems that so many more expenses are the norm. When we started out, no one had cell phones or internet and our only TV was a 12" B&W with long rabbit ears. We lived in a middle class neighborhood and our 1 bd. apartment was $175/mo. It wasn’t that tough to get in the habit of saving, especially with my dad reminding me often to pay myself first (put aside a regular amount each month no matter what I might to buy or do.)
A while back we hit a rough patch with huge uncovered medical expenses and had to use a HELOC to stay current while we waited for a former home to sell. I didn’t buy anything other than groceries and cleaning supplies for a very long time, but we paid off every cent. Even though deferred comp payments and bonuses have replenished our savings, I still consider the marginal utility of every purchase and find I can live happily without most of them.
Finding a healthy relationship with money is a real gift. Reminds me of the old meta thread - spending and saving as much as we do is just right. Those that spend more are profligate, and those that spend less are misers. I feel like we have the balance about right, of course - living within our means, while giving to causes we care about, and enjoying some really nice vacations because that is a splurge we both enjoy.
In some ways, it’s not at all surprising that people who built their net worth by living beneath their means continue to do so. If they started spending like crazy without substantially raising their income, the wealth would evaporate pretty quickly, kind like what you see with lottery winners. But we don’t live the way we did right out of college, and it would be foolish to do so unless we were spending the money on something that was important to us, not just obsessively watching our pile of money grow.
MIL/FIL - really FIL, as I’m seeing now that MIL is gone - never had high income, but amassed substantial savings by living frugally. As they aged, though, it got so that limiting spending seemed to be the goal in itself, not a means to an end. Virtuous people save, weak and lazy people spend. There is so much they could have done before the ravages of age set in, but saving was more important. And there is so much they could have done after the ravages of age set in to make life more enjoyable, but saving was more important.
So that’s on my list of things to keep in mind for old age. Make plans to care for ourselves so we won’t be a burden on our kids, and ask them to let us know if we are being unreasonably cheap, like giving the grandkids a check for $5 for their birthday.
There is a lot of middle ground between being a total spendthrift and displaying a ridiculous level of frugality when one has millions of dollars.
That’s where I try to stay. You can’t take it with you, you’ve worked hard, so enjoy your money after you have met your obligations for bills, for retirement, for your dependents, for charity, and for your rainy day accounts. Then go out and enjoy those leftover fruits of your labor for God’s sake.
from the article:
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I set out to talk to people who had what I considered an attainable level of wealth for people with well-paying jobs and the ability to control their spending and saving through their lifetime. They had wealth starting at several million dollars, but it did not stretch above the $10.86 million estate tax exemption level for couples.
(Once people’s wealth goes substantially past the estate tax exemption, they need tax and legal advisers for planning to minimize the estate tax. It’s a good problem to have, but it changes how they think about money.)
There were common threads in this group. These were people who had all made the money in their own lifetimes and done that as much by saving, investing and making careful choices about spending as by making large salaries.
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I’m not the most frugal person on planet earth but somehow I dont like a lot of material stuff as I get older. I rarely go shopping so that saves money. But I used to be a spendthrift, I could totally spend $1000 equivalent in today’s money on a dress when I was younger. Now maybe I would only do that for a special wedding.
I buy stuff that are on sales for clothes or wait for it. But for food, I don’t skim, I always eat the freshest meat and produce that I can buy. Even in the most expensive store I won’t buy meat or produce if they don’t look fresh. I guess what you could me a value shopper.