The Internet Millionaire Lifestyle is a Lie— Data Shows This is How Real-Life Millionaires Live

The internet is filled with ideas about what a millionaire lifestyle looks like. There are boards posted of the “millionaire aesthetic” paired with a lavish lifestyle, yet data shows that real-life millionaires live a different lifestyle, value different things, and are more concerned with keeping their money than they are with spending it on lavishness and social approval. This means that the millionaire lifestyle seen on the internet and the millionaire lifestyle lived by real-life millionaires differ. While the internet notion of the millionaire lifestyle works to feed the consumeristic viewpoint of the masses, it does nothing to help women like you generate and maintain their first million dollars.

This distinction is important for you as a woman who is sincere about her desire to generate and maintain her first million dollars and thus establish her MillionaireFortress because if you think that a millionaire lifestyle revolves around lavishness, then you are more likely to spend your money than you are to keep it.

While you may be mentally and emotionally recoiling thinking that the whole point of having wealth is to enjoy it, being a real-life millionaire in no way means living a frugal, penny-pinching life. In fact, real-life millionaires are known for their balance in both generating wealth and enjoying life, so why does the internet version of the millionaire lifestyle and the real-life lifestyle of millionaires differ? It comes down to something simple: a lavish lifestyle costs money while having wealth means generating and keeping money. Most real-life millionaires have zero need to display success.

“It is impossible to enjoy life if you are addicted to consumption and the use of credit.” —Stanley

The lifestyle of most real-life millionaires would register as boring to most people and especially to those who value an Income-Affluent Statement over a Balance-Affluent Statement, but this may be why most women like you never become millionaires.

If you desire your first million dollars, then knowing what a millionaire lifestyle is will help you to make millions your reality.

Here are ten surprising millionaire lifestyle choices that may contradict what you imagined being a millionaire was like and that contradict what the internet told you a millionaire lifestyle is:

1. Traditional Family Values

   You may be surprised to learn that most real-life millionaires living a millionaire lifestyle maintain traditional family values. Within the millionaire lifestyle as a group, most real-life millionaires have been married to the same person for several decades. On average, real-life millionaires have three children, and they indicate that watching their children and grandchildren play sports is more important to them than playing golf (most real-life millionaires do play golf.)

   While being a millionaire in no way necessarily means that one loves his or her children more than a working-class or high-income-low-wealth parent, it does mean that real-life millionaire parents have the discretion and the freedom to spend more time with them.

2. Newer is Rarely Better than Quality—Older Houses, Older Furniture, Older Shoes

   While the internet associates having millions with having newer, nicer, and more things. Most real-life millionaires who live a real-life millionaire lifestyle live in homes what appreciate in value, which means homes constructed forty years ago or more. These are average homes with no jacuzzis. Additionally, most real-life millionaires buy expensive shoes once and have their shoes resoled. They buy traditional and even antique furniture made of wood rather than sawdust (e.g., Ikea), and they have their furniture reupholstered instead buying new. Additionally, real-life millionaires drive older cars with no payment.

3. Never Earn or Borrow to Consume

   Real-life millionaires generate income, and they understand that debt is enslavement. While some real-life millionaires may have consumed from their earned income at a point in their life, and while some real-life millionaires may have even borrowed money to consume at some point in their life, most real-life millionaires live a millionaire lifestyle of generating their income and living off of assets and cashflow and never borrow money to consume anything at any time.

   Put simply, the millionaire lifestyle of real-life millionaires follows a simple rule: if they are unable to pay in cash, they are unable to afford it, and if they are consuming from their income, they are in need of generating more assets.

4. Non-Consumeristic, Non-Flashy, and Cheap-Date Lifestyle: The Best Things in Life are Free or Close to It

   It is 100% possible, and many people actualize having many expensive things and having zero or even negative wealth. However, it is possible to get much out of life without having to buy many products or services, and this is the core of the millionaire lifestyle. In fact, real-life millionaires actualize this truth by living a non-consumeristic, moderate and healthy yet disciplined lifestyle. Put another way, real-life millionaires enjoy life without consuming.

5. Ignore or be Inspired by Criticism and Be Okay with Exclusion from Social Groups

   While you may think that everyone would love real-life millionaires who live a real-life millionaire lifestyle since everyone wants to be a millionaire themselves, the reverse is true.

   Successful people are criticized more than unsuccessful people. This is evidenced most by the masses screeching, “tax the rich” even though the rich pay more than their fair share in taxes. Wealthy women are careful of whom they listen to for advice and from whom they accept criticism. Unless the criticism is coming from well-trusted sources, real-life millionaires living a millionaire lifestyle either discount it as irrelevant noise or use it as inspiration to keep going despite of it.

   Furthermore, being wealthy, although easy, is abnormal. It is normal for many real-life millionaires to be excluded from social groups as most people have zero or negative wealth and thus fail to understand the mindset and practices that enable one to generate and maintain millions.

   If you desire to be a real-life millionaire, the millionaire lifestyle requires that you be okay with living a lifestyle that is unpopular, with being called names, and with being excluded. Get used to it.

6. Getting Along with People

   While many real-life millionaires are often excluded, bullied, and socially ostracized, the millionaire lifestyle is centered around understanding the importance of always focusing on the needs and interests of others around them. This is because money is an exchange between people for the goods and services which they provide. People are necessary if you are to be a real-life millionaire, so it is better to look out for their needs and interests and to know their background story if you are to do business with them.

7. Having Common Sense

   While most real-life millionaires are college educated, and while many real-life millionaires hold advanced-level degrees, many of these college-educated real-life millionaires, excluding attorneys and physicians, scored lower on SAT scores than one may suppose as necessary for a successful life, and many real-life millionaires who attended college were average students at best.

   Instead, the millionaire lifestyle for most real-life millionaires is the result having common sense, working hard, and utilizing tenacity. Real-life millionaires never rely on superior intellect.

8. Never Lie: The Real-Life Millionaire Lifestyle Includes Practicing Integrity by Being Honest with All People

   While it may feel fitting to “fake it till you make it,” and while the news propagates the idea of millionaires lacking integrity, this lifestyle is contrary to the millionaire lifestyle of real-life millionaires. The majority of real-life millionaires are cited as rating being honest with all people as a crucial factor contributing to their economic success. Real-life millionaires have zero need to showcase success, and this proves true both before and after they have acquired it.

   Integrity builds trust, and business is built on trust as business is built on relationships. If you never lie, you never have to cover up your lies, and you will never be caught for lying. Hence, people can trust you.

   Also, nearly one-half of the real-life millionaires used in the data set believe that integrity starts at home.

9. The Stock Market is Just One of Many Places to Invest Your Money

   While it is true that real-life millionaires living a millionaire lifestyle make wise investments, it is also true that many wise investments are never listed on the stock exchanges. While many real-life millionaires do invest in stocks, they are more realistic about it than many other investors and do it without the expectation of making a fortune from it. Instead, more real-life millionaires cite investing in their own business as important and less real-life millionaires cite investing in the equities of public corporations as important. While the stock market is something which no single individual investor can control of influence, one does have this influence and control in a private business.

10. Real-Life Millionaires Love their Careers & They HAD to be Financially Independent[

    There is a direct positive correlation between loving your vocation and your level of net worth. While real-life millionaires do work hard and work smart, they have chosen a vocation they love, which enables them the ability to do it long term and with commitment and to excel in their chosen field. The effect of positive energy and emotion directed into your career is important, and real-life millionaires have capitalized on this truth to their benefit.

    Additionally, most real-life millionaires acquired their wealth in one generation, and of these millionaires, being financially independent was the only option as they understand that working for someone else smothers the fire in your gut.

    Many real-life millionaires, having been average students at best, understand that there is no such thing as a permanent job when you work for someone other than yourself, which is another reason why integrity is so important.

    Most Millionaires have Zero Need to Display Success

    The internet is a valuable resource, yet it is also full of many lies about the millionaire lifestyle which will prevent you from acquiring your first million dollars and thus establishing your MillionaireFortress.

    Taking these data-backed findings from the millionaire lifestyle of real-life millionaires and applying them to your concept of a millionaire lifestyle will allow you to make both the internal, energetic and mindset shifts required to generate and maintain your first million, and it will allow you to see the practicality of the millionaire lifestyle so that you take the steps that build your MillionaireFortress in real life rather than merely building an idea of it.

    Being a millionaire is easy if you know the steps to get there.