Gregory Karp has a good article this week, catching up with Thomas Stanley, one of the authors of The Millionaire Next Door, on the 10th anniversary of the book's original publication.

Stanley basically says that little has changed--your everyday millionaires get that way by living below their means, not needing to have the latest and greatest to show off their money.

This paragraph particulary struck me:

"On a scale of happiness, they're quite happy," Stanley said. "In fact, the more wealth you have, the higher your satisfaction." But their happiness comes not from material things but from achievement and being financially independent.

The reason I dubbed this blog Zen Personal Finance is not because I am a meditating tycoon. (If you've read many of my posts, I don't exactly come off as the dalai lama.) It's because my goal in attempting to accumulate wealth has always been about buying peace and freedom, not buying a new car or big-screen TV. But sticking on the path toward that goal can be difficult in our highly material culture. Trying to be "zen" about personal finance for me is oftentimes about reminding myself that the money is a means to an end.

Money can't buy happiness, sure, but it can absolutely increase the number of choices you have in trying to be happy. There's a Bob Dylan quote I've always loved: "A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do." For me, the accumulation of wealth is a journey toward being able to get up each day and do whatever I want. There is incredible peace and freedom in not worrying about where your next dollar is coming from, and in deciding on your own terms whether and how much you will work.

Karp followed up on his column with a blog post that includes a net worth formula for budding millionaires as well as this thought from Stanley:

"There are some people that really make it big who came from miserable backgrounds. Not only were they poor, but they came from a lousy household where there was no love, no affection, no nurturing. They're the ones, typically, who really blow it out on the yachts. They're the ones who really [blow money] big-time.

This sort of surprised me. Yes, I've seen plenty of "new money" people with baubles, fake tans and expensive cars, but I would tend to think that those who grew up without money would actually be more paranoid about blowing it once they get it. But maybe that's just me :)