"WDWFigment" said:
With regard to doctors and lawyers, is their proportional representation lower than it is in the general population? ; The issue might be that there are very few lawyers and doctors in comparison to blue-collar workers (even though everyone complains that the world has too many lawyers, there really are not that many). ; The issue might also be the amount of debt some people incur in making it in those professions. ; Just throwing out possibilities.
The book did explain how they got their survey pool, I just don't remember the exact methodology.
I do remember their first attempt to do the scientific study failed because they originally only surveyed people of certain professions that they were absolutely sure constituted the majority of millionaires. ; In that pool were doctors, lawyers, athletes, celebrities, and other professions that when you look at them you say to yourself, "They are loaded".
So, when they did their second attempt they took this new knowledge into account and when they found their large pool of millionaires they went on to figure out why the first assumption was wrong.
What it came down to was lifestyle and debt assumption.
For example, doctors take on HUGE debt to become a doctor and then they take on huge debt to survive their residency, and then once they get to the point where they are making the big bucks, they often fall prey of living the lifestyle of a person in that paygrade (luxury cars, expensive suits, large homes, country clubs, etc). Same was true for lawyers, real estate agents, CEO's, etc.
Sam Walton was an example of the exception to the rule.
On the other hand, the plumber down the road, bought used vehicles, suits at Sears and paid cash for almost everything and were very conservative with their purchases because they were more concerned with 20-30 years down the road than right now.
So while he only made 60-100K per year (or more) they were saving a lot of it and it quickly amassed into a fortune.
It was also interesting to note in the book that many of them didn't have college degrees, and if they DID they were on average C students. ; That was because they didn't put a high value on a higher GPA and was using that time that others were spending on studying to perfect skills that they used once they graduated. ; In other words, they did teh bare minimum to graduate. ; Because you know the saying,"What do you call the guy who graduated last in his medical school? ; Doctor"