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What is the truth behind the saying '99% of the world's millionaires have become rich by doing real estate'?

Do you know the original source of the statement?

Alex B
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Victor123
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    The source of the statement was probably someone who sold real estate investing classes. – JohnFx Mar 24 '11 at 14:42
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    99% of the world's millionaires are not rich, for the definition of "rich" commonly used in their own society. – poolie Jan 27 '12 at 09:46
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    @Kaushnik Does being a millionaire mean you are rich ? Apparently in the UK you need to have almost £3 million just to be a millionaire these days. – Simon Mar 04 '13 at 14:17

4 Answers4

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This quote has it almost backwards.

Thomas J. Stanley's recent book (he's one of the duo who researched and wrote about The Millionaire Next Door) claims that the top occupation of millionaires is "business owner / self-employed" (28%). "Real estate investor" is lumped in with "other" (9%), and if the ordering is correct in the list, it's no more than 2% of the total.

(source)

mbhunter
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78.84% of statistics are made up on the spot.

MoneyCone
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Most millionaires became millionaires by being very frugal and living well below their means, all the time.

Glorified Plumber
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  • "There's no trick to making a million dollars, if all you want out of life is to make a million dollars." And that quote dates from when a million was real money. – keshlam Nov 12 '14 at 09:26
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I can name far more non-real estate millionaires than those who are. That statistic isn't only not valid, it's not even close.

Update: The correct quote is "90% of all Millionaires become so through owning Real Estate" and it's attributed to Andrew Carnegie. Given that he was born in 1835, I can imagine that his statement was true at he time, but not today.

JTP - Apologise to Monica
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