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There’s no denying it - just as there is a scarcity mindset, there is a millionaire mindset. And just as the scarcity mindset has many different permutations, so does the millionaire mindset.

Many of the mindsets focus on the expectation of making a lot of money. Some focus on the stock market, others on real estate, others on creating products we can’t live without and so on.

But one mindset we may be overlooking is the mindset of creating true wealth on what could be called an average income. The reason these “ordinary millionaires” exist is because they live with a frame of mind we may not have learned or may have just ignored because we want to see wealth in a flashier, more Hollywood-style way. But a truth is right here:

Wealth is not the same as income. If you make a good income each year and spend it all, you are not getting wealthier. You are just living high. Wealth is what you accumulate, not what you spend.” … The Millionaire Next Door

Notice I said “a truth is here.” There is more than one truth to wealth - getting it, creating it, keeping it, living it. If your idea of wealth is living high and you can do it from your income, then you are wealthy in my book. Not all of us plan to amass a fortune just for the comfort of knowing it’s there to pass on the next generation to live high on.

But … living high ends the moment our income does. Well, I may get a couple more months on my mortgage if I sell my Porsche and the pets and I will eat for awhile longer as I pawn away my baubles, but it will be gone faster than a Concord trip to Paris.

What the authors of the above quote were talking about is wealth as net worth. They’re talking about investments and savings and passive income streams that will continue to support us after we’ve decided that work is passe. They’re talking about a financial structure created on a decent income that will keep us from pushing a shopping cart down Sunset Strip babbling about our glory days of lobster and Tiffany’s instead of cat food and aluminum cans.

OK. Enough of that picture. My point is simply to show one of the mindsets that the majority of American millionaires have and have used to become wealthy without dealing drugs, the lottery, becoming a politician, an inheritance, or a silver spoon. If your idea of wealth equals future security on what you make now, then your mindset should turn to regular savings and wise investments and away from fast cars, houses you can’t afford in neighborhoods you can’t really stand, and a new Armani suit every day.

Wealth is like a mirror: each of us see something different when we look into it. As you take the road to wealth be reflective on what it means to you and set your course accordingly. You may need much less actual cash than you think.

~$~

This post has the honor of being featured on Finance Is Personal.