rant · moment 4 of 14
The Millionaire Next Door and Ray's Parents' Book Gift
from Angry Gay Santa · #24
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
4 minRay's parents gave him the book The Millionaire Next Door as a passive-aggressive comment on his lifestyle, sparking a back-and-forth about frugality, living below your means, opulence, and Ray's lack of heirs.
- 5:36Ray's parents gave him The Millionaire Next Door as a gift, apparently thinking he needs financial advice.
- 5:57Tim describes it as his father's last-ditch effort, like they're sending poison through the pages hoping it seeps into him.
- 6:11The book's whole point is that you can become a millionaire by being frugal and making proper investments instead of living an opulent lifestyle.
- 6:24Tim's parents think his problem is that he's living an opulent lifestyle on Fifth Avenue with conspicuous consumption.
- 6:41Tim argues that real millionaires don't drive Ferraris—they live below their means, like living in a room without a window.
- 7:00Tim tells Ray he needs to sit his father down and explain that he doesn't have heirs, so the family wealth strategy is pointless for him.
- 7:43Ray pushes back and wants just one or two days to be a bad person without the financial lectures.
- 8:06Tim clarifies that the millionaires worth talking about are the fun ones, but there are tons of no-fun millionaires nobody discusses.
- 8:26There's a big difference between having a high income and actually accumulating wealth—you can make $200,000 and still be living a horror.
- 8:40It's very hard to become a millionaire when you come from absolute nothing, like growing up in a public housing project or a shitty ramshackle shack in Buffalo.