The Millionaire Spouse

I read a wonderful chapter in the book The Millionaire Mind today on spouses and their relationship to millionaire-ism. The essence boils down to this:

The typical millionaire couple in America has been married for twenty-eight years. One in four have been married for thirty-eight or more years…

…There is a highly significant negative correlation between divorce and wealth, and, conversely, there is significant relationship between years of uninterrupted marriage and net worth…

…Future millionaires seem to be able to judge potential partners with respect to traits like sinceirty, cheerfulness, reliability, and affection.

One of the most important aspects of school and college that influenced millionaires in becoming economically productive adults? Learning how to make accurate judgements about people — and that is how they pick their spouses too.

Intelligence Clouding the Mind

Then I came across another paragraph that also struck me as a very interesting observation — that on intelligence and its effect on choosing your spouse.

Not all the intelligent people one meets in college have all the other important qualities. In fact, the quality of high intelligence can often act as camouflage. Some people are so taken with a suitor’s high level of intellect that the suitor’s deficiencies are concealed or overlooked, just as others are blinded by physical attractiveness. If one places to much emphasis on a quality like intelligence, then he may be insensitive to variations in sincerity, cheerfulness, reliability, and virtue, for example.

War and Business

This book features interviews of quite a number of millionaires. Several of the millionaires interviewed mentioned that experience in the military was vital to their economic successes later on — one of them even required that his son join the military for a couple of years before agreeing to hand over his business.

That has really bolstered my confidence in believing that the army hasn’t been such a waste of time after all. Sure, the amount of humble pie I have had to eat daily since conscripting has been considerable. But values such as discipline, humility, as well as experience of being away from home has been quite invaluable, especially if I plan to go overseas to study.

The Colours of the Wind

Most importantly though, has been the amount of interaction I have had to go through with people from all walks of life. Living in close spaces with people different from you and sharing completely different values has been difficult.

But over time, you realise that this — especially for me, as a business student — has been extremely helpful in helping me develop a knack of judging people more accurately, something mentioned by millionaires to be highly influential in helping them attain their millionaire status. It also teaches and condition’s one to keep one’s emotions in check, something essential in the fast-paced, and emotionally-draining business world.