Before TikTok, Instagram or YouTube, Bill Danko ’74, MBA ’76 was an influencer. When most of us were dialing up from our landlines to explore this new thing called the internet, Danko went viral, the old-fashioned way: with a publishing deal. In 1996, the then UAlbany marketing professor co-authored The Millionaire Next Door, a personal finance guide that landed on The New York Times Best Sellers list.
The book’s popularity earned him multi-page spreads in People and Parade magazines and a following of readers intent on the book’s surprising premise: The majority of millionaires in the U.S. are not born into wealth, do not appear wealthy and, with hard work and a frugal lifestyle, anyone can become one.
The Millionaire Next Door went on to sell more than 4 million copies and, 27 years after it was first published, was recently selected as a top-five business book by The Wall Street Journal, suggesting the timelessness of its advice and influencer status for its authors. But unlike many of today’s social media influencers who are often called out for hypocrisy in their real lives compared to the lifestyle they espouse in their online presence, Danko’s life closely follows the roadmap to wealth laid out in his book.
Not a Vanderbilt, Rockefeller or Kardashian? No problem, according to Danko. Achieving a net worth of $1M or more is still within reach. The Millionaire Next Door is based on extensive research, surveys and interviews that Danko and his late co-author, Thomas J. Stanley, conducted over a period of two decades. They showed that only 19% of millionaires inherit their wealth. Most are first-generation rich and come from modest backgrounds, like Danko’s.
“It wasn’t until I was 10 years old that I knew that kids took vacations,” he explains. “That was just not part of the vocabulary of our household. It was work, school, cut that grass, chop that wood.” Danko’s grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from Eastern Europe with very little. “Neither family, when they came here around 1910, spoke any English. They worked with their hands; they were farmers and laborers.”
Danko often heard his mother speak Lithuanian with his grandmother but did not learn the language himself. He remembers his mother saying to him, “We’re in America. You’re going to be part of this.”
Danko was a good student growing up. College-bound as a high school senior in 1969, he knew he’d be paying his own way through school. “When I was 17 and thinking about college, SUNY Albany was my affordable choice,” he says.
Once enrolled, Danko describes “a remarkable set of coincidences” that led to eventually becoming a bestselling author. After some less-than-stellar grades in his pre-med classes, he thought, “Let me see what’s going on in marketing.”
He signed up for MKT 351: Consumer Behavior with a young assistant professor named Tom Stanley. “I got an A and [Stanley] invited me to work on his first study of the affluent market. And the rest is history.” Stanley would go on to become Danko’s mentor and research partner, and together they published The Millionaire Next Door. In the interim, Danko received his PhD from RPI in 1983 and joined the UAlbany School of Business faculty. The former marketing professor still refers to himself as “an advertisement for the value of public education.”
“Frugal Frugal Frugal” is the title of Chapter 2 in The Millionaire Next Door and one of the main tenets of the book’s philosophy. To become affluent, you must live below your means: no Rolls-Royce, no 20-room mansions and definitely no superyachts (bad investment, even Leonardo DiCaprio borrows his). In essence, you can either look rich or be rich.
“I always had the 'Millionaire Next Door' ethos,” Danko says, “but the research reinforced it.” Frugality was a way of life for him growing up. “It wasn’t about acquiring anything, cars or better housing or anything other than the family life were initial influences on me, and I think in a very positive way. That gave me a work ethic.”
When he was just 5 years old, he lost his father, a World War II Navy veteran, to multiple sclerosis, leaving his mother to raise four young children and Danko with the indelible outlook that we’re only here briefly.
“Knowing that life is extremely short and there are only so many things I can do” was a lesson that inspired Danko throughout his life. And it sharply put into focus the things that matter to him – family, faith and caring for others – above material possessions.
It’s no surprise then that Danko has never owned a superyacht, but he is human and has, on occasion, broken The Millionaire Next Door code of conduct. “I used to drive a Mercedes,” he admits. “I was a sinner.” He also gave into temptation once on a work trip and bought a Rolex on the famous Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich, Switzerland. “My wife wasn’t with me,” he explains. “When I got home, she said, ‘You did what?’”
She forgave him, eventually. And perhaps we can too. He gave up the Mercedes for a used Subaru he currently drives. And the Rolex? Well, that trip to Switzerland was in 1993 and the watch remains the one and only on his wrist today.
Those are Danko’s words from a follow-up book he published in 2017 called Richer than a Millionaire: A Pathway to True Prosperity. In an attempt to influence the next generation, he and co-author Richard Van Ness lay out their research-based findings “… to guide young adults about financial literacy, and to show how being charitable is highly correlated with life satisfaction.”
Danko knows something about this. The second book is dedicated to his late brother, Tony, who was quadriplegic as a result of the multiple sclerosis he developed in his early 20s. Danko gave up a tenured faculty position at the School of Business in 2007 to care for Tony full-time and keep him out of a nursing home. “I don’t even call it a sacrifice,” he says. “I would call it a redirection and refocusing of what I want to do in life… I want to do things that are going to be good for my family.”
Danko has also generously funded a scholarship through the UAlbany Foundation called The Milton & Mary M. Danko Golden Rule Award, named in honor of his parents who “cared for others and gave when it seemed there was nothing left to give.” The scholarship is awarded to a student each year who demonstrates “a pattern of giving to others his/her most precious resource: time.”
By Danko’s standards, he is richer than a millionaire. And it’s not just because, at age 71, he’s still got great hair. He is close with his three adult children and six grandchildren and continues to make a good living off his books, speaking engagements and investment portfolio. “Clearly, I am not retired,” he says. “But also, I have the freedom to go to grandkids’ events, to travel and visit loved ones… to enjoy the great Adirondacks, to socialize and to volunteer.”
Danko currently lives in a very sensibly sized home with his wife in upstate New York. He has no plans to buy a superyacht.
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One of my favorite and memorable professors when I was at SUNYA in the late 70's-early 80's.
You were a great marketing Professor to me ...I loved your courses when I was at Suny Albany from 1981 to 1985!! :)) what a great article this is! Ron Cowit '85 and '90
you did a wonderful job of showing the very human caring side of a a kind and caring human being well written
This is an insightful, fascinating article that will be of interest to everyone. It paints a good picture of having money and being successful without the blings of conspicuous consumption.