Prodigious accumulator of wealth

In The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas Stanley and William Danko studied wealthy households in the United States and found that many did not look rich. They drove ordinary cars, lived in ordinary neighbourhoods and spent far less than their income allowed. To compare people fairly the authors used a simple yardstick: given your age and income, how much net worth would you expect? Those far above it they called prodigious accumulators of wealth; those far below, under accumulators. The striking finding was that income alone did not separate the two groups. Many high earners were under accumulators because their spending rose with every raise, while some modest earners became wealthy through steady saving over decades. The research is American and from the 1990s, but the lesson travels: what you keep and own matters more than what you earn and display, and the visible signs of wealth are often signs of money already spent.