A part- or full-time summer job and a child's ability to learn financial lessons just might be the best two gifts any parent could give to a son or daughter. That's according to research by Thomas Stanley and William Danko who authored the book The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy.

After 30 years of tracking the nation's wealthiest people, the authors found blue-collar business owners, more often than not, trumped white-collar counterparts in accumulating wealth. After personally reading the book, there are some important take-aways for dairy farm business owners:

• More often than not, it's a winning work ethic and strong financial principles that separate wealth builders from others in the population.

• Entrepreneurs who gained the most wealth tend to be more frugal than others of the same age and income. In short, they live far beneath their resources would indicate or even allow.

• Ivy League diplomas or doctor and law degrees don't automatically lead to success. Most of the nation's "Millionaire Next Door" types had part-time jobs while in high school and college. They also have degrees from state universities.

• Successful business owners who have made money in one generation often own unglamorous businesses such as dry cleaning, janitorial, scrap metal yards, porta-potty companies and, yes, even farmers. They are most often found in the Midwest and South, not the East and West coasts of America.

While these are the wealth-building attributes of the typical first-generation "Millionaire Next Door," passing these and other skills onto children is a bit more difficult because most parents want a "better life" for their children. Yet, it's often the family business, great customer care and hard work that's needed to keep the business growing and flourishing. And that presents successful business owners with the ultimate quandary - instilling the same attributes into their children that ultimately made them successful. Those who do it well will have the family business - in our case the family dairy farm - flourish well into the next generation.

To sum up Stanley and Danko's book - most "Millionaire Next Door" people are difficult to spot. But, if you look for some of the attributes I mentioned above and read the book, you can pick them out in your local community.

A portion of the lyrics to the Montgomery Gentry song, "Where I come from" also points out the "Millionaire Next Door" mindset:
That old man right there in the rocking chair
At the courthouse square I'll tell you now
He could buy your fancy car with hundred dollar bills
Don't let those faded overalls fool ya
He made his million without one day of schoolin'

While we think young people should get "schoolin'" these days, the rest is all true. Those with some of the greatest wealth blend right in with their neighbors often worth 5, 10 or even 25 times more than their neighbor. The trick is they don't flaunt it or outspend their means.

To order a copy of The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy, go to Amazon.com or check it out at the local library like I did. The latter costs less and is an attribute of wealth builders.

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