We all know somebody like Mitch, your mass-transit-riding, brown-bagging coworker who has toiled in accounting for as long as you can remember. Did you know he owns a vacation house at the beach? Or the McGillicuddy family, who live down the street in a house just like yours. Would you believe they didn't have to borrow a dime to send their kids to college?

Call them the invisible rich. How do they do it? Sure, money like that sometimes comes from an inheritance or another fortuitous break, but more often than not, it's the result of diligence, smart choices and, well, deferred gratification. The tenets they follow can also put you on the path to financial prosperity and security. Discover how.

They Don't Spend Beyond Their Means

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Yes, this, Kiplinger's editor emeritus, "discretionary spending -- the chic apartment, frequent travel and restaurant meals, consumer electronics, fancy clothes and cars -- crowds out the saving that will enable you to be rich someday." This is what makes the invisible rich, well, invisible: They're not conspicuous about their consumption. They're value shoppers, whether it's for or or anything else. And they'll , putting items to use for as long as they still do the job. Meanwhile, they put the money they saved instead of buying shiny new objects to work earning .