17 things millionaires do differently from everyone else

• Self-made millionaires do things a little differently from everyone else.
• They allocate their time and energy differently, focusing more on personal growth, their thoughts, investments, and work.
• They also exhibit heightened levels of certain traits, like frugality, resiliency, conscientiousness, and consistency.
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Self-made millionaires didn't get to the two-comma club without doing things a little differently from the rest.

Various researchers who studied hundreds of self-made millionaires for several years have found that many tend to practice different habits or display heightened traits that help them build wealth. Many millionaires, for example, allocate their time differently — they spend more time focusing on personal growth, planning for investments, and working, and less time sleeping.

They also gravitate toward similar wealth-building strategies, like saving as much as they can and bringing in multiple income streams. And when it comes to investing, millionaires love low-cost index funds and real estate. Millionaires also tend to be frugal, conscientious, and resilient — all traits that help amplify their wealth-building actions.

While some of the behaviors above may also ring true for non-millionaires, millionaires often exhibit them at a stronger level and with more consistency.

Here's what sets millionaires apart from everyone else — besides a seven- to nine-figure net worth.

SEE ALSO: A woman who studied 600 millionaires discovered that most of the superrich have surprisingly affordable homes. Here's what some of those look like.

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They're frugal.

Frugality — a commitment to saving, spending less, and sticking to a budget — is one of the wealth factors that help millionaires build wealth, according to Sarah Stanley Fallaw, the director of research for the Affluent Market Institute and an author of "The Next Millionaire Next Door: Enduring Strategies for Building Wealth," for which she surveyed more than 600 millionaires in America.

Many of the millionaires Stanley Fallaw interviewed stressed the freedom that comes with spending below their means.

"Spending above your means, spending instead of saving for retirement, spending in anticipation of becoming wealthy makes you a slave to the paycheck, even with a stellar level of income," she wrote.

They keep their housing costs low.

A prime example of frugality is that millionaires typically live in a home and neighborhood they can easily afford, according to Stanley Fallaw.

She said that most of the millionaires she studied had never purchased a home that cost more than triple their annual income. The median home value for millionaires in her latest study was $850,000 (3.4 times their current income), with a median original purchase price of $465,000.

They save a lot of their income.

Being frugal and living in an affordable home enables millionaires to save. They recognize that income isn't enough — they have to save what they're making.

John, who runs the personal-finance blog ESI Money and retired at 52 with a $3 million net worth, has interviewed 100 millionaires over the past few years and found that the median millionaire spent $90,000 a year while earning $250,000 in income — a 64% savings rate. Saving it, he said, allows for investment.

While this savings rate might be slightly off because of things like not counting taxes as spending, the main takeaway, he said, is that millionaires "save a large portion of their income."

If you make $250,000 and spend $250,000, "you are no better off at the end of the year," he wrote.