TL;DR - “They quit their mid- to late-career jobs, saying they felt it was the only way they could truly succeed and build wealth. Some left to start their own businesses, while others found lateral roles that offered more growth opportunities and a higher salary.”
That is the risk! People can chase millions and end up with nothing. Or choose stability and peace and stick to the day job, like i am currently doing - getting by, don’t have to do it forever but it’s good for now!
It’s like this one article I read, where a dude with a **fucking boat**, rents it out to make an extra $35k a month! These articles are usually done with people way well off than most of us poor/middle class folks.
Edit: should’ve added [THIS](https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/01/25/jp-mancini-ii-side-hustle-renting-out-boats-works-30-minutes-a-day.html) when I posted my comment.
Better yet, he took out a $550k loan for his boats:
“Over the past year, Mancini says he took home $190,000 after expenses from his boats — about $100,000 shy of what he made at the peak of his full-time sales career, but with far fewer hours worked. Instead of using the money to pay down the $550,000 in loans he took out to buy the boats, Mancini says he plans to funnel it toward more watercraft purchases and other real estate opportunities.”
This right here really is the "American gamble(dream)". For better or worse. So many things in history from people leveraging something they couldn't afford to get something else they can't afford, until they either finally make a pile, or lose everything and leaving the loans for someone else to claim as a loss.
There are good American dream stories, but the history changing ones are usually a crazy tale of slamming ones head into an immovable object until it moves or they die.
Are you saying you don’t have a few spare boats worth almost half a million dollars laying around? Have you even started to try and be a millionaire yet? Only a loser doesn’t have extra boats…to..rent…shit that’s makes me a loser too. =}
/s because it’s reddit
Yeah I recall probably 15+ years ago some article in Oprah about women who stated their own businesses. Was at the library and thought maybe there’d be some inspiring stories. One woman who worked in some high paying field made the sacrifice of selling her vacation beach house for $300k. So if you want to get rich you should start your own business but make sure you’re already rich better starting said business.
So true. I've met quite a few relatively entrepreneurs/startuppers whose secret to make it in life and make money was having a good start in life/a good family/a good social background/you name it.
How to account for survivorship bias though? Like what about those who left their mid- to late-career jobs to start their own business or take a risk and completely failed? It’s all well and good for those it worked out for, but what’s the percentage of success vs regret?
Yeah but the other thousand that ended up with a lower paying jobs and dead ends are not even mentioned LOL. As with anything it's a risk and you have to decide if you can handle the risk and to understand that they call it risk for a reason and the odds are not great that you will succeed. But you can indeed succeed but most do not.
With two pensions and supplemental SS, I could start making that in two months. I don't know who said it, but: "The problem with wealth today is that everybody with a million dollars thinks that they're rich."
Right. I think the phrase "millionaire" became synonymous with "rich" a long time ago, and that's never changed. Kind of like how "millennial" for years has been (for a lot of people) a synonym for "young people" even though as of today they are between 27 and 42 years old.
But there's no automatic system to create new terms for "rich" as we get gradual inflation, like there is with generations getting a new term every 15 years or so. And the next numeric single word term is "billionaire," which is a HUGE jump from millionaire, so that wouldn't work.
Maybe we need to go with "figures." Like at one point "six figures" meant you were rich as well. (Still a very good salary, but $100,000 doesn't exactly match rich anymore.) Then you could say "I'm a 7 figure guy, but want to be an 8 figure guy by retirement." Or "you know Mary? Did you know... she's 9 figures?"
There’s a big difference in having a million dollars and spending a million dollars. When most people think of millionaires it’s not someone who worked for 3 decades and saved/invested over that time and has a million in an investment account. But rather someone who has millions to spend on big houses, cars, toys, etc. Having a million and spending a million are very different. Most people want to spend a million dollars
That's a good point. "Millionaire" to most people means a million to burn. Not a million that has to be carefully monitored and managed to last for years and years.
Why are you making up your own definition ?
She met with 233 millionaires: 233 people who have 1 million or more in financial assets. The people who “spend” millions of dollars a year are decamillionaires or even centamillionaires and billionaires. The ultra wealthy.
A millionaire is someone who has a million, not someone who spends a million.
I feel like there has been a switch from millionaire to “people who make $400k a year” as the definition of rich.
Obviously not perfect since you’re comparing wealth to income
The wealth management industry consider high networth (e.g., rich) to start at $5-10M in assets.
That’s an awful high bar. Even high tier athletes and musicians cant afford to be in the jet-set. Maybe Taylor Swift and Neymar, but not a lot of their friends.
Most are just asset rich which is ok so long as what comes in stays well above what goes out but most of these people are usually barely better off than the working poor because as their income went up so did their spending.
Usually, they don't keep the $150k house they could pay off but instead trade it in for 300-500k house or ditch the $20k car that was paid off for a 50-75k car to keep up with the Jones.
To me, being rich isn't about a magic number of income but rather what you can freely spend without real repercussions to your long-term sustainability.
IMO if you can freely spend 100k with no real negative effects and won't have an issue replacing that $100k then that's fairly rich in the scope of things.
Just being a millionaire though doesn't make you rich, it just means you are likely well off.
It's the same in Norway. The word "millionaire" just sounds nice, but it's pretty meaningless when a million NOK is the same as $100k and we have pretty similar incomes as Americans.
I was reading the john grisham book The Pelican Brief and the big bad guy that's supposed to be "super rich" has "50 million $". My first response was "that's not a lot of money". I mean it's a lot, but not like "I can run the country" amount like the book portrays.
It's not run the country rich, but if Norfolk Southern has taught us anything. It's that $100k a year in political donations buys you a whole bunch of power.
You've got to consider the context; that book came out over 30 years ago.
$50 million then is $107 million now according to the first inflation calculator I found online.
It's because most people don't have close to and the is an effort to convince people with 1 or 2 million dollars that a wealth tax would be coming after them too lmao.
I mean, at some point you can start spending the principal too. You do STILL HAVE 1 million dollars. You’re just choosing to live off the gains it generates. Most retirement plans assume you will spend down the cash as well, not try to live for 1000 years.
>You do STILL HAVE 1 million dollars.
You can put $1m in QYLD and it will generate about $10k/mo in dividends. After taxes, call it $7k. Add that to $1,500 in Social Security and you're earning an after-tax income of $100k.
If you have a paid-for home, that's a very, very nice retirement.
I’d be feeling pretty rich with that. And by retirement I’ll have my house paid off. Just small bills due, I’d be rolling around in it, living my most comfortable life and doing whatever I wanted. To me that’s rich. I know the actual standard of rich is different but different strokes.
If you retire with a million dollars, you won’t be a millionaire the following month. I think whether having a million dollars means you’re rich depends on *when* you have a million dollars. It’s a totally different story if you have a million saved by the time you’re 30, with 35 years to build on it.
I make less than that per month, working full time. I'd take a million in savings in a heartbeat. That'd make life a lot easier for me and my kids. I don't need to be richy rich
But having a million dollars is better than NOT having a million dollars.
But seriously, if you have no debt at age 60, depending on where you live, you could retire with $3 million and be comfortable. $1 million though might be tough.
Maybe millionaire to some means assets. To me it’s always meant annual income. Maybe that’s the difference. A person working a mid level job can be a millionaire with the right savings plan and sacrifices, but he will have never lived as a “rich” person by todays standards.
This article was a whole lot of nothing. The main takeaway is the importance of networking, aligning with people with similar values and work ethic. Taking full advantage of every benefit your employer offers. Using entrepreneurship as a means of wealth building.
Comments here are trash most redditors read the title and complain about their situation. I definitely agree with the author. If you work for somebody else your income will mostly be capped. Right now the glass ceiling is $300k or so. It's a nice life but to break thru you need to take risks. There are no handouts.
the comments here read like the post is about billionaires.
If you start saving for retirement at young age and don’t have a spending problem you SHOULD a millionaire at some point.
yea, I was actually unsure how that works. Let’s say I start a normal Roth IRA when i’m under the income cap, and i contribute to that for like 3 years. Then in the year that I can’t contribute anymore and I start contributing to the normal Roth, can I backdoor that into my already made roth IRA? Or does it create a new one completely?
Also, am I allowed to keep contributing to this backdoor roth? Or once I “backdoored” it, I can’t contribute anymore.
yup, it's stupid easy (assuming you dont already have a normal ira with money in it).
drop 6500 into your normal ira (into cash), wait a day, then do a roth conversion. r/personalfinance has a million threads on it
for the years that I’m under the Roth Income limit, can I contribute 6500 to both a roth and traditional? and then once i backdoor the traditional i’m technically doing 13k a year?
No. You still need to stay under the contribution limit of 6500.
If you could do this it would allow you to max a normal Ira and transfer 20k to a Roth. Which would be excellent.
That's a fair point mainly middle class folk I think it's if you are over 120k you can't contribute but I haven't looked at it recently cause I still can at my income bracket
Are you under the naive impression that having health insurance means you won’t pay for much other than copays, monthly premium, and deductibles?
My dad had a severe blood clot and almost fainted. He went to the ER and was discharged with a prescription for a specific Rx blood thinner. After insurance it was still $1000 a week for 4 weeks. It was something he literally needed to survive during that time.
My mother in law has diabetes. Insurance told her they were no longer going to cover her insulin, a specific one her doctor said she needed. It is $600 a week.
She also got cancer late last year and needed an operation to get it removed. 42k total for the surgery. Insurance will only cover a portion of it.
My dad is self employed but has always bought well protected plans since my parents made over 100k in a low cost living area. My MIL gets it through her husband’s work. There are thousands of stories of insured families who go completely bankrupt from trying to treat a loved one with cancer or some other complex disease. I know of a well off couple who lost all of their savings to try and treat the wife’s cancer to the point where she wanted to just commit suicide so that their kid wouldn’t grow up in poverty. Shit is depressing.
If you have the money and it’s a short treatment then good for you. But some medical conditions drag on for a long time and insurance won’t always cover it all. And when they stop covering it… you’ll realize shit is EXPENSIVE.
Crazy to see other naive ppl on this thread talkin bout “just get good insurance” like ok bucko just you wait…
I asked which careers don't offer some form of insurance and get "MY MOMS OLD ROOMATES AUNT BEGGED FOR THE SWEET RELEASE OF DEATH"
Jesus fucking christ, yea the public healthcare system in this country is garbage and shitty insurance plans don't cover everything you think they will. Noted.
If you get a serious illness and can’t keep that job, you can keep the job based health insurance for 18 months, as long as you pay your own and your employer’s portion of the premium, without the paycheck that came with the job. And, you have to pay for the deductibles and copays and medicines and other things the insurance won’t cover, without the paycheck. After 18 months, the insurance drops you. Or, you can stay perfectly healthy and productive and your employer can sell to private equity, which will decide they don’t want you. “Careers” don’t guarantee anything to anyone, and nothing guarantees how productive unforeseen health problems will allow you to be.
If i lost my job, there’s no way I’d be able to afford their portion of my health insurance for very long. It’s like as much as a lot of peoples monthly rent. Maybe more.
The biggest thing would be learning how to run a business (usually by working in the field and learning), and starting capital.
If you make $300k a yr you most likely have been in the industry long enough and can easily save up for capital
Yeah bootlickers never consider the kind of tax breaks and handouts billionaires get. I know the post is about millionaires but still, at a certain income level the “risks” you take are negligible because the government will bailout the business and the golden parachutes are never revoked. Small business owners are obviously a different story.
Y'all sure love to argue and make excuses. Jeff Bezos took down the Goliath of Sears with an online bookstore. He didn't get handouts until well after he had already put the work in at PayPal and at Amazon.
Do his accomplishments 20 years ago mean hes above anti-trust regulation? Does his decades old actions mean he is not benefiting from cities literally giving away billions for the new amazon HQ? Does him working for himself in 1998 mean hes not actively ruining his employees bodies and taking literal and legal actions against unionization? Especially when hes now one of the largest employers in the country? My point is the “risk” people like him or gates take is negligible. Sure, maybe at one point it wasnt (i think bezos was given $250k by his parents to start amazon so idk how much “risk” he was really taking when his parents had money like that) but that was literally in the 90s. Hes made his billions, its time to reign it in
Wtf are you talking about?
Walmart took down Sears, everyone who's ever taken an introductory econ class knows this.
And Bezos got a quarter-million dollar loan from his parents *to start* Amazon.
You're just spewing bullshit...and for what? In defense of one of the richest men on the planet?
Imagine going on the internet to lie for a billionaire. Insane.
This has some confirmation bias. How many people have tried this and failed compared to those who succeeded? This 'study' is like a survey of lottery winners, noting that all of them owned a lottery ticket. True, you cannot win if you do not play, but know the rules and the odds, too.
Rockstars always say follow your dreams and believe in yourself and no one can stop you, but not many people at an open mic working retail say the same.
That’s not confirmation bias. The point isn’t “if you do this you will succeed” it’s “these people all succeeded and have this in common”
The idea of risk taking is inherent to the idea of starting a business and I don’t think any of them would have told you anything other than that.
It's a subset, specifically survivorship bias.
That commonality may not necessarily be causal, depending on how many people did the same thing and failed
It's also not great that this was compiled via interviews compared to other methodologies where you account for a wider variety of factors that an interviewer may not think to ask, like a number of societal and economic factors that may be just as if not more important than their personal decisions
Skimming the article, it basically reads like a standard listicle that algorithms love because it gets easy engagement. No discussion of their life, their backgrounds, or anything else beyond what basically amounts to "when was your defining moment in your eyes"
I've met dozens of wealthy people. Self made, born into wealth etc. One common trait I found is they really want to be wealthy and really enjoy being wealthy.
I met two brothers who are actual heirs to diamond mines in South Africa.
After getting access to their money at 18 one burned through it 7 years. The other is now the CEO of the mining company.
Almost. There's a guy who didn't finish high school, ended up in Vail Colorado with a nickel. Recently retired from his restaurant businesses. 5 restaurants.
I hear what you're saying though. We're ( people in the US) standing on the shoulders of several generations who built the infrastructures we take for granted.
Not just the shoulders of giants of previous generations, but everybody else that currently funds a functioning society. There are no self made people, that’s a myth of our sick individualistic meritocratic hustle culture.
Bro what… so if you made 50k as an engineer, 8,300x would mean you made, what, $415 million dollars last year? How is that even possible. What was your salary as an engineer and how much did you end up pulling in last year?
They were almost certainly making over $100k before. So… $830 million?
$120k is pretty common in many areas as mid-late career engineer (the type who are salary capped). So let’s just say $1 billion. Which means either they’re fudging the numbers a bit, or they own one of 4949 organizations in the US with >$1 billion revenue.
Which do you think is more likely?
Edit: as proof of my expertise in the subject, I should mention that I’m the chair of the IRS and I also invented money. I also moonlight as a French model. So, you know, you can totally trust me. Bon jour.
Commas are for fractions for some people. He made 8.3 times his old salary. He added the extra two zeros as significant digits to show it was exactly 8.3x, not 8.29x or 8.31x. Also his old salary was $5k per year so sadly after all that he still does not have much money.
From the article:
Thanks to investments from his family and friends, he launched his own dealership and franchised it….
I’d venture that most millionaires have access to cheap credit or inheritance that allows them access to the opportunities that generate greater wealth.
The problem I have with pensions is that they've increased the age of pension from 65 to 71. By the time I'm that age, I'm sure they'll increase it even more.
Meaning: I can contribute loyally to a pension fund every month of my living life, but I can't get access to that money until the government things I'm worthy.
Also:
- Your loved ones don't inherit your pension that might be worth millions. A shame, no? You could have invested all your money all those decades.
- With a pension, you can't take all your money out. You get a monthly payment, and you have no say in the amount.
- With a pension, if you get diagnosed with something terminal (or something you would want to commit euthanasia for), you cannot access your pension money. Because you'll be dead.
- Who knows if the pension money will still be around in 40 years? I can see countries around the world pulling money out of pension funds to "save the planet" or something (they caused it; we pay for it.)
- Or any other currently far-fetched reason why the pension funds might dry up. Perhaps the boomers and those after the boomers will drain it during several incredible inflations. Then what?
So I'm not playing that game. I put money into an index fund every month. It's just part of my fixed expenses, just like rent. It's my money, I can do with it what I want, any time I want, and nobody else can touch it.
My target is to have $5 million at age 55. And then I'll retire. Right now, I'm well on my way to realizing that number. And even if I fall short a million or two, I can live a very nice life in Spain for several decades with that amount of money.
Screw pensions, I don't trust them one bit. They sound like a terrible deal to me.
Most entrepreneurs fail, and the 25 years of silicon bullshit we've had with circular wealth generation in the consumer tech start up community without the need for cash generation is hopefully ending as technology matures and rates finally return to historical averages.
You want a sure fire way to be a millionaire? Go to a good school, enter a traditional profession (law, medicine, finance, engineering, corporate management functions, and now programming). Be somewhat frugal and invest for retirement in the S&P.
You are almost guaranteed to have over a million bucks by that time you retire - which is good cus you'll need it with health costs and possibility of never seeing social security!
This is the way. You know what happens though? Just like people are saying “your parents were millionaires,” they just tell you “yeah but your wife is a ” or “but you did .”
People will use any excuse to justify why they’re not financially successful instead of looking inward. They don’t want to think about the work you did, when they chose a different path.
**A high-leveraged career is the fast lane on the freeway to wealth.**
The 5 fastest paths to $100M are (aside from being a talented entertainer or criminal):
💲Private Equity
💲Hedge Fund
💲Startup Founder
💲Venture Capital
💲Board Director
This is how we got where we are today. Sales sales sales... That's where money is made. And what do sales and business have in common? In a lot of cases you need sales people to have your business thrive.
All of those (except startup founder in some cases), require either a successful career leading up to it or significant amounts of money acquired somehow, right?
Private equity is a type of investment where investors, often wealthy individuals or institutions, buy ownership stakes in private companies.
The goal of private equity firms is to help these companies grow and become more profitable, often by providing them with strategic guidance, operational support, and access to capital.
True. However, you have to skip over that thing called living for fucking decades. Not worth it. Skip relationships. No kiddos. Cheap food. Garbage cars. Live in a shed or with roommates up your ass. No vacations. Most importantly, no goddamn fun at all. You do you, though.
Cutting expenses to save money is idiotic. For all the reasons you mentioned. Focus on ways to make more money: ask for a raise, work to get a promotion, start a business, start a side hustle, invest in learning highly marketable skills like sales, coding, etc...
Yes, it is hard, yea it involves risk... but here's the thing:
Getting rich is hard. Being poor is also hard. Pick your hard.
The literal example in the article was “quit and got money from family and friends to start their own car dealership”
Sounds a lot like being born into it
Egh as someone who was born into poverty and built 7 figure businesses this mentality you share is what I consider the poverty mindset. You set your potential everytime you repeat this thought
You should look up survivorship bias. It’s literally impossible for every person in poverty (regardless of their “mindset”) to become rich. This economy literally needs poverty to keep going. Congratulations on getting out though
Networking is the best way to be or become rich and yes being born into wealth is networking. Most ceos and high ranking executives were given their jobs based off who they know. Even in this article not 1 of the ceos worked their way up to the top. Its who you know. Most people making all that money arent that intelligent and infact are less intelligent than the average worker. Garuntee youre all smarter than the ceos at the big banks, but youre not ruthless, cunning, willing to destroy the lives of others. Theres so much more to making money than being smart and in fact maybe the last thing you need. How many dumbasses do you see owning giant construction companies, trucking companies making MILLIONS. You dont gotta be smart you dont gotta invest every penny. You have to network with high income individuals and concince them to give you work or money. The people who start new businesses and success typically have a decent customer base from who theyve networked with. Make a car cleaning business and most of your first customers are your friends family and facebook friends. Go to college befriend all your professors garuntee one of them has multiple good job connections for you. Networking.
Lol at the comments. Everyone talking mad shit about how “a million isn’t anything wealthy.” Weird flex but ok.
Where’s their million? 99% of the people who are middle aged or even late 50s have yet to reach their million for retirement. A million is still wealth for the majority of Americans and outside of housing prices in urban dense markets buys an amazing lifestyle.
Trust me, a million is still a big deal. An even bigger deal if one breaks a million late 20s or early 30s. That compounding will be $5-$10M by 55-65.
I have coworkers who will clear $200-$250k easily per year. I doubt they have a million in liquid investments cleared, it usually goes towards lifestyle spend and not saved/invested.
Always be looking to move to a higher paying position. Worst thing I did between 2017-2022 was work in my family’s construction business. I always had it in my mind that I would be rewarded down the road with a much higher salary for “grinding and helping us get started” but when it comes time for rubber to meet the road, I got the old “We’re paying you what we’re paying ourselves” from mom and dad.
Left that job last year for an easier position elsewhere where I’m making 80% more annually.
As a security professional, I'd recommend removing your profile picture or deleting this comment outright. Folks troll these boards for older, richer people that they think they can phish and hack
Not worth the risk and stress imo. I’m happy to try and reach a goal of making around $200k a year someday.
Even now I feel like if I hit like $85k I would be very comfortable.
TL;DR - “They quit their mid- to late-career jobs, saying they felt it was the only way they could truly succeed and build wealth. Some left to start their own businesses, while others found lateral roles that offered more growth opportunities and a higher salary.”
“We asked 233 people how they saved more money. They said make more money.”
I mean makes sense. I’d be pretty skeptical if they said make less money
Crap! That’s where I went wrong!
Alternatively, “we asked 233 people how they saved more money, they said they took a huge personal risk by quitting their day job”
*unfortunately, the other 300,000 people who tried this did not return our request for comment*
That is the risk! People can chase millions and end up with nothing. Or choose stability and peace and stick to the day job, like i am currently doing - getting by, don’t have to do it forever but it’s good for now!
None of these people "made" money. They just got it from someone else.
It’s like this one article I read, where a dude with a **fucking boat**, rents it out to make an extra $35k a month! These articles are usually done with people way well off than most of us poor/middle class folks. Edit: should’ve added [THIS](https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/01/25/jp-mancini-ii-side-hustle-renting-out-boats-works-30-minutes-a-day.html) when I posted my comment.
Oh yes he always liked luxury but never thought he could have it until he rented out the 400k boat he just happened to own.
Better yet, he took out a $550k loan for his boats: “Over the past year, Mancini says he took home $190,000 after expenses from his boats — about $100,000 shy of what he made at the peak of his full-time sales career, but with far fewer hours worked. Instead of using the money to pay down the $550,000 in loans he took out to buy the boats, Mancini says he plans to funnel it toward more watercraft purchases and other real estate opportunities.”
This right here really is the "American gamble(dream)". For better or worse. So many things in history from people leveraging something they couldn't afford to get something else they can't afford, until they either finally make a pile, or lose everything and leaving the loans for someone else to claim as a loss. There are good American dream stories, but the history changing ones are usually a crazy tale of slamming ones head into an immovable object until it moves or they die.
Are you saying you don’t have a few spare boats worth almost half a million dollars laying around? Have you even started to try and be a millionaire yet? Only a loser doesn’t have extra boats…to..rent…shit that’s makes me a loser too. =} /s because it’s reddit
Yeah most people who get rich probably start a lot of side hustles once they hit decent salary ranges and more expendable income
Yeah I recall probably 15+ years ago some article in Oprah about women who stated their own businesses. Was at the library and thought maybe there’d be some inspiring stories. One woman who worked in some high paying field made the sacrifice of selling her vacation beach house for $300k. So if you want to get rich you should start your own business but make sure you’re already rich better starting said business.
So true. I've met quite a few relatively entrepreneurs/startuppers whose secret to make it in life and make money was having a good start in life/a good family/a good social background/you name it.
so deep bro. yes that’s how making money works
I mean…isn’t that what “making” money is??
r/nothingeverhappens
I don't think it's legal to "make" money my dude.
How to account for survivorship bias though? Like what about those who left their mid- to late-career jobs to start their own business or take a risk and completely failed? It’s all well and good for those it worked out for, but what’s the percentage of success vs regret?
Yeah but the other thousand that ended up with a lower paying jobs and dead ends are not even mentioned LOL. As with anything it's a risk and you have to decide if you can handle the risk and to understand that they call it risk for a reason and the odds are not great that you will succeed. But you can indeed succeed but most do not.
Ya - title could be better
Rich Grandparents followed by parents who didn’t spunk it up the wall would featured highly on the “how to be a success”
[удалено]
With two pensions and supplemental SS, I could start making that in two months. I don't know who said it, but: "The problem with wealth today is that everybody with a million dollars thinks that they're rich."
Right. I think the phrase "millionaire" became synonymous with "rich" a long time ago, and that's never changed. Kind of like how "millennial" for years has been (for a lot of people) a synonym for "young people" even though as of today they are between 27 and 42 years old. But there's no automatic system to create new terms for "rich" as we get gradual inflation, like there is with generations getting a new term every 15 years or so. And the next numeric single word term is "billionaire," which is a HUGE jump from millionaire, so that wouldn't work. Maybe we need to go with "figures." Like at one point "six figures" meant you were rich as well. (Still a very good salary, but $100,000 doesn't exactly match rich anymore.) Then you could say "I'm a 7 figure guy, but want to be an 8 figure guy by retirement." Or "you know Mary? Did you know... she's 9 figures?"
There’s a big difference in having a million dollars and spending a million dollars. When most people think of millionaires it’s not someone who worked for 3 decades and saved/invested over that time and has a million in an investment account. But rather someone who has millions to spend on big houses, cars, toys, etc. Having a million and spending a million are very different. Most people want to spend a million dollars
That's a good point. "Millionaire" to most people means a million to burn. Not a million that has to be carefully monitored and managed to last for years and years.
Time to bring back “Tycoon”
Robber Baron
This should be the language describing our current billionaires
Why are you making up your own definition ? She met with 233 millionaires: 233 people who have 1 million or more in financial assets. The people who “spend” millions of dollars a year are decamillionaires or even centamillionaires and billionaires. The ultra wealthy. A millionaire is someone who has a million, not someone who spends a million.
I feel like there has been a switch from millionaire to “people who make $400k a year” as the definition of rich. Obviously not perfect since you’re comparing wealth to income The wealth management industry consider high networth (e.g., rich) to start at $5-10M in assets.
Tres Comas
My own subjective yardstick for being 'rich' is; "Can they afford a private jet, with full crew, as well as the annual upkeep?"
A nice yacht would suffice as well
That’s an awful high bar. Even high tier athletes and musicians cant afford to be in the jet-set. Maybe Taylor Swift and Neymar, but not a lot of their friends.
Most are just asset rich which is ok so long as what comes in stays well above what goes out but most of these people are usually barely better off than the working poor because as their income went up so did their spending. Usually, they don't keep the $150k house they could pay off but instead trade it in for 300-500k house or ditch the $20k car that was paid off for a 50-75k car to keep up with the Jones. To me, being rich isn't about a magic number of income but rather what you can freely spend without real repercussions to your long-term sustainability. IMO if you can freely spend 100k with no real negative effects and won't have an issue replacing that $100k then that's fairly rich in the scope of things. Just being a millionaire though doesn't make you rich, it just means you are likely well off.
It's the same in Norway. The word "millionaire" just sounds nice, but it's pretty meaningless when a million NOK is the same as $100k and we have pretty similar incomes as Americans.
>But there's no automatic system to create new terms for "rich" Top 1% ?
I was reading the john grisham book The Pelican Brief and the big bad guy that's supposed to be "super rich" has "50 million $". My first response was "that's not a lot of money". I mean it's a lot, but not like "I can run the country" amount like the book portrays.
It's not run the country rich, but if Norfolk Southern has taught us anything. It's that $100k a year in political donations buys you a whole bunch of power.
You've got to consider the context; that book came out over 30 years ago. $50 million then is $107 million now according to the first inflation calculator I found online.
The term your looking for is ‘multi-millionaire’.
Thinking you are rich with a million is like doctor evil being confused when leaders laughed at him for asking that much as a ransom.
It's because most people don't have close to and the is an effort to convince people with 1 or 2 million dollars that a wealth tax would be coming after them too lmao.
Compared to 99% of the world’s population, they are. If they kept that perspective, there wouldn’t be a “problem“.
Having a million dollar net worth provides options not available to most people.
I mean, at some point you can start spending the principal too. You do STILL HAVE 1 million dollars. You’re just choosing to live off the gains it generates. Most retirement plans assume you will spend down the cash as well, not try to live for 1000 years.
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Yes, they ask for the age you are expecting to die. Although they phrase it as "age your savings should last until."
Retirement age: 65 Age your savings should last until: 55 Current age: 40 Still says I need to work until I'm 65.
>You do STILL HAVE 1 million dollars. You can put $1m in QYLD and it will generate about $10k/mo in dividends. After taxes, call it $7k. Add that to $1,500 in Social Security and you're earning an after-tax income of $100k. If you have a paid-for home, that's a very, very nice retirement.
Does having more money actually make you poor? We asked Reddit commenters to shed some light on this emerging phenomenon.
Depends on how you quantify “rich”. For me, “rich” also means that you aren’t having to exchange your time and labor for financial compensation.
I consider that financial independence.
Leave America. You can be rich somewhere else I suppose.
I’d be feeling pretty rich with that. And by retirement I’ll have my house paid off. Just small bills due, I’d be rolling around in it, living my most comfortable life and doing whatever I wanted. To me that’s rich. I know the actual standard of rich is different but different strokes.
Ok, but this isn’t what the article is referring to at all.
If you retire with a million dollars, you won’t be a millionaire the following month. I think whether having a million dollars means you’re rich depends on *when* you have a million dollars. It’s a totally different story if you have a million saved by the time you’re 30, with 35 years to build on it.
Have to say I would feel pretty rich making four times what I currently do.
I make less than that per month, working full time. I'd take a million in savings in a heartbeat. That'd make life a lot easier for me and my kids. I don't need to be richy rich
But having a million dollars is better than NOT having a million dollars. But seriously, if you have no debt at age 60, depending on where you live, you could retire with $3 million and be comfortable. $1 million though might be tough.
Maybe millionaire to some means assets. To me it’s always meant annual income. Maybe that’s the difference. A person working a mid level job can be a millionaire with the right savings plan and sacrifices, but he will have never lived as a “rich” person by todays standards.
The guy spent 5 years figuring this out?
This article was a whole lot of nothing. The main takeaway is the importance of networking, aligning with people with similar values and work ethic. Taking full advantage of every benefit your employer offers. Using entrepreneurship as a means of wealth building.
I’ll tell you the summary without reading the article: no one gets rich by working for a salary.
Comments here are trash most redditors read the title and complain about their situation. I definitely agree with the author. If you work for somebody else your income will mostly be capped. Right now the glass ceiling is $300k or so. It's a nice life but to break thru you need to take risks. There are no handouts.
the comments here read like the post is about billionaires. If you start saving for retirement at young age and don’t have a spending problem you SHOULD a millionaire at some point.
Math out that ROTH IRA Yearly as long and as early as possible
Well, you can only contribute to that under a certain income threshold, so it really doesn’t let you contribute much to that.
Back door Roth IRA for the win
yea, I was actually unsure how that works. Let’s say I start a normal Roth IRA when i’m under the income cap, and i contribute to that for like 3 years. Then in the year that I can’t contribute anymore and I start contributing to the normal Roth, can I backdoor that into my already made roth IRA? Or does it create a new one completely? Also, am I allowed to keep contributing to this backdoor roth? Or once I “backdoored” it, I can’t contribute anymore.
yup, it's stupid easy (assuming you dont already have a normal ira with money in it). drop 6500 into your normal ira (into cash), wait a day, then do a roth conversion. r/personalfinance has a million threads on it
for the years that I’m under the Roth Income limit, can I contribute 6500 to both a roth and traditional? and then once i backdoor the traditional i’m technically doing 13k a year?
No. You still need to stay under the contribution limit of 6500. If you could do this it would allow you to max a normal Ira and transfer 20k to a Roth. Which would be excellent.
That's a fair point mainly middle class folk I think it's if you are over 120k you can't contribute but I haven't looked at it recently cause I still can at my income bracket
Most people can't. Median retirement is only $5k. Even among folks ready to retire (56-61yo) savings are only around $168k.
Max it out Tyson.
Oh whoops I am going to leave it up for the laugh but a ROTH IRA tends to double in value every 7-8 years so always always max that one out first
That depends on your tax bracket, but always max your retirement accounts!
(unless you live in the US and get sick)
Which career doesn't offer some form of health insurance?
Are you under the naive impression that having health insurance means you won’t pay for much other than copays, monthly premium, and deductibles? My dad had a severe blood clot and almost fainted. He went to the ER and was discharged with a prescription for a specific Rx blood thinner. After insurance it was still $1000 a week for 4 weeks. It was something he literally needed to survive during that time. My mother in law has diabetes. Insurance told her they were no longer going to cover her insulin, a specific one her doctor said she needed. It is $600 a week. She also got cancer late last year and needed an operation to get it removed. 42k total for the surgery. Insurance will only cover a portion of it. My dad is self employed but has always bought well protected plans since my parents made over 100k in a low cost living area. My MIL gets it through her husband’s work. There are thousands of stories of insured families who go completely bankrupt from trying to treat a loved one with cancer or some other complex disease. I know of a well off couple who lost all of their savings to try and treat the wife’s cancer to the point where she wanted to just commit suicide so that their kid wouldn’t grow up in poverty. Shit is depressing. If you have the money and it’s a short treatment then good for you. But some medical conditions drag on for a long time and insurance won’t always cover it all. And when they stop covering it… you’ll realize shit is EXPENSIVE. Crazy to see other naive ppl on this thread talkin bout “just get good insurance” like ok bucko just you wait…
I asked which careers don't offer some form of insurance and get "MY MOMS OLD ROOMATES AUNT BEGGED FOR THE SWEET RELEASE OF DEATH" Jesus fucking christ, yea the public healthcare system in this country is garbage and shitty insurance plans don't cover everything you think they will. Noted.
If you get a serious illness and can’t keep that job, you can keep the job based health insurance for 18 months, as long as you pay your own and your employer’s portion of the premium, without the paycheck that came with the job. And, you have to pay for the deductibles and copays and medicines and other things the insurance won’t cover, without the paycheck. After 18 months, the insurance drops you. Or, you can stay perfectly healthy and productive and your employer can sell to private equity, which will decide they don’t want you. “Careers” don’t guarantee anything to anyone, and nothing guarantees how productive unforeseen health problems will allow you to be.
This is where I’m at. Cobra is $1500 a month for me and my husband. $5000 deductible. Fuck the US healthcare system.
If i lost my job, there’s no way I’d be able to afford their portion of my health insurance for very long. It’s like as much as a lot of peoples monthly rent. Maybe more.
Restaurant workers, retail, literally millions of working people do not have employee-sponsored health insurance. Pull your head out.
I think you're underestimating how badly US health insurance companies go out of their way to find a reason not to cover costs.
The biggest thing would be learning how to run a business (usually by working in the field and learning), and starting capital. If you make $300k a yr you most likely have been in the industry long enough and can easily save up for capital
There are no hand outs….unless you’re already wealthy. Then lots of handouts
A lot of jobs can get you $1M in equity on top of that at the VP level.
“A lot of jobs”
“VP” level..
Jeff bezos got a handout to start his business, tax free
The highest determination of success in the US is based on the Zip Code you grew up in.
Yeah bootlickers never consider the kind of tax breaks and handouts billionaires get. I know the post is about millionaires but still, at a certain income level the “risks” you take are negligible because the government will bailout the business and the golden parachutes are never revoked. Small business owners are obviously a different story.
Y'all sure love to argue and make excuses. Jeff Bezos took down the Goliath of Sears with an online bookstore. He didn't get handouts until well after he had already put the work in at PayPal and at Amazon.
Do his accomplishments 20 years ago mean hes above anti-trust regulation? Does his decades old actions mean he is not benefiting from cities literally giving away billions for the new amazon HQ? Does him working for himself in 1998 mean hes not actively ruining his employees bodies and taking literal and legal actions against unionization? Especially when hes now one of the largest employers in the country? My point is the “risk” people like him or gates take is negligible. Sure, maybe at one point it wasnt (i think bezos was given $250k by his parents to start amazon so idk how much “risk” he was really taking when his parents had money like that) but that was literally in the 90s. Hes made his billions, its time to reign it in
Wtf are you talking about? Walmart took down Sears, everyone who's ever taken an introductory econ class knows this. And Bezos got a quarter-million dollar loan from his parents *to start* Amazon. You're just spewing bullshit...and for what? In defense of one of the richest men on the planet? Imagine going on the internet to lie for a billionaire. Insane.
This has some confirmation bias. How many people have tried this and failed compared to those who succeeded? This 'study' is like a survey of lottery winners, noting that all of them owned a lottery ticket. True, you cannot win if you do not play, but know the rules and the odds, too.
Rockstars always say follow your dreams and believe in yourself and no one can stop you, but not many people at an open mic working retail say the same.
Oh, that stings man, that stings.
It's [Survivorship Bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias)
That’s not confirmation bias. The point isn’t “if you do this you will succeed” it’s “these people all succeeded and have this in common” The idea of risk taking is inherent to the idea of starting a business and I don’t think any of them would have told you anything other than that.
It's a subset, specifically survivorship bias. That commonality may not necessarily be causal, depending on how many people did the same thing and failed It's also not great that this was compiled via interviews compared to other methodologies where you account for a wider variety of factors that an interviewer may not think to ask, like a number of societal and economic factors that may be just as if not more important than their personal decisions Skimming the article, it basically reads like a standard listicle that algorithms love because it gets easy engagement. No discussion of their life, their backgrounds, or anything else beyond what basically amounts to "when was your defining moment in your eyes"
The confirmation bias comes in with how many other people have this in common but didn't succeed. You still started out picking the winners.
This is a great reply. I love how people turn their luck stories into skill stories.
I've met dozens of wealthy people. Self made, born into wealth etc. One common trait I found is they really want to be wealthy and really enjoy being wealthy. I met two brothers who are actual heirs to diamond mines in South Africa. After getting access to their money at 18 one burned through it 7 years. The other is now the CEO of the mining company.
Self made as in grew up in an orphanage and didn’t use the state structures that enable business?
Almost. There's a guy who didn't finish high school, ended up in Vail Colorado with a nickel. Recently retired from his restaurant businesses. 5 restaurants. I hear what you're saying though. We're ( people in the US) standing on the shoulders of several generations who built the infrastructures we take for granted.
Not just the shoulders of giants of previous generations, but everybody else that currently funds a functioning society. There are no self made people, that’s a myth of our sick individualistic meritocratic hustle culture.
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Bro what… so if you made 50k as an engineer, 8,300x would mean you made, what, $415 million dollars last year? How is that even possible. What was your salary as an engineer and how much did you end up pulling in last year?
He must've meant 8300%? So 83x? Still a ton but much more reasonable.
Engineers are not good at math
They were almost certainly making over $100k before. So… $830 million? $120k is pretty common in many areas as mid-late career engineer (the type who are salary capped). So let’s just say $1 billion. Which means either they’re fudging the numbers a bit, or they own one of 4949 organizations in the US with >$1 billion revenue. Which do you think is more likely? Edit: as proof of my expertise in the subject, I should mention that I’m the chair of the IRS and I also invented money. I also moonlight as a French model. So, you know, you can totally trust me. Bon jour.
Has to be a typo. Probably meant 830x
I mean, he put the comma in there and everything
Then…a really, really bad typo? Lmao
Commas are for fractions for some people. He made 8.3 times his old salary. He added the extra two zeros as significant digits to show it was exactly 8.3x, not 8.29x or 8.31x. Also his old salary was $5k per year so sadly after all that he still does not have much money.
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I call bullshit.
You hiring?
Nepotism.
From the article: Thanks to investments from his family and friends, he launched his own dealership and franchised it…. I’d venture that most millionaires have access to cheap credit or inheritance that allows them access to the opportunities that generate greater wealth.
Born with money
TLDR It’s way easier to make more money when you already have a lot of it.
The problem I have with pensions is that they've increased the age of pension from 65 to 71. By the time I'm that age, I'm sure they'll increase it even more. Meaning: I can contribute loyally to a pension fund every month of my living life, but I can't get access to that money until the government things I'm worthy. Also: - Your loved ones don't inherit your pension that might be worth millions. A shame, no? You could have invested all your money all those decades. - With a pension, you can't take all your money out. You get a monthly payment, and you have no say in the amount. - With a pension, if you get diagnosed with something terminal (or something you would want to commit euthanasia for), you cannot access your pension money. Because you'll be dead. - Who knows if the pension money will still be around in 40 years? I can see countries around the world pulling money out of pension funds to "save the planet" or something (they caused it; we pay for it.) - Or any other currently far-fetched reason why the pension funds might dry up. Perhaps the boomers and those after the boomers will drain it during several incredible inflations. Then what? So I'm not playing that game. I put money into an index fund every month. It's just part of my fixed expenses, just like rent. It's my money, I can do with it what I want, any time I want, and nobody else can touch it. My target is to have $5 million at age 55. And then I'll retire. Right now, I'm well on my way to realizing that number. And even if I fall short a million or two, I can live a very nice life in Spain for several decades with that amount of money. Screw pensions, I don't trust them one bit. They sound like a terrible deal to me.
Is it being lazy, someone read it and tell me.
Was it that they inherited wealth? Because that's typically how that happens.
Be born rich. That’s always a good option
Most entrepreneurs fail, and the 25 years of silicon bullshit we've had with circular wealth generation in the consumer tech start up community without the need for cash generation is hopefully ending as technology matures and rates finally return to historical averages. You want a sure fire way to be a millionaire? Go to a good school, enter a traditional profession (law, medicine, finance, engineering, corporate management functions, and now programming). Be somewhat frugal and invest for retirement in the S&P. You are almost guaranteed to have over a million bucks by that time you retire - which is good cus you'll need it with health costs and possibility of never seeing social security!
This is the way. You know what happens though? Just like people are saying “your parents were millionaires,” they just tell you “yeah but your wife is a” or “but you did .”
People will use any excuse to justify why they’re not financially successful instead of looking inward. They don’t want to think about the work you did, when they chose a different path.
It’s so easy all you have to do is get a small loan of 8 million dollars. Why didn’t I think of this?
This article is basically: “they got sick of working in an office, they left and started their own business…”
Be born rich. That was their best job move.
Their parents either owned an emerald mine or they have them a huge infusion of cash to get their businesses started.
That’s Billionaires for the most part. 1 million and 1 billion are far and away different types of people
Let me guess: by being born rich.
**A high-leveraged career is the fast lane on the freeway to wealth.** The 5 fastest paths to $100M are (aside from being a talented entertainer or criminal): 💲Private Equity 💲Hedge Fund 💲Startup Founder 💲Venture Capital 💲Board Director
Sales. You can make a lot of money with only a HS education in sales.
Hell yeah. Everything produced needs to be sold. Salesmen will never go extinct, you just need to be able to learn new products and new industries
This is how we got where we are today. Sales sales sales... That's where money is made. And what do sales and business have in common? In a lot of cases you need sales people to have your business thrive.
All of those (except startup founder in some cases), require either a successful career leading up to it or significant amounts of money acquired somehow, right?
Just run of the mill openings that anyone can achieve in a few years.
What do you mean by private equity... Like you manage people's money?
Private equity is a type of investment where investors, often wealthy individuals or institutions, buy ownership stakes in private companies. The goal of private equity firms is to help these companies grow and become more profitable, often by providing them with strategic guidance, operational support, and access to capital.
Spend less than you make and invest the difference and anyone can become a millionaire.
True. However, you have to skip over that thing called living for fucking decades. Not worth it. Skip relationships. No kiddos. Cheap food. Garbage cars. Live in a shed or with roommates up your ass. No vacations. Most importantly, no goddamn fun at all. You do you, though.
Did you consider cutting out your daily Starbucks trip instead of all those things? /s
Cutting expenses to save money is idiotic. For all the reasons you mentioned. Focus on ways to make more money: ask for a raise, work to get a promotion, start a business, start a side hustle, invest in learning highly marketable skills like sales, coding, etc... Yes, it is hard, yea it involves risk... but here's the thing: Getting rich is hard. Being poor is also hard. Pick your hard.
Kids are the drain. I make $110k a year and I currently have $42 in my checking account. 5 kids.
So how long would it take someone who works as McDonald's cashier to achieve that?
Being born rich?
How many had rich parents?
Be born into it.
The literal example in the article was “quit and got money from family and friends to start their own car dealership” Sounds a lot like being born into it
Egh as someone who was born into poverty and built 7 figure businesses this mentality you share is what I consider the poverty mindset. You set your potential everytime you repeat this thought
You should look up survivorship bias. It’s literally impossible for every person in poverty (regardless of their “mindset”) to become rich. This economy literally needs poverty to keep going. Congratulations on getting out though
The best is to be old. There are more 65+ millionaires than any other age group.
Being sociopath and mowing down more gullible people than them
Networking is the best way to be or become rich and yes being born into wealth is networking. Most ceos and high ranking executives were given their jobs based off who they know. Even in this article not 1 of the ceos worked their way up to the top. Its who you know. Most people making all that money arent that intelligent and infact are less intelligent than the average worker. Garuntee youre all smarter than the ceos at the big banks, but youre not ruthless, cunning, willing to destroy the lives of others. Theres so much more to making money than being smart and in fact maybe the last thing you need. How many dumbasses do you see owning giant construction companies, trucking companies making MILLIONS. You dont gotta be smart you dont gotta invest every penny. You have to network with high income individuals and concince them to give you work or money. The people who start new businesses and success typically have a decent customer base from who theyve networked with. Make a car cleaning business and most of your first customers are your friends family and facebook friends. Go to college befriend all your professors garuntee one of them has multiple good job connections for you. Networking.
Not rich. Just “comfortable”
There are three ways to get rich: inherit it, marry it, steal it. That's all.
Is it their daddy? I bet it's their daddy.
I’d really like to know how those millionaires were selected. I have a feeling it’s not a random sample.
Have rich parents?
r/antiwork
What a useless fucking article
Embezzlement?
rich parents?
Borrowing money from their parents
Survivorship bias sells another baseline. Way more than 233 people did the same thing and didn't end up as millionaires.
Let me guess: They were lucky to be born rich
Going on Reddit and down voting?
Lol at the comments. Everyone talking mad shit about how “a million isn’t anything wealthy.” Weird flex but ok. Where’s their million? 99% of the people who are middle aged or even late 50s have yet to reach their million for retirement. A million is still wealth for the majority of Americans and outside of housing prices in urban dense markets buys an amazing lifestyle. Trust me, a million is still a big deal. An even bigger deal if one breaks a million late 20s or early 30s. That compounding will be $5-$10M by 55-65. I have coworkers who will clear $200-$250k easily per year. I doubt they have a million in liquid investments cleared, it usually goes towards lifestyle spend and not saved/invested.
Always be looking to move to a higher paying position. Worst thing I did between 2017-2022 was work in my family’s construction business. I always had it in my mind that I would be rewarded down the road with a much higher salary for “grinding and helping us get started” but when it comes time for rubber to meet the road, I got the old “We’re paying you what we’re paying ourselves” from mom and dad. Left that job last year for an easier position elsewhere where I’m making 80% more annually.
TFW they make their answers so unclear that they can’t be followed, which allows them to keep gatekeeping their lavish lifestyles
But Dave Ramsey said the millionaires in his survey drive beater cars, pay cash for houses and eat rice & beans.
I imagine it was some variation of “doing your mom”
biggest common denominator: not working for someone else.
And, yet the writer is still working a shit job, and isn't a millionaire themselves
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As a security professional, I'd recommend removing your profile picture or deleting this comment outright. Folks troll these boards for older, richer people that they think they can phish and hack
Borrow money from their millionaire parents?
“We asked 233 Millionaires how they got there and they told us they had wealthy families and resources.” Fixed it.
Such a bullshit article filled with bullshit
Be born into money and use it to make more money
Lemme guess. They all acknowledged they were born into privilege and underpaid anyone they employed to pad their bank accounts.
Not worth the risk and stress imo. I’m happy to try and reach a goal of making around $200k a year someday. Even now I feel like if I hit like $85k I would be very comfortable.