Are you part of the 8%?

[K Frame]

Well, if you are, you're a privileged bastard who must be taxed into poverty!

Oh, wait, that's not the focus of this story... but I'm sure it's the focus of some politicians...

In any event, it's nice being in the 8%...

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/09/more-than-8-percent-of-american-adults-are-millionaires-heres-how-they-got-wealthy.html

[charby]

I got about 12-13 more years before I am a paper millionaire. I'm going to do it in less than 25 years.

[ConstitutionCowboy]

I think I'm somewhere in the top 80 percentile. If I wasn't out of debt, I'd be in the top 99 percentile. (Me thinks I've got lots of company ...)

Woody

[Northwoods]

Invest $2262 a year ($188.50/month) in an S&P 500 index fund (or anything else returning 10% net of fees on average annually) and 40 years later you’ll be a millionaire.

That said, $1mil ain’t what it used to be.  I couldn’t retire on $1mil.  Using the 4% rule of thumb that would only let me take out $40k/yr.  Sure, I could take out more, but then I might outlive my money.  And I’d want at least double that amount to be able to enjoy life in retirement.  Property taxes and various (non-health) insurances alone cost me $8-10k a year as it is.

[Ben]

Chris Hogan, radio host and author of the book “Everyday Millionaires,” surveyed more than 10,000 of those wealthy individuals to figure out their secret to success.

Chris Hogan, you Uncle Tom! You don't have to interview them. You know they didn't build that! Sincerely, Obama.

As for me, it was hard work and doing without when I was young, while my buddies took fancy vacations and bought fancy new cars they couldn't afford. The tables turned as we got middle aged, only I could, in my 40s, do the stuff they were doing in their 20s, only without taking loans out to do it.

I will admit I didn't "build all that". I had parents who gave me sound financial advice and started me on the road to responsibility at a young age.

[Fly320s]

For me it is because I started my 401k as soon as I could and started maxing it out as soon as I could afford to do that.

And living cheaply.

[MillCreek]

Praise the Lord for index funds, I say.

[Ben]

Praise the Lord for index funds, I say.

This is true. I don't know if I would be where I am if the money I put and left in index funds was in individual stocks I was managing myself. My money in the TSP grew without much input from me. While I do play with individual stocks, and do fairly well now, when I started, I lost a decent chunk of dough. If I was relying on myself and individual stocks, I'd be way behind where i am now.

[HankB]

Live below your means, avoid discretionary debt, save & invest regularly, and if you have & keep a decent job by the time you retire you SHOULD be at least an "entry level" millionaire.

But a million ain't what it used to be.

[MillCreek]

^^^Back when I first started my career in malpractice defense in the mid-80's, a million was still a lot of money, and most malpractice policies were only for a million.  Settlements or verdicts in that amount were unusual.  Now, not so much.  A million just does not go as far as it used to.

[Northwoods]

Rule of 72 applies to inflation as much as investment returns.  At 3% annual inflation (about the long term official rate) the buying power of your money is cut in half about every 24 years.  So $1mil back in 1973 would be about the buying power of $4mil today.  I think inflation has been higher though as I’m pretty sure $1mil in 1973 would have gone farther than $4mil today. 

[230RN]

I'm a hundredaire.

And there are more of us voting than you rich bastard exploiters, so watch out !  Go, 92 percenters, go !