How Did You Make Your First Million Dollars?

Lfreakatronic on 07/11/2016 - 06:58
Last edited 07/11/2016 - 06:59

A million dollars is no longer the number it was in the eighties. Purchasing power has dropped and cash has become cheaper. That said, it's still the first number out of people's mouths as the one they aspire to. A mil. The big M. It's become more achieveable in recent years, and there are many ways to go about it.

I'd like to ask those who have reached the milestone how they did it. I guess I'm looking for inspiration. I read The Millionaire Next Door a while back, and I'm interested in hearing from those who've reached it. I don't care if it's a million cash sitting there (which is less likely), a million in assets like property (more likely), or a million dollar business. I just won't count leveraged assets that aren't owned outright as your million, like mortgaged real estate or open currency positions … Cause well, anyone can have a million dollars that way.

(Edit for spelling)

Financial

Comments

  • FatBlanket on 07/11/2016 - 15:33
    -1

    [Insert lie or lame joke here]

  • easternculture on 07/11/2016 - 15:45
    -3

    Buying cheap land at the right time

    • [Deactivated] on 08/11/2016 - 05:43
      +3

      Nah, you made your first million by giving people your referrals…..

      [Deactivated] on 08/11/2016 - 05:43 (Collapsed - Offtopic. Show)
  • zealmax on 07/11/2016 - 16:04
    +4

    Stop buying everything you see on ozbargain and you will be step closer.

    • eagleanthony on 07/11/2016 - 18:49

      Unless it genuinely is a 'saving'; and you did need it. Setup an alert! :)

      • zealmax on 07/11/2016 - 20:02
        +4

        Good investment earns you a dollar, good bargain saves you a dollar.

  • [Deactivated] on 07/11/2016 - 16:52

    Add a poll, How many millionaires are here and how did they make it.

  • mavis30551 on 07/11/2016 - 16:59
    +1

    Made a cool mill on the stock exchange in gta4

  • akashra on 07/11/2016 - 17:01
    +3

    Well, it didn't make a million, but certainly the largest chunk of it: when I was 16 I convincved my parents to let me put $10k in to shares of a company which at the time was valued at $1.60/share. I bought another $10k worth a few years later.

    They're worth… uhh… a lot more than that today.

  • Viderzo on 07/11/2016 - 17:02

    Move to SF
    Be a janitor :)
    http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/04/how-one-bay-area-janitor-made…

  • outlander on 07/11/2016 - 17:28
    +2

    I was born with a million dollars. I keep it in other peoples wallets for safe keeping until I need it

  • lunartemis on 07/11/2016 - 17:44
    +1

    If I add up everything I have earned and being spent on since I was born until now, it probably reach $1 mil

    Also if you go to Vietnam,you could easily be a millionaire (1 million VD)

  • bargainbeseecher on 07/11/2016 - 18:01
    +4

    @chickensaltfrie Just wondering the story we'll tell our children?

    • eagleanthony on 07/11/2016 - 18:51
      +3

      $80,000 spent on a car > $1,000,000 AUD in coolness.

  • [Deactivated] on 07/11/2016 - 18:16
    +2

    Old fashioned I know, but I saved every cent up. I view houses as consumption items, so not really interested in buying one. Money (versus just having a pile of debt) makes me feel comfortable and I have it invested in various forms plus sizeable cash component.

  • paultiffen on 07/11/2016 - 18:43
    +1

    Some might find the blog mrmoneymoustache helpful

    Also I think definition should be assets - liabilities > 1mil with things ssuh as real estate valued at fire sale price

    Most people who got rich with property its due to leverage. If you own aa apartment that is worth 500k with 100k invested that goes up to 600 k then you have made 100% on money invested. If it goes down 100k then you are bankrupt ie all your gains and losses are 5x times larger which is great in an upmarket

    In addition o low interest rates the other issue is lack of supply. If leverage and interest rates remain constant then property should grow in line with real wages which it isnt as supply cant meet demand

    • freakatronic on 07/11/2016 - 20:36
      +1

      I'd suggest that's only due to arbitrary and artificial supply limits being imposed. For example, city limits and so forth. Australia is the second most empty continent, only losing out to Antarctica in terms of population sparsity. Do you really believe there is any sort of supply shortage in real estate here?

  • horice on 07/11/2016 - 18:49

    Embezzeled it from some brown paper bags at liberal party HQ

    • niner on 07/11/2016 - 21:56

      They don't allow you to bring bags into liberal party HQ.
      I use to be a Young Liberal stooge.

  • zealmax on 07/11/2016 - 20:05

    For those people that have been banking and investing with Crown and Star, I'm afraid you never get to withdraw. Your funds never mature. Better to invest in ponzi schemes, like property market.

  • spedohero on 07/11/2016 - 20:31

    I dont have a million dollar in asset but i have a billion of sperm count.

    • freakatronic on 07/11/2016 - 20:33
      +11

      … quality of replies…dropping…

    • Mad Max on 08/11/2016 - 00:11

      It sounds like you are a real "self made" man ;-)

  • MakingBacon on 07/11/2016 - 20:41
    +5

    I may not be a millionaire, but at 23 I bought my first home outright (~$300k). I ran my own business. I took the advice my Pop gave me, which was "get the job, the house, the car and then the girl" and "rent money is dead money". That worked great and I'd probably be sitting on a million or more if it wasn't for an unfortunate accident that prevents me from working in the industry I was in.

    Now I am 27 and we get by on <40k a year between my wife and I + two kids while I study. Which wouldn't be feasible if had a mortgage, so I count my lucky stars for that.

    Lessons I learnt? Get income protection and always have a savings account with at least 12 months wages as a parachute.

    • freakatronic on 07/11/2016 - 20:51
      +1

      Nice, thanks for the advice. Good luck in your studies and I hope the future has good things for you :)

    • Janko on 07/11/2016 - 20:55
      +1

      I'd consider 12 months wages in savings as income protection, paying insurance only for events that can't be afforded.

    • [Deactivated] on 07/11/2016 - 22:13
      +7

      "rent money is dead money"

      I personally would challenge this view. Rent money is just the cost of putting a roof over your head. Shelter always comes at a cost, we've just been conditioned to view property as the "one true asset class". For most who do need a mortgage, their loan attracts a rental on the money they have borrowed from the bank. In fact, when you calculate yields on properties invested out, you can see the rent charged is at a significant discount vs the debt repayments.

      Money locked up in a house can be considered an opportunity cost of investing the money elsewhere. I know I personally live rent free due to existing cash flows which nullify any potential rent I do pay.

      • tomleonhart on 09/11/2016 - 12:00

        "rent money is dead money"

        You're right. But then again you can't challenge a view unless personal situation are detailed. Some times rent money is dead money and sometimes rent money is not dead money. It all comes down to individual circumstances.

        Having said that, any blanket statement like "rent money is dead money" can always be argued against anyway.

  • danield on 07/11/2016 - 21:04
    +4

    I made my first million working hard (part time) as an English teacher when I was 27yo.
    Yes it was in Japan and Yes it was in Yen… But I still have the original bank statement with 1,000,000 in my bank account.

    • [Deactivated] on 07/11/2016 - 22:17

      Otsukaresama deshita ^^

  • MustacheFire on 07/11/2016 - 21:15
    +3

    Read mrmoneymustache and earlyretirementextreme.

    The certain and low risk way to financial independence is living within your means. Save 50%+ of income and invest in the market index.

    You will hit 1m, the forums on those sites are full of success stories. But most people don't want to make the necessary lifestyle changes (eg give up the 80k car)

    • brazen00 on 08/11/2016 - 14:57

      Not surprised about your tactics given your username!

  • Janko on 07/11/2016 - 21:21
    +1

    Met girl who I married, although she had no money and I was on $100k in 1999 (but only about $200k assets @ 30 years old), she convinced me to leave my job, renovate, invest in property invest, travel the world counting cards and it all paid off. Hit the million after about 3 years.

    So biggest key I think is a supporting partner who makes up for your weaknesses, and takes your mind off finding a partner. I would look too much into an investment and end up finding something bad and move on, she had no idea but "let's just do it". Together it worked well. Card-counting - I had the strategy and techniques to avoid detection, she had incredible concentration that I didn't have, plus didn't fit the stereotypical counter. It's more time efficient two people living together as well.

  • syousef on 07/11/2016 - 21:24

    Played Autoduel on an Apple IIe.

  • robbyjones on 07/11/2016 - 21:52
    +2

    Superannuation. We have put a minimum of extra 10% of our salary away in super for the last 30 years through salary sacrifice (if you don't get it you don't miss it). During this time we have raised 4 children, bought our second home with a larger mortgage, bought an investment property which will realise a profit once sold however I haven't done the sums to work out if investing in super would have been more prudent and if given the time over I am in two minds as the whether I would do this again and this is in the Sydney market. We ate out only on birthdays, holidays were road trip style, we are not big drinkers but I did smoke up until 6-7 years ago.

    We bought our first home prior to getting married and having children, to do this we lived off one wage and banked the other, we rented with two other people. When we bought our first home the lending criteria of banks was tough, you had to jump though multiple hoops to borrow money, the interest rate was 15% and we moved from the upper north shore to the west, it was where we could afford.

  • 00 on 07/11/2016 - 22:30

    Sell your soul.

    • xoom on 08/11/2016 - 12:16

      cant sell what I dont own.

  • Timfoo on 07/11/2016 - 23:30
    +5

    YouTube, Adsense, Subscribers, Selling Rights to videos etc..
    not quite a mill but closer to it than not.
    That first $5,000 cheque from YouTube was when things started getting real.

  • mezje on 08/11/2016 - 00:19
    +5

    I am in almost my final year of an engineering degree and am making roughly 30k/year, saving $1m seems impossible at this point, especially as an early 20yo.

    Lots of my mates and I simply live knowing that we will likely never fully own a house until our parents pass away, a luxury lots of people do not have. It seems the only way to get wealthy is via property, is this just the case in Australia, or everywhere? Has it always been like this? Why is the ultimate goal to just own a house…?

    As touched on earlier, money != happiness. I know plenty of wealthy people who have far less time and have a lot less fun than those worse off than them.

    Life is about balance, not net worth. Sometimes expensive things only seem better because they are worth more, perhaps I am preaching the choir here though…

    Sorry OP, absolutely nothing really to contribute, I just thought about a lot of things reading these comments!

    • Ghogger on 08/11/2016 - 00:50
      +4

      You've got FOMO (fear of missing out) for property like everyone else without a property in Australia.

      Couple of points:
      - Australian home prices are increasing at a rate faster than incomes, this is not sustainable forever.
      - I live in Germany now - GDP/capita PPP is about the same as Australia, however housing is far more affordable (rent is about half the price or less).
      - Housing is seen as an investment now in Australia, a way to 'get ahead' financially, always with the assumption that historic increases predict future increases, but again, the rate is unsustainable. It will get to a point where even households on double incomes just can't afford the interest repayments.

      I predict that Australia's housing market can go two ways:
      1. Bust: The supply of housing has been increasing in capital cities, and also the demand will eventually decrease (less overseas investment due to regulation, and eventually no more negative gearing - it's going to end someday)

      1. No bust: Those who have made millions from the property market will be the primary owners of property in Australia - basically 20% owning property and the rest renting it from them. This isn't necessarily a bad thing unless rents are over-inflated and pegged to house purchase prices (as they are now).

      I just cannot see how the housing market is sustainable (mathematically speaking) in Sydney and Melbourne in particular, something's gotta give. And I can't guarantee the bust will be big, probably more like a decrease in growth or an accelerating downturn - BUT - there will be a pricing adjustment eventually, of that I'm sure.

      As for my first million, 500k on black.

    • freakatronic on 08/11/2016 - 06:48
      +1

      Nothing to be sorry for in what you wrote. I appreciate your thoughts. I don't think Home ownership is the pinnacle of joy or the Zenith of existence though, in spite of what the newspapers blare all day.

  • Mad Max on 08/11/2016 - 00:29
    +5

    I see all the people's comments about living within your means, saving all your life, only spending for what you really need, rarely eat out, cheap holidays…and I agree with it all.
    But on the other side of the coin I also wonder if when you get to 60-70 years of age with all the money you saved in the bank and you look back at your life and see all the things, little luxories, treats and joys you deprived yourself and your family of.
    It will be too late then…

    • Ghogger on 08/11/2016 - 00:57
      +5

      Agreed. I have decided to just be an excellent saver and an average earner. I've managed to get my regular expenditures to such a low level, I can travel whenever I want (also because I'm great at cheap fun travel).

      *Biggest tip: Excel spreadsheet every single you EVER spend. I've been doing this for a year now if anyone is interested in seeing how it looks. It sounds tedious but it's not that hard once you set up the framework.

      I live in Berlin, I've been to visit family in Sydney on two separate occasions this year (Airbnb my place in Berlin while I'm gone), and I've also travelled in Europe on 5 separate trips:
      1. Slovakia, Austria, Germany, Czech Republic
      2. Italy
      3. Belgium, France, Italy
      4. Italy (again - the food is just that good)
      5. Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia

      Who cares about saving money - I spend what I earn and have a better lifestyle than any of my peers and don't regret any of it. You are only young once.. I'll care about saving when I want a family.

      P.S. I don't even have a job! My income consists of Airbnb and importing second-hand electronics from the UK and reselling it in Berlin on the equivalent of Gumtree

      • freakatronic on 08/11/2016 - 09:10

        Sounds like you're living a very interesting life! How do you get electronics in such a volume that you're able to make your bills from selling them?

        • Ghogger on 08/11/2016 - 11:49
          +1

          Low bills help a lot! My average living expenses total only 800€ per month including rent, uni semester fees, food, going out, travel etc. Rent is super cheap here (about 100€ per week for an apartment in the city) and so are other living expenses (public transport is for students too)

          Also, I found a niche market for a particular piece of audio hifi where the supply is high in the U.K., but the demand is high here in Berlin.

      • mskeggs on 08/11/2016 - 09:43

        I'll care about saving when I want a family.

        Sadly/happily, I can confirm the urge to travel only increases when you have a family. Taking my kids to discover new cultures is fantastic.

    • mskeggs on 08/11/2016 - 09:53
      +4

      Priorities.
      I would literally have a house worth $1m more except we chose a different path that resulted in my wife staying home with our young kids, and we had 2 more kids than earlier plans suggested, and overseas holidays most years, and drive a crappy old car, watch a crappy small TV and eat out rarely.

      You can have everything you want, as long as you don't want everything!

    • MustacheFire on 08/11/2016 - 20:03
      +1

      Living within your means definitely doesn't mean deprivation. I had a few very wasteful years when I first started working - long hours but good pay, so got into the habit of eating out/ordering in then hitting the bar to unwind.

      Three years with nothing to show but a growing waistline and deteriorating health - smoking thrown in for the mix.

      After getting on the MMM path, my lifestyle is better in every respect - walking to work and doing more cooking has made me happier, healthier and given me capital to invest: I do still travel but deliberately allocate that spend.

      If you have a good income it is easy to live a fulfilling life with plenty of luxury - just look at people getting by on below average incomes. Just need to consciously resist lifestyle creep

    • plentifoo on 08/11/2016 - 20:32

      yup i don't subscribe to this. I always set aside funds to spend on the finer things in life. if you make a decent enough income, it'll be wise to set aside a 'spoil myself' budget every year, you will thank yourself for it later in life.

      I always scoff at bald 50yo+ men in luxury/performance cars, they never seem to drive these cars in a 'spirited' enough manner, not only because of age, but because they lived their whole lives too cautiously, it seems to seep into their very being…their very souls.

      • Mad Max on 08/11/2016 - 21:01

        @avexdevil
        You mean that they are not hoons?

        • plentifoo on 08/11/2016 - 21:39

          hoons drive dangerously regardless of road conditions, and they are almost always in a beaten commodore.
          you see someone in a maserati or porsche going 10 above the speed limit, driving their cars spiritedly in a tasteful way, no one ever labels them as hoons.

  • Nillionaire on 08/11/2016 - 00:51
    +2

    Type from home and learn this ONE SIMPLE TRICK to become a MNillionaire! Trolls hate him!

    I added six 0s to my $0 for a grand total of $0,000,000!

  • AlienC on 08/11/2016 - 02:41

    Still working on my first dollar

    I'll get back to you when I reach two

  • H3 on 08/11/2016 - 04:17

    In Grand Theft Auto.

  • ruddiger7 on 08/11/2016 - 09:11
    +1

    I pressed the tilde key to open up console commands and then entered rosebud a number of times.

  • Marcsie on 08/11/2016 - 10:05
    +2

    Paid 208k for a house in 1996, paid off in 2002, now it worth 1.5 Mill :)

    • tomleonhart on 09/11/2016 - 12:02

      Is that what you did?

      • Marcsie on 09/11/2016 - 13:38
        +1

        Yeah, also I invested heavily in properties and shares as well, now I have enough stress, got rid of shares, only a few properties left, now spend time travelling overseas at least once a year :)

        • tomleonhart on 09/11/2016 - 13:44

          and drive you WRX around :P

        • Marcsie on 09/11/2016 - 15:38
          +1

          @tomleonhart: wow, you have such a good memory, oh yeah and before that I had Toyota 86 with Personal Number Plate "FUN 86" :)

  • [Deactivated] on 08/11/2016 - 10:42
    +1

    The easiest money opportunity I passed on was during the dotcom boom. I worked for a newly ASX listed company only valued about 20 million market cap, and even though I was technical, I had access to some customer billing data. One large customer became a cashcow almost overnight, none of it announced to market, and started generating $500k per month with virtually no outgoings. The share price was almost certainly going to 5x or more, and ended up more than 10x. I didn't buy shares as I felt it was laydown insider trading, but the opportunity was there.

    • niner on 08/11/2016 - 10:51
      +1

      I didn't buy shares as I felt it was laydown insider trading, but the opportunity was there.

      You would have gone to jail.

      • [Deactivated] on 08/11/2016 - 11:05
        +1

        Well, I have very little faith in the ASIC and ASX. A certain trader corporate collapse showed just how many small caps were having games played by senior execs and ASIC/ASX should be ashamed. I witnessed plenty of suspect activity based on associations and patterns through my career and pretty much anything was only investigated in scrambled retrospect.

        The funny part is the CEO told me it wouldn't have been insider trading. I didn't argue with a senior, but in my head I'm very 'yeah, it would be' and didn't.

        The purpose of me writing this is mainly a moral question to the OP. Your first bite at the magic million will probably come with moral, ethical and legal strings attatched.

        • ihbh on 08/11/2016 - 16:08

          Good on you for doing the right thing. In large corporates senior people privy to market sensitive information can only trade in their own stock within a certain window.

          It's surprising your company didn't make an announcement of the acquisition of the said customer to keep the market informed.

  • OzBestDeal on 08/11/2016 - 11:29
    +3

    Would be easy if you live in US:
    * Buy hot coffee from McDonalds, spill it on your lap, then sue them ($2.9M)
    * Buy redbull and sue the company because no wings grew on your back ($13M)
    * Trespass Sydney Trains property and sue them for leaving wires uninsulated ($24M)
    * Rob someone's house and sit on his garage for 8 days ($500k + proceeding from robbed items)

    • blehgg on 08/11/2016 - 13:41

      where's the link for the last two? :)

      • OzBestDeal on 08/11/2016 - 14:43
        1. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15446658/ns/us_news-life/t/million…
        2. Search for Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania
        • blehgg on 08/11/2016 - 16:13

          ta :) and thanks for the hilarious post

        • blehgg on 08/11/2016 - 16:26

          • Women received $780,000 from a jury after she tripped over her own son in a furniture store.

          • Man was awarded more than $74,000 when his hand was run over by a neighbor. The neighbor did not see the guy who was in the process of stealing his hubcaps.

          • Guy won more than $1,750,000 and a new Winnebago after he put his new motor home on cruise control at 70 mph and then went into the back to fix himself some coffee — only to crash on the highway.

        • OzBestDeal on 08/11/2016 - 17:02
          +1

          @blehgg:
          Yeah there's no end of stupidity on US justice system.

        • blehgg on 08/11/2016 - 17:49
          +2

          @cimot:

          mostly fabricated urban legends I think :) but still funny regardless

  • User166092 on 08/11/2016 - 11:42
    +2

    I dunno about me but Donald got his from his Dad and Hillary got hers from the Sauds so I'd say if you want to be a millionaire either kill yourself and hope to be reincarnated into a wealthy family or make friends with Arabs.

  • goosmurf on 08/11/2016 - 12:13
    +11

    I kind of lucked out. As a teenager in the mid-late 90s I spent a lot of time trying to find the best ISP deals which led to me following the ISP industry very closely (I wanted to know which ISP can actually deliver a $30-40/mo flat rate service which you could actually dial into, and could deliver the full dialup speed! :D)

    After Uni (comp sci) I worked full time in an office for about 8 years and for the first 5 years I also lived with my parents. I got laid off from that job and have not worked a full time job since; moved back in with my parents and for the past 7 years have relied 100% on investment income, though am also trying to build a software business with a friend.

    There was a bit of strategy in this. I have never heard of anyone complaining that they spent too much time with their parents when their parents eventually pass. But I regularly hear people saying the opposite, "I wish I'd spent more time with my parents". So it's a win-win in my book; spend more time with parents, create an opportunity to take a few investment risks.

    Backing up a bit, by chance one of my first tasks at work was to rebuild the company profiles section of a finance site. In trying to understand what the heck I was building I ended up reading about all the financial acronyms and why anyone cares about them (stuff like PE ratios).

    That made me think I understood something about the sharemarket (I didn't) and I dabbled with a variety of different shares. After about 5 or 6 years it became apparent that my best success was in the telco/ISP industry - with companies like iiNet, Amcom, and PIPE.

    The reason was that when I read their announcements and annual reports I could piece together what was actually happening behind the scenes based on my understanding of the industry, i.e. I could kinda understand what was going on strategically.

    Being a software developer I built a bunch of tools that help me to monitor the activities of companies and key industry participants and invest off that knowledge, with an extremely long term view.

    I came to this strategy because after reading a bunch of literature about high frequency trading I concluded that as a small player my main advantage is going to be really specific, deep niche knowledge. I was never going to be able to out trade the bots that you see active on the ASX every day, and if you try to trade regularly (as opposed to investing) you'll realise that given enough time you will lose just as much as you make.

    I've branched out a little beyond telco but try to stick to industries I can understand, or am willing to put the time into understanding. I also stick to Australian companies because there are already way more ASX and unlisted opportunities than I will ever have time to analyse.

    The performance of one or two outstanding companies — I'll name Vocus as one — can seriously change your finances. I missed the boat on TPG and M2 but am now holding both (and despite recent media I strongly believe in their long term future; this is not financial advice, seek professional advice before making investment decisions yada yada :).

    TL;DR it took ~12 years of dabbling around to find an investment strategy that I have some confidence in. Specialising is IMHO more lucrative than randomly spreading one's bets, /if/ you're willing to put in serious time and effort.

  • John on 08/11/2016 - 12:41

    Save $4000 AUD. Go to Zimbabwe. Done.

  • psylence on 08/11/2016 - 13:41
    +1

    Sold my ass easy money

  • dealsucker on 08/11/2016 - 13:49
    +3

    I think education has made most millionaires infact multi millionaires. See all the scam in the VET FEE sector and it was pretty darn easy. One of the biggest culprit made a cool $140 million in two years operating out of a one floor college atop a $2 shop in Sydney.

    • freakatronic on 09/11/2016 - 13:06

      Yep, I worked in a place like that. They made a mint but I'm pretty sure they'd already sold their souls to the golden god.

      • dealsucker on 09/11/2016 - 15:20
        +1

        Does it really matter when you got no soul? On the contrary people with soul should have made sure these people went to hell on earth - Jail.

  • OzBestDeal on 08/11/2016 - 14:48
    +1

    Doesn't take long to turn $10 -> $1M if you're lucky
    Bet $10 on red/black… 17 rounds later, you're up $1M

  • captobvious on 08/11/2016 - 18:47
    +2

    honestly first real million was made working for my family who are in development, very hard work. Family expect you to bleed for them
    But before that i was just a normal guy who joined the adf, got posted, got discharged, worked for various multinationals.
    I can also tell you sbout how i made my first mil in debt with property and i can also talk about my first million in equity mainly thanks to Sydneys crazy property boom.

    • freakatronic on 09/11/2016 - 13:04

      Sure, I'd like to hear your story. I don't think I'm the only one interested either, as this thread has been top of the front page for a couple of days now.

  • Empiresearth on 08/11/2016 - 19:06

    Good idea to build any temple, church https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9y2SvSBfag anybody can be in Millions

  • BartholemewH on 08/11/2016 - 20:14
    +2

    I looked into bitcoin when I saw it mentioned on OCAU once. The market rate was 12 cents. Thought about buying $100 worth but couldn't see an easy way to do it so I didn't worry about it lol.

  • tryagain on 08/11/2016 - 20:20
    +3

    I am not a millionaire, far from it but I do almost exclusively work for people who are, and I don't just mean the people who have had the family home appreciate to ridiculous level's I mean people who would have at least a million (some 10's of even 100's of) in net worth outside their rather expensive family homes.

    I also find hearing their stories of how they got there interesting. Contrary to many of the opinions on here of most of them being from in real estate, they are almost all self-made money from their businesses.

    The 1st thing I would ask you is why do you want to be a millionaire, have a look at some research about income and happiness, I think you will find once you have reached a very low level of income happiness doesn't change much no matter how much you have/earn, if your not happy without it you won't be happy with it. It is easy however to fall for the money equals happiness line in our very materialistic society.

    I think a lot who do it through investing in real estate seem to be forever reinvesting it in real estate to make more and don't really have the lifestyle you would think of, and for all intensive purposes, their worth is just figures on paper not any great improvement in lifestyle.
    Although most millionaires (my category) get there through their business it's far from a sure bet. A lot of business owners probably earn less than they could do working for someone else.
    My advice would be not to worry about chasing after arbitrary figures but aim to be able to earn enough for a comfortable lifestyle, Being a millionaire almost always involves a degree of luck which you really don't have any control over.

    My advice would be to invest in yourself, we live in a country where you are afforded every opportunity to advance your education if you want, It may take a number of years of your life to get a qualification/better qualification but over your working life, it can pay you back many times over. Don't chase luck that might or might not eventuate but focus on what you can do to improve yourself and your earning capacity and keep doing it.

    This bit might not be well received here on OzB but I don't know that you will find too many millionaires here on OzB as my experience is they tend to put more of their effort into making money than saving it, that's not to say they are careless with their money, far from it, just that they focus on how to make more money, as opposed to saving a few dollars here and there.

    TL;DR Don't chase meaningless dollar figures, focus on your own earning potential.

    • freakatronic on 09/11/2016 - 12:57
      +1

      Thanks for this. I appreciate your input. I've thought a lot about the correlation between money and happiness, and it's not something that worries me. As a working class man, I have enough of everything in the whole world except for time. I don't think a million dollars is the perfect solution to my problem. I think that what I need is about $50k p.a in passive income. A million dollars arrived in my mind because if I had a million in a reliable dividend stocks, I could be earning a very steady $50k p.a on it while not having to eat my principle. I'm not a lifestyle guy or someone with any need to flash luxury possessions around, so servicing my current standard of living wouldn't take much more than that. Money won't buy me happiness, but I know that it will buy me time and self-determination. To me those things are a pretty good second best.

      • tryagain on 09/11/2016 - 15:15

        You might not eat into your principal but in 20yrs $50k/pa on $1m invested won't give you anywhere near the purchasing power it does today. I have seen people of considerable worth lose just about everything due to failing investments predominately due to conditions they had little control over. This is the downside of investing that you don't often hear about. Most who lose on investments keep quiet about their losses, where those who make money like to tell the world how good they are.

        The issue with depending on money from investments is that your principal and its return is largely out of your control as it will be subject to market conditions. Invest first in yourself and your earning potential then out of your surplus income look at other investments, ie if you are happily living on 50K then look at how you could maybe earn 75-100K and reinvest the extra income, if, the investments go south then you have a much stronger fallback position.

        If you are looking to invest and you are earning/living 0n 50k/pa then you need extra from somewhere to invest to get to your passive income. Some make it sound simple, that they just went into a large amount of debt to purchase a large amount of property and it has worked out for them. In reality, they just got lucky with high price increases but I think that ship has largely sailed. You can depend on luck or you can make small incremental steps to get to where you want to be, it might not be the quickest path but can have a lot more certainty involved.

        If passive income is what you are chasing then a business is probably your most likely path but you really need to start up and set out with that as your endgame.

        • freakatronic on 09/11/2016 - 20:13

          Are you a CFP or CFA or something

  • love2buy on 08/11/2016 - 21:12

    Almost made a million when a property developer offered to buy my property.

  • HotPie on 08/11/2016 - 22:11

    I exchanged $100 to Indonesia Rupiah and instantly became a millionaire.

  • sillyguy on 08/11/2016 - 22:11

    I've been buying a loaf of bread for 50 cents and reselling it for $1, kept repeating it for 10 years. Then on year 11th I've won 5 million dollars from lottery.

  • incognitoXD on 08/11/2016 - 23:21

    Rather than how I'll go with age:

    1st million: 27 years old
    2nd million: 28
    3rd million: 38
    4th million: 40 (projected, fingers crossed, not there yet)

    Goal: Quit day job by 40.

  • d86 on 08/11/2016 - 23:33

    Unfortunately I didn't make it.

  • BradH13 on 08/11/2016 - 23:59

    This thread makes me anxious.

    I'm worth roughly -$2,000.

    • freakatronic on 09/11/2016 - 13:02
      +3

      Would it make you less anxious to know you've plenty of company?

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