Anonymous wrote:I am mid 40s. My comp is $2.5m this year. It was a 3x over the last two years' numbers. My net worth is in that neighborhood too. I see very wealthy people's numbers as a regular part of my job. All of these $10m+ people either own/sold/run a LARGE company, they inherited it, or they overbilled it as attorneys. The end.

Or they work in finance and have multiple years earning a seven-figure annual income (including stock-based comp that has increased in value in the time before it vests).

The stock market performance of the last 10 years can make anyone who saves look like investing geniuses.

Anonymous wrote:I am mid 40s. My comp is $2.5m this year. It was a 3x over the last two years' numbers. My net worth is in that neighborhood too. I see very wealthy people's numbers as a regular part of my job. All of these $10m+ people either own/sold/run a LARGE company, they inherited it, or they overbilled it as attorneys. The end.

Depends on your definition of “large” but don’t need a publicly traded company to sell it for $20m…

Anonymous wrote:I am mid 40s. My comp is $2.5m this year. It was a 3x over the last two years' numbers. My net worth is in that neighborhood too. I see very wealthy people's numbers as a regular part of my job. All of these $10m+ people either own/sold/run a LARGE company, they inherited it, or they overbilled it as attorneys. The end.

Or we earned it and didn’t spend it all.

-not an attorney

My son was undecided as an engineering major so I recommended aerospace engineering. Hopefully he will join the gravy train full of cash from tax payers and becomes rich like you guys. If he can get a job with some of the defense contractors it's going to be fantastic. He will be guaranteed to be a millionaire.

NW around 10million and posting from the metro on my way to work because parking is too expensive!

Anonymous wrote:I am mid 40s. My comp is $2.5m this year. It was a 3x over the last two years' numbers. My net worth is in that neighborhood too. I see very wealthy people's numbers as a regular part of my job. All of these $10m+ people either own/sold/run a LARGE company, they inherited it, or they overbilled it as attorneys. The end.

We’ll hit $15-20M by 45-50. That’s by living on $200K/year and investing the rest of our income every year which is multiples of $200K. Work in tech and no windfalls like an IPO or Palantir stock or anything like that. Just steady delayed gratification.

Late 30s, $19m net worth.

We live in Arlington and and buy discount avocados. DH and I both drive 2004 honda civics to blend in.

We splurge on private jets at christmas, but mostly just splurge on economy plus.

I feel like all our neighbors are doing way better than us.

I am mid 40s. My comp is $2.5m this year. It was a 3x over the last two years' numbers. My net worth is in that neighborhood too. I see very wealthy people's numbers as a regular part of my job. All of these $10m+ people either own/sold/run a LARGE company, they inherited it, or they overbilled it as attorneys. The end.

Anonymous wrote:Just crossed $25m net worth. Recently passed on organic bananas since I’m worried about the AI bubble. Did I mention I drive a Camry? I’m very proud of the juxtaposition between my wealth and my lack of nice things.

But seriously, some of you need to learn to enjoy your privilege / success a little more. Not in a consumerism sense but come on… if you never spend a little (whether it’s charity or a nice jacket you want), what’s the point?

Because I can be just as content with a $350 Peter Millar vest as I would be with a $650 Canadian Goose fleece vest. I waited tables in college and graduate school, and would often leave with $80 in tips after a weekend shift. I appreciate the value of a dollar, and I am passing that along to my children. Experiences are much more important than physical / material assets in my world view.

Just crossed $25m net worth. Recently passed on organic bananas since I’m worried about the AI bubble. Did I mention I drive a Camry? I’m very proud of the juxtaposition between my wealth and my lack of nice things.

But seriously, some of you need to learn to enjoy your privilege / success a little more. Not in a consumerism sense but come on… if you never spend a little (whether it’s charity or a nice jacket you want), what’s the point?

No, it’s not normal but highly concentrated wealth tends to exist in clusters…

While we’re not at that level of wealth, I also have no desire to belong to a country club, have an ostentatious home or fly private. All for taking nice vacations but I generally prefer to live more modestly.

We’re both in our mid-50s and, on paper, our net worth is around $17M. If you exclude the house and 529s, we’re at roughly $14M in investable assets, with about $3M coming from a relatively recent inheritance. My spouse earns about $300K, I earn about $150K, and we both drive Hondas. We live in a nice neighborhood in a house we bought almost 20 years ago for under $1M.
Our lifestyle is pretty low-key. We shop at Aldi and Costco in Fairfax because they’re close and convenient. We don’t stress about spending a few hundred dollars when needed, but I recently passed on a $650 Canada Goose fleece because it just didn’t feel worth it. No luxury handbags, jewelry, or anything tempting to steal. We very much live a Millionaire Next Door kind of life, and most people would never guess our finances. I’m also noticeably cheaper than my spouse.

We do travel more now, largely because we’re required to take inherited IRA distributions over a 10-year period, but our trips tend to be overseas Airbnbs rather than high-end hotels. Investing-wise, we’re almost entirely in passive index funds (mostly VTI and Fidelity equivalents). I’m comfortable managing our own investments, but we were “only” around $8M pre-COVID, so the growth has made me pause and wonder if we should be working with a financial advisor.
That said, the advisory fees alone would exceed my annual salary, and given my background and bias toward low-cost index investing, I’m skeptical they’d add enough value to justify it. My bigger concern right now isn’t the overall market so much as whether AI-related valuations are getting overheated.

Many of our kids’ friends have parents who are retired and likely wealthier than we are, which adds some perspective. Overall, we’re comfortable, cautious, and probably more frugal than our balance sheet suggests.

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Anonymous wrote:Hey op, you surprised to see the predictable bs replies ?

The only BS replies are ones like yours. Others are actually replying to the OP's question. 20M here, OP. No inheritance or high income. A lifetime of investment, that's all.

These are what shock me the most.

I can buy that certain careers lead to $20M by say, 50 ($5-10M HHI a year = hedge fund, private equity).

I get that certain careers lead to $8-10M by 50 ($2-3M HHI = very successful in BigLaw, consulting, executives at large companies, maybe FAANG SWE).

But what surprises me is when people are not high income, didn't have an inheritance and get to $20M. Even someone making $2-3M (like the big law lawyer) is still going to struggle to get to that $20M figure. What exactly are you investing in?!

Apple for us. We invested very little a long time ago, because we didn't have much, and that's why we're *only* at 20M. Perhaps you aren't very well versed in which companies have done extremely well for our generation, but if someone tells you they made their current wealth over decades of modest stock market investment, it's likely Apple. It's the only company that fits the bill. If someone tells you they made a fortune recently in the stock market, it's likely crypto. And so on and so forth...

I was waiting for the Apple person to chime in. Little delayed this time!

I was waiting too. Lol. I spend too much time here…

Same. I’m (embarrassingly) on this forum enough that I’ve started to recognize specific posters. My hunch is this specific forum has a pretty small group of repeat posters. This thread has brought out a bunch of the “regulars.”

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Anonymous wrote:You can become quite wealthy without a very high income if you spend a lot less than you do earn and consistently and sensibly invest the excess over a long period of time. The time value of money is very powerful. As Einstein said, compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world.

Save $1M, add $1K/month for 40 years, earn an average of 10% annually (the historical long-term return of the stock market) and end up with $50.5M.

40 years is a long time, so patience, focus, and discipline is required, as is the initiative to accumulate that initial $1M. But it can result in a very comfortable, financially secure retirement.

Start with a million dollars and earn 10% a year is a hell of a plan, I love it.

How else do you think people become wealthy? By not saving anything and just waking up one day with millions? $1M is achievable for almost anyone who starts saving and investing early and sticks with it.

Start at age 20 with $1K, earn 10% for 10 years, adding $1K/month, and you end up at age 30 with nearly $200K. 10 more years, you'll have $710K. In 5 more years you'd be 45, and would have $1.2M. 30 years later, when you're you'd be 75, and would have $23M.

Begin with a higher starting balance from summer or part-time employment, or save more each month, and your ending balance will be even larger.

Only a lack of vision, along with discipline, is stopping you.

Lack of vision but also market volatility, inflation, and math.

Time takes care of market volatility, inflation, and the math. You can and should adjust your contributions to your investments upwards as your income grows with inflation. Volatility is of no concern if you have a long-term investment horizon and/or don't need to take much from your portfolio.

https://www.nerdwallet.com/investing/learn/average-stock-market-return

Volatility is of concern. You need to run a simulation that accounts for variability, because up and down years matter a lot.