Cracking the Millionaire Code (Part 1): Discovering Who They Are

Knowing “who” millionaires are, and what characteristics they have in common, can help you make decisions in your own financial life. How old are they? Are they married? What’s their income like?

Bring confidence to your wealth building with simplified strategies from The Money Guy. Learn how to apply financial tactics that go beyond common sense and help you reach your money goals faster. Make your assets do the heavy lifting so you can quit worrying and start living a more fulfilled life.

[jimv]

As a married couple age 46 with two in-state college teens with a net worth over $3.5 million. We are your typical boring neighbors with a 2, 200 square foot house. Four cars in the driveway that are all Toyota. The "newest" being a 2010 Toyota Prius. Grass and landscaping is not the best in the neighborhood, but at least clean and respectful. We both work full time jobs, though I work from home now.

[arga]

I absolutely love that you guys don't downplay the impact of a high income in building wealth.
I hate how some other content creators brush that aside and pretend that your income is irrelevant.
Is possible to build a lot of wealth no matter your income, but a high income makes it a lot easier!

[ChrisSain]

Representing for the 35 year old Millionaires. I retired early / young and I loved every bit of the journey. Great job as always.

[nathanrice]

Does the "Married percent" account for resources being split between two people? If a married couple has $1mm between them, that's the equivalent of a single person having $500k, isn't it?

[BlakeBake]

Is this reaching millionaire status for individuals or married couples?

[chadparks]

Keep preaching these no-nonsense facts of life! Absolutely Love them, and your straightforward approach without sugar-coating anything! People need to realize that spending everything you make is really, really a continual lapse in judgement throughout your life. My wife and I (now at 53 and 54 respectively) both started saving early, years before our marriage in the late 80's...almost to the point of lunacy over the years, more or less making a game out of it. Not going out with friends, buying generics, shopping at Goodwill or Salvation Army, clipping coupons like crazy, second or third hand cars, garage sale tools and yard equipment, off-season trips, always ordering water if we do go out for dinner and no appetizers...and 10% max on tips...and that's only if they really "earned" them. Neither of us were ever "given" anything in life and knew that hard work and determination was the magic key that everyone can put to use. For many, many years we made it a goal to save/invest at least 50% of our monthly pay. I retired at 45 and she retired at 46 (neither of us ever making more than $70K/yr). Now trying to make it worth our while for all those years of sacrifice. Hang onto your hat though, as this is where the irony in this story comes out, and you'll find this part "nonsensical"....we have a little over $2.6M in savings and investments that we should never have to touch the principal on....YET, we still go to Goodwill/Salvation Army, clip coupons, drink water if we go out, drive secondhand cars, and basically still do all the stuff we did during our earning years, and still make a game out of it...and even still put money into savings every month! I can't imagine ever, ever, ever paying "retail" for goods the rest of our lives....what a waste of money! Get ready, even more irony....we never had kids, and as such, have no grandkids to leave anything to, so trying to identify which nieces or nephews we'll leave anything to. By the way, none of the relatives on either side of our family know we have anything saved or invested and they just think "we're just scraping by monthly"....they just see us as the Aunt and Uncle who live "modestly" in a small home and keep to themselves...but they all know we love them to pieces. And as the experts have always stated over tell any of your family or friends you have money"....we heard this story continually over the years, so we stuck with that mindset. So to stay in this context, all our relatives think we still have jobs, as we always plan visits around theoretical "vacation time", just so they don't get to wondering "how do they get by without working". Yes, we know, not exactly being straight up with them, but it should "keep fences up where they need to be", as my grandad used to say. Getting on the Savings & Investment train while still young helps immensely while developing those first spending habits. Our grandparents on both sides who had been through the depression as kids themselves, taught us that putting money in a "Passbook Savings Account" (not sure if these even exist anymore) and then only using it for emergency purposes will help keep you happy and safe. We had both started jobs in our early teens (that paid minimum wage at $2.75/hr) and started the savings train early on in life...this was the catalyst in the whole deal, because once you save actual "cash"....this mindset rubs off on just about everything else in life you come across by always thinking about where you can "save money", and you're constantly on the lookout for "deals" and "where you can save"....and those "well-worn jeans, T-Shirts, Jackets...and all other Goodwill & Salvation Army finds" are still the rage around our place! Just a few tidbits of info. on us "unemployed 50+ year olds" here at our homestead...and still saving for that "rainy day".

[joelcorley]

Taxable income is skewed toward married couples. But I also think that tax planning for retirement is much more complex for a married couple. That suggests to me that your own client base is self-selecting and that suggests a certain amount of bias.

[IrisP]

If this is relevant for a married couple with a stay at home spouse, then we reached $1M plus net worth at the age of 37 and 38 (assets minus liabilities).
Single income household plus rental income.

[JacobH-xonk]

Is this not mostly luck?

Really, the only thing you can control to a reasonable degree is your savings rate, as a percentage.

You could argue who you marry plays a role, but according to statistics, the majority of married folks have a higher network than single folks, regardless of any one persons financial habits. This can be attributed to splitting bills, a favorable tax rate, or perhaps you both "motivate" one another....

You can't control your investment returns (the market will do what it will do). You could try to increase your income, but it is very difficult for people to have 100K plus a year salaries (consistent at that), regardless if you went to college and had a "good" major.

So really, what you are saying is, if you are single and make less than 100K, there is about a 10% chance you *might* be a millionaire some day. This is why people spend money like there is no tomorrow because those statistics are bleak at best.

The median household income is sub 60K in every single state. If we take the "average", which skews largely due to high net worth individuals, we can see only "2" states that have a six figure average annual income. Can you guess those states? Hint: It's not California :-) (Try CT and Hawaii)....

In my opinion, we should be advocating a different message other than "Millionaire" status ( I know, it sounds cool).

Perhaps, a more realistic "SMART" goal living below your means and saving at least 20% of your

A function of your savings rate should be the goal for MOST people:

At 20% savings rate, you can keep the same standard of living, and retire in 37 years

At 50% savings rate, you can keep the same standard of living, and retire in 17 years

At 70% savings rate, you can keep the same standard of living, and retire in 8.5 years

Saving anything less than 20% (over time), will likely have you struggling for any "early" retirement, regardless of income. Cheers!

[DaveM-FFB]

Johnnie Taylor "It's Cheaper To Keep Her".

[DaveM-FFB]

Ok - according to Time Magazine, only 18% of jobs pay over $100K. If you're counting on an employer to pay you more than $100K and you're not a doctor, a lawyer, a dentist, an engineer, etc., then you might be better off starting your own business and paying yourself more than $100K once your business is thriving. That is exactly what I had to do.

[taylorjackson]

A lot of them look like they don’t have 2 nickels to rub together!