I enjoy listening to Dave Ramsey and he did a survey of something like 10,000 millionaires. His data indicates the vast majority are couples that both work and make professional wages, they invest in their home and 401k's in the stock market for 30 years or so. They seem to average between $1 & $3 million in assets.
While high wages are cool and something to be proud of the real story is how much you save and invest, then you have returns on those investments.
If you do the math, saving a few million while working and paying your living expense's is almost impossible to do.
I admit to being very naïve about wages as I was always a blue collar guy working in a state a with notoriously low wages and I have been out of the work force for about 15 yrs. Back in my employee days the best I made was $51,000 and I thought I was killing it and almost everyone I knew made less than me.
Todays wages in high cost states always amaze me... but then maybe there is a bunch of exaggeration? then again $1 million dollar homes seem to be the norm these days so who knows?
Got a buddy just went through a divorce, he's in pharma sells and his wife was a traveling nurse. He said they put away on average 50k a year no problem. After 15 years of marriage that was that. He said after all attorney fees and all that nonsense they split 600k. She went through 300k in 4 months, he still has about 260k of it. Their kids are still in private school at 18k a year for each one. They did very well, and made it a point to put it away. Its about all gone now.
I would say a lot inherit it.
My uncle is worth about 5 mil, chemical engineer. Aunt never worked. He claims he saved 33% of every paycheck he ever made. Had millions in bank and still made my aunt hang clothes out to dry on a line in the backyard. She's gone now and never got to enjoy any of it. Each of their daughters are getting 1 mil when he passes and each of his 6 grandkids are getting 500k each. Not to mention, he has given all of them the max gift allowed each year since they were born. They'll be sitting pretty.
Interesting point about inheritance. Dave Ramsey claims very few in his survey obtained wealth through inheritance... he is probably correct, when you factor in estates getting divided up between several children , unlikely they will all be wealthy.... But getting a few hundred thousand dropped in your lap when you are middle aged and a little wiser sure gives a leg up, and helps channel more money into investments.
Originally Posted by Judman PS, if you think Trump is “good” you’re way stupider than I thought! Haha
