Multi-millionaire in net worth. Work hard, spend less, keep learning, and take calculated risk.
Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
41–50 of 84 posts
Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
From where do you get your information on personal finance and investing?
books, research reports, personal experience. The last is vital, as an investor's emotional composure is at times even more important than the rational side of investing.
Why spend the time learning about investing beyond the basics if you could be researching a niche in your field to double or add a zero to your income? It doesn't seem worth it to me if you don't have connections within the industry. You're still a retail investor at the end of the day compared to professionals at banks (which honestly, will have better information), so why not just use Vanguard stuff unless you want to go pro?
Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
#43It depends on how you define "millionaire." Do you mean >$1M net worth? >$1M liquid assets? >$1M annual salary? Because those are three very different things.
The first is not hard to attain. If you buy a house and pay off the mortgage and do a little saving on the side you will probably end up being a millionaire by that standard. But a million net worth isn't what it used to be. A millionaire by that definition is solidly middle-class, but nowhere near being rich.
The second is a little harder to attain, but still doable by plain-old-fashioned hard work and frugality. Save $2.5k/mo for 30 years and you'll get there. Invest that money in index funds and you'll get there faster.
The third is really hard, and it's a whole 'nuther world. Having $1M in income is the equivalent (given today's interests rates) of having a net worth of many tens of millions of dollars. To get there requires a combination of hard work, sacrifice, risk-taking, back-slapping, log-rolling and a big pile of luck.
Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
#44Yes, just barely but in actual assets. Meaning, if you take a complete accounting of my net worth, subtract out debts and ignore options etc and count retirement accounts and stocks and so on. I make out to just above that number by a little bit. Not terribly impressive if you make over $100k/yr for 15-20 years, live below your means, pay off all your debts and own where you live. But I guess I've managed not to squa…
Isn't this effectively the wrong strategy though? For a portion of my loans I would earn more investing and paying the minimum amount than I would paying them off sooner.
> Isn't this effectively the wrong strategy though?
There's no "right" strategy though, since everyone has different situations and priorities. I would have had no problem keeping my low-rate student loans while investing the extra, but I chose to burn them down quickly for the peace of mind of being debt free.
Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
#45Here are some things that help: * Frugality: deeply understanding the things that bring you satisfaction and skipping the rest * Aggressively saving and investing money * Building a mastery in personal finance But becoming a millionaire isn't a math problem. Most people on here are capable of doing so many times over without any great career home run. However, achieving such a milestone will require you to (on an ong…
Also, debt is bad. Debt is the ultimate "blue pill".
Ignoring the obvious issues with compound interest in reverse, the far more consequential problem is that it fucks with your head in ways that normally require CIA-style brainwashing and mind control.
Debt justifies and rewards your worst impulses, encourages poor, short-term decision making, and alters your frame of reference to a degree that even the smartest, most noble people among us think they can outsmart debt only to wind up losing big.
Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
#46Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
#47I suspect that for a lot of people here the answer to "are you a millionaire" would depend on how you're valuing the stock they own.
Yup. I guess I'm a millionaire on paper, in reality my bank account is negative several hundred dollars and all my credit cards are maxed out. Yay start-ups!
Never mind "on paper" -- those of us who are running bootstrapped companies don't even have "paper" valuations.
Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
#48Late fifties, own two houses but need twenty more years to pay off the mortgages and be a paper millionaire, all while supporting my family. Some day....
Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
#49[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Are you a millionaire? If so, how'd you get there?
#50I made > $1M more than once. For me it's always been building projects/startups and eventually exiting. I repeated the cycle and got lucky enough a few times. Interestingly, I always managed to get some kind of liquidity event for each of my projects. This is important IMO. ALWAYS try to get paid. Don't just "shut it down". Each liquidity event added at least a digit to the price. For example, I sold my first busines…
Hey I'm a little earlier in my journey than you are, having sold 1 company in the 6 figure range, I would like my next one to be 7 or 8, maybe we could chat? My contact is in my profile