Poll:How You Got to $1 million NW

[DrRoy]

There was a thread today about getting to the '2 Comma Club' ($1M NW), and a reply that most people do it through owning a business or real estate. I thought it would make an interesting poll. If you have a NW over $1 million, what was the largest contributor to getting there among the choices?

[97guns]

Real estate got me there but stocks got me to real estate, I'm preserving with gold

[DrRoy]

For me it was saving/investing.

[FI_by_2023]

Nothing special. Between learning about compounding and fear of being poor, started saving early and have kept long term perspective in market downturns...and marrying somehow who bought into approach has also helped.

[jollystomper]

Person 1 approaches person 2 in New York City.
Person 1: "Excuse me, how do you get to Carnegie Hall?"
Person 2: "Practice, practice, practice".

[Koogie]

Made million(s) owning a business.

Kept some of them by being frugal.

[MRG]

Megacorp.

When I started there they saved for me, contributions and fees. Later after the IPO there were option grants etc. Luckily those happened after we had learned the importance of saving.

In some ways Megacorp taught me the importance and profitability of smart investing.

[pj.mask]

Saving half my income and buying assets during down markets. Including purchasing my house Q4,2011.

[5j404]

Saving

[NW-Bound]

For years, we maxed out our 401k and never paid much attention. One day about 1999 or so, when the startup business that I cofounded was foundering and the thought crossed my mind that I might need to draw on my stash for living expenses, I sat down and added up my before and after-tax accounts.

Wow, I had more than I thought. Yes, I had a meg, and that did not even include the home. And I kicked myself for not paying more attention, and for keeping a substantial portion of my stash in lousy investments.

So, I swore never again, and I have been looking at the total value of my investable assets every day.

[rodi]

To get to $1M Nw originally was about 70% saving/investing and 30% real estate... our primary home....

[Koolau]

Voted saving/investing, but realistically, it was mostly saving. I've been a lousy investor, though lucky on company stock which exploded at a fortuitous time. YMMV

[bada bing]

I was worth $550K in 1991, which would have a present
value a little over a $1mm. I accrued that pretty quickly
in just a few years in the boom and bust of commercial
fishing in Alaska.

By 1995 I had a negative net worth in the aftermath of
2 divorces and a rather spectacular business implosion.

I've worked as an employee for evil mega-corps for 22
years now and have squirrelled away crumbs from the
master's table worth about $1.25mm liquid today.

I voted "saving from employment income" in the poll
because that is where just about everything I have
now can be traced to. But there was an earlier
incarnation that was more interesting. I wish all the time
that I had managed that early run better and wonder
where I'd be if I had.

[brett]

Saving, investing, bonuses, and managing/exercising megacorp stock options .

[foxfirev5]

Working stiff simply plodding along. However, the second one comes much quicker than the first. Power of compounding or something like that? Seriously, I believe luck plays a bigger factor than most of us will admit. There are too many wild cards in life to attribute one's success to simply hard work, brilliance, or a multitude of self observations.

[BreathFree]

This list is in order of the most significant impact to reaching my first one million in net worth; however, I suspect the order will change to reach the second, especially since I am no longer employed other than self.

Also, they say the second million is easier, I suspect from compounding, so stock index funds may move to the top as time goes on.

#1 Living way, way below my means, about 12% to 50% of income.
#2 Savings from employer.
#3 Income from software application I developed.
#4 Low cost stock index funds
#5 Rentals

[Senator]

Saving a ton, but Real Estate got me the income that allowed me to save over 200% of my gross pay at my W2 job.

[RobbieB]

The house helped (30%) but the big player was good old fashioned saving and investing. Over the long haul of course. Save early and save often -

[NW-Bound]

RE investing either via renting or flipping can make one lots of money. I don't have the knack for it nor the temperament to deal with people, so never thought about it.

[athena53]

I checked saving from employment income and investing but a few good real estate transactions helped. First husband and I bought a house putting down $100K from his inheritance. We sold at a nice profit when we divorced 13 years later and my share was $100K, which I put down on another house and sold for a $225K profit 7 years later. At that point I married second DH and when he sold his place he handed me the $100K from the sale and told me to deal with it. (I loved investing- he had no interest in it.)

We barely got out of our last house what we put into it when we downsized 2 years ago, but 13 years of my making good money in a LCOL area (DH was retired), both of us on board with LBYM, and good investment results meant we didn't need another mega-profit on a house sale to make it work.