No problem. I am happy to answer your questions. I don't average 15% annually. Over the years, depend on each stocks, some of them are significantly higher.
Over the years, I invested in different asset classes: Big Oil, Natural gas, mining companies, casino stocks, tech stocks. I got lucky and investment grows. Snowball effects, dividend reinvest, compounding over time etc.
I started around year 2000. 20 years or so.
I tried to max out my 401k and Roth if I can. I did not max out every year because I need some money to buy my 1st house and rental property along the away.
I didn't inherit anything. My parents gave me $2000 for college and ask me to make it works. "It's time to take care yourself" talk.
During my investment journey, I hit several 5 baggers, 6 baggers, even 30 baggers over the years. For example, Facebook, Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, NextEra, Netflix, Google, different oil companies before oil crashes, different gold stocks before it cooled down. Those stocks have significant higher returns than normal index funds. I did not buy options or margin call. I don't believe in day trading, so I just buy and hold.
I was taking significantly higher risk with a fairly concentrated portfolio of a few companies I researched and believed in. I'm not so much into diversification by then. I chased for higher returns when I was young & reckless. Overall, I took some semi-educated risks and it paid off by luck. Fact is, I got lucky an no one gets lucky forever. "Better take some off the table when I'm ahead" mentality kicked in at some point in my investment journey. In the last 5-7 years, I scaled back to index funds and only hold a few individual stocks.
I hope this information helps. Thanks.