"A 27-year-old millionaire reveals how he built his wealth"

[harley]

He's counting the car as an asset, and also all the reserves for the rental properties. It's fun to make the numbers come out over $1M, but not how I would determine net worth.

 

[nash031]

Basically true, but those are 2014 numbers. An E4 under 2 years in 2007 (the highest rank he could have been) was making $1699/mo in base pay, and he wouldn't have promoted to E5 within 2 years. So he wasn't making $55K in basic pay, BAH, and BAS when he first got in. By the time he got out, maybe.

The article didn't say he was making $55k right off the bat. It didn't specify. It's likely that he was making $55k or more if he was in for five years. In certain ratings, you can absolutely promote to E5 in two years. Nuclear ETs, EMs, and MMs can do it in less than that through various programs. Even if he wasn't that, he could've certainly made E5 in his first term as an ET, particularly as a submarine ET.

Again, this minor uproar about his supposed salary is silly. Maybe he was off by a little bit, but the better bet is that people on this forum are missing things like Sub Pay, BAH, Sea Pay, maybe nuclear proficiency pay, etc.

If you ask anyone I know in the Navy how much they make, they aren't going to tell you just base pay. Hell, I'd wager most of us don't even know that number. I know my total entitlements from last year and have a rough idea of the breakdown, but ask me how much I make and you'll get the number which includes all special pays, bonus pays, allowances and base salary.

 

[EvrClrx311]

It also said he did free-lance work. Maybe that was rolled into the 55K number?

Checking my SSA.org account I realized that sometime this year I crossed the $1,000,000 life time income mark. My net worth is about 20.5% of that... makes me realize I should be saving more. Maybe not as aggressively as this guy, but somewhere between. I think I've averaged about 15%, but I want it more in the 25-30% range.

 

[Lancelot]

Great young man. More power to him!

The military has been the catalyst that raised a lot of us above the level of our parents.

His 60% savings rate didn't hurt either

 

[LOL!]

Whoopsies. It looks like the guy lied about his parents and where he got his money. Will he claim he was young and he was dreaming?

 

[aim-high]

Not that we didn't already realize it . . .

In response to queries made by Yahoo Finance on Monday, Ivanov shut down his blog, Financessful. He had already deleted Twitter and Facebook accounts affiliated with the blog. He admits that he was receiving commissions from several financial websites, including Personal Capital, Credit Sesame, and TradeKing, among many others, for each person who signed up for their services through links on his website. He would not specify the amount.

The personal finance blogs are some of the worst at this sort of thing because the personal finance advertisers pay the most.

 

[rodi]

Yep - the corrections to the story are pretty significant.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/27-year-old-millionaire-anton-ivanov-financessful-184823184.html

CORRECTION: Since the publication of this story on Nov. 4, new details have come to light which have made Anton Ivanov's claims of becoming a self-made millionaire highly suspect.

Ivanov launched a financial education blog in September called Financessful.com. On the site and in several interviews, Ivanov claimed he was a self-made millionaire who began investing at age 18 after watching his parents mismanage their finances. On Monday, Ivanov admitted to Yahoo Finance that 75-80% of his wealth consists of an inheritance that was left to him by his parents, who died several years ago. He would not specify the dollar amount, but he also said that one of the two properties he owns, which he said is valued at more than $600,000, is also part of the inheritance from his parents.

There's more at the link about things he stretched or lied about.

I find it interesting he claims to have gotten into finance after his parents mismanaged their money - yet $600k or more of his money is from inheritance...seems like his parents "mismanagement" still left him a very healthy inheritance.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Busted! Love it. Bet he didn't make anywhere near $55k a year in the Navy either.

Stupid Yahoo Finance.

 

[Lucantes]

Something posted on the Internet wasn't true?!?!? What?!?!
He lied, plain and simple.
Yahoo Finance didn't check any of the facts....gee, imagine that.

 

[MooreBonds]

Something posted on the Internet wasn't true?!?!? What?!?!
He lied, plain and simple.
Yahoo Finance didn't check any of the facts....gee, imagine that.

As much as I dislike slime like this(the ....at least he had the hutzpah to admit the truth and discontinue his blog (assuming he doesn't try restarting the blog in 5 years when the uproar dies down). Unlike some other 'questionable' bloggers.

 

[photoguy]

I read this story when it first came out. My first thought was that it seemed a bit of an exaggeration. It is not unusual for people to amplify their wins and minimize their losses when telling a story. It could be 100% true, but again the odds are against the 100% part in my opinion. I take all these stories with a grain of salt. Of course the point is still valid, LBYM and invest and you come out ahead of those who don't.

Looks like your cynic radar was dead on.