Aside from that, if she amassed 60% of her $2.25M nest egg by saving for 7 years, that's $193K/year in savings. Good for her for getting a job that pays over $200K/year straight out of college, but that's not something most new grads can count on. She had a fairly unique opportunity to amass a lot of money in a short amount of time and was able to turn it to her advantage.
Quoting from the article:
JP ... graduated Harvard in 2009...For JP’s first couple years of working at the investment firm, she focused on cutting her expenses so she could save the bulk of what she brought in. She lived off $24k
JP’s first job out of college was actually serving as a horse-trekking assistant to nomads in Mongolia. After that, she came back to the U.S. with plans to start her own business.
I had my first million by the time I was 26.
Let's say she saved 85% of that "first million" - which means $150k in growth as she saved up to $850k.
It doesn't say she was a child prodigy that graduated from Harvard at age 18, so let's assume she was 22 when she graduated. She apparently had no student loans.
And it says she went overseas to work in Mongolia, for an unspecified length of time. Assume 6 months? So she was late 22/early 23 when she somehow landed this amazing IB job in 2010 with just a bachelors degree.
Then she says she amassed her first million by age 26. So she saved up, say, $850k from early 23 to age 26. In 3 years or less. Or about $283k/year in savings, on average.
It says she allowed herself to spend 24k/year. Add in her savings of $283k, and that is $307k/year net after-taxes. Which means working in Manhattan, she was earning, what, maybe close to $500k/year for 3 years (before taxes). All this as a new graduate with just a bachelors, after working in Mongolia for 6 months straight out of college, just as the country is coming out of the worst recession since the Great Depression, competing against her peers, who were slightly older, and had far more experience (and MBAs from top-tier business schools) and were laid off by the droves from Lehman and other downsizing moves.
Doesn't quite pass the smell test to me. Unless she conveniently leaves out that maybe her husband contributed $200k/year in savings? But she clearly says that
she saved up her first million by 26.
Forgive me if my BS meter flares up just a little bit....
ETA: Also curious with these notes:
She spent one of her summers at a Buddhist monastery in Taiwan. When JP reflects on her time there, you can see how she started to find a minimalist lifestyle appealing, and why she doesn’t equate spending to happiness.
Well, someone obviously wasn't working their summers to pay for college. Sounds like mummy and daddy gave her one heck of an advantage starting out. Not only did she make nothing, but even just flying over there is several grand round trip.
Of course, then there's this seemingly paradoxical statement:
When I was 12, my dad gave me a copy of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. It ignited my interest in money management (I consider investing just one part of money management),” says JP. “It made me want to start my own business. I also got really interested in real estate investing and would sit at Barnes & Noble reading through everything I could get my hands on.
So let me get this straight: at age 12, you were very into money management...made you want to start your own business that continued even after you returned from herding goats or whatever the hell it was in Mongolia after graduation. You even "got really interested" and "sat at B&N reading everything you could get your hands on" regarding real estate investing....but then, during her summers (studying business at Harvard, mind you), she went off to a Buddhist monastery, and other untold adventures.
Do you see someone who is so hyped up about money management, and starting their own business, and sitting at B&N reading everything they can get their hands on for investing, to then spend a summer (possibly more) doing this, and then spending their first job after college herding livestock in Mongolia
Sorry....while her story is mathematically feasible, definitely doesn't add up, or fit what she claims.