Poll:Self Made or Not Self Made

[Splash]

No inheritance.

I watched my parents struggle financially as small business owners. This motivated me to put myself through college and get a job at Mega Corp where I worked hard, was paid well, and LBYM.

 

[NYEXPAT]

Retired at 33, so definitely self-made!

 

[RenoJay]

In line for an inheritance, but am self-made. (Folks took care of college costs, but it wasn't a huge deal back then.) Made the money by starting businesses.

The most important inheritance I got was an attitude from my parents of self-reliance. As a latch-key kid in the 80's, I learned to manage my time and choose between productive and non-productive activities.

 

[L Carlisle]

Self Made

I grew up in a trailer in Alaska with 3 brothers and very young parents. My twin and I are the youngest, mom was 20 and dad was 23 when my twin and I were born. They both worked full time jobs in order to barely make ends meet. We were not poor but on the lower end of middle class. When my father died at 50 years old he had $2,000 to his name, after cremation and expenses all 4 of us received $100. My father never learned how to save. Mom is still alive, remarried and living just fine in her golden years. My mother hounded me when I was in my 20's to save, save, save, she is why I have what I have now.

I managed to put myself through 2 years of college to obtain a AA in Business Management. I have also been very lucky to have good paying jobs with retirement plans and have always maxed out my 401K.

I am doing better than all my brothers none of them are ready to retire yet, I am retiring with about 2 million in assets in February. There is a possibility my wife will get an inheritance from a wealthy great aunt and when my mom passes I may get a small amount.

 

[pb4uski]

Can young persons starting work today get to where we millionaires on this forum are?

I think they can. I don't believe any would say it's impossible.

Is it harder for them? I am not sure. ...

I think it is possible.... I think DD/DSIL are on there way but time will tell.

DS, a lower earner.... unlikely but he's still doing ok.

 

[Markola]

I grew up in a trailer in Alaska with 3 brothers and very young parents. My twin and I are the youngest, mom was 20 and dad was 23 when my twin and I were born. They both worked full time jobs in order to barely make ends meet. We were not poor but on the lower end of middle class. When my father died at 50 years old he had $2,000 to his name, after cremation and expenses all 4 of us received $100. My father never learned how to save. Mom is still alive, remarried and living just fine in her golden years. My mother hounded me when I was in my 20's to save, save, save, she is why I have what I have now.



I managed to put myself through 2 years of college to obtain a AA in Business Management. I have also been very lucky to have good paying jobs with retirement plans and have always maxed out my 401K.



I am doing better than all my brothers none of them are ready to retire yet, I am retiring with about 2 million in assets in February. There is a possibility my wife will get an inheritance from a wealthy great aunt and when my mom passes I may get a small amount.

Thanks for sharing your remarkable personal story.

 

[travelover]

Woke up drunk in a gutter and found a soggy winning lottery ticket staring me in the face. Cashed it in and have been posting here ever since.

 

[socca]

I couldn't have jumped off the corporate hamster wheel at age 44 and enjoyed a decent standard of living without substantial family support (not via an inheritance, though). I probably could have bailed at age 44 without family support, but it would have been a much more precarious existence (a stretch, you might say).

As others have pointed out, the poll is defective in a couple of respects:
• the use of the term 'millionaire' is quaint but probably ill-advised. "FI" would probably be better (although there is plenty of debate over what constitutes "FI")
• it would have been better to use the more general term 'gift' rather than 'inheritance'. Some lucky folks receive substantial gifts while the giver is still alive.

 

[WhenIsItTime]

Wife and I had good support system but we paid our own way through college. No inheritance to date and minimal expected. Retired at 47. Yes, I need a name change. I feel self-made, but would never say that without thanking a few key people or acknowledging some good timing. We worked our a$$es off to get where we are.

 

[Bamaman]

We had an aunt that died 3 mos. short of 100 years old. She spent the last 50 years as a semi-hermit after they owned the state's largest CPA firm. The firm was very successful in real estate including a 10 story office building partnership packed with CPA firms and attorneys. Her son died in a fire and the other had Downs and died a few years ago.

I never counted on the possibility that we may inherit anything because we didn't know her business. I was visiting my cousin the other day and he said that we were fortunate that Aunt Virginia never spent any money on empty pleasures. And he was showing me his $385K diesel pusher motorhome--paid with part of his share of the estate. And it's allowed me to buy large homes with cash without selling the last home. We just bought another today, and will be putting our current home on the market shortly.

 

[street]

I grew up in a trailer in Alaska with 3 brothers and very young parents. My twin and I are the youngest, mom was 20 and dad was 23 when my twin and I were born. They both worked full time jobs in order to barely make ends meet. We were not poor but on the lower end of middle class. When my father died at 50 years old he had $2,000 to his name, after cremation and expenses all 4 of us received $100. My father never learned how to save. Mom is still alive, remarried and living just fine in her golden years. My mother hounded me when I was in my 20's to save, save, save, she is why I have what I have now.

I managed to put myself through 2 years of college to obtain a AA in Business Management. I have also been very lucky to have good paying jobs with retirement plans and have always maxed out my 401K.

I am doing better than all my brothers none of them are ready to retire yet, I am retiring with about 2 million in assets in February. There is a possibility my wife will get an inheritance from a wealthy great aunt and when my mom passes I may get a small amount.

Great testimony thanks for sharing your journey to FIRE. A job well done.

 

[unclemick]

Self nothing - I put the money in early and often and let time and Mr Market do it's thing.

Grin - also during accumulation and in ER I was millionaire and UN- millionaire at least three times due to Mr Market. Stay the course was a tad chewy at times but it worked.

heh heh heh - 1966 - 1993 investor. 1993 to ? ER.

 

[Samething]

I'm definitely a self made Millionaire. Although I'm definitely not rich. I retired this year with @ 2M net worth.
I did receive a small inheritance when my mother passed but it was less than I had contributed to buying her condo a few years before her passing. Her assets were split 3 ways. I put mine in a separate brokerage account and it's grown from 13k to 42k as of now. I'll use that money for something special someday.
My parents divorced when I was in high school and I had very little contact with my Father until we started seeing each other on a regular basis again about 5 years ago. But I did inherit his work ethic and LBYM lifestyle. Thankful for that.

 

[DrRoy]

Inheritance was about 1/4 of NW. Would have FIREd anyway.

 

[Winemaker]

Not self made; it was someone else that spent 10-12 hour days in a coal mine, rotating shifts and saved 25% of their salary from day 1. It wasn't DW who at first, was a single mother teacher, who didn't get any child support from her ex. It wasn't us that banked her meager salary and lived on 75% of mine, for 35 years. It wasn't us who bought a small duplex and rented it out for the 20 years. It was our tenants who paid for our $500,000 real estate empire. It was all lady luck, and I raise a glass up to her on a regular basis for the past 5 years.

 

[Perryinva]

Hmm, does planned taking advantage of circumstances as luck count? Megacorp over the last, 30 years at least, regularly every 8-10 years, offered RIF packages under various names, but only once were they not voluntary. I was in debt of about $40k when married to ex, and though I take some responsibility for not reigning it it in, ex was the actual secret spender (always an excuse to not get a job, and when she finally did, never saw a cent of the income as part of our bills, and she still got half my 401k).

I volunteered for a RIF at age 37 to handle the divorce/debt/life change and was still about $15k in debt afterwards. 5 years and 3 jobs later I was remarried and back at same Megacorp (previous years counted towards pension) until I FIREd this year at 61. My “plan” was to retire when I reached my income number, which was combined portfolio and pension amount income anytime after age 60 (excellent heath care benefit) and before 64, and which I hoped/planned would be sooner due to another RIF, based on expected timing. When it happened, it did enable me to FIRE this year, as severance more than made up for the reduced pension due to less years of service.

(And ironically, when ERP was announced, I also found out that the ex, who had a QDRO against about 10% of my pension, had never filed for it and had passed away earlier this year, which due to the wording, meant it reverted back to me, a lucky coincidental windfall not in my original calculations).

 

[marko]

Not self made; it was someone else that spent 10-12 hour days in a coal mine, rotating shifts and saved 25% of their salary from day 1. It wasn't DW who at first, was a single mother teacher, who didn't get any child support from her ex. It wasn't us that banked her meager salary and lived on 75% of mine, for 35 years. It wasn't us who bought a small duplex and rented it out for the 20 years. It was our tenants who paid for our $500,000 real estate empire. It was all lady luck, and I raise a glass up to her on a regular basis for the past 5 years.

+1 Well said.

 

[Senator]

Not self made; it was someone else that spent 10-12 hour days in a coal mine, rotating shifts and saved 25% of their salary from day 1. It wasn't DW who at first, was a single mother teacher, who didn't get any child support from her ex. It wasn't us that banked her meager salary and lived on 75% of mine, for 35 years. It wasn't us who bought a small duplex and rented it out for the 20 years. It was our tenants who paid for our $500,000 real estate empire. It was all lady luck, and I raise a glass up to her on a regular basis for the past 5 years.

++1

Any situation that is available to anyone would not be considered 'luck'.

Being born in the USA, having good health, and a bunch of other 'luck' doesn't by itself make anyone rich in financial terms. There are plenty of poor people with that same luck, therefore by definition, it is not luck.

Maybe being able to sweat, and having a higher IQ than others might be the number one piece of luck. For some, testing the theory of gravity on the surface of a couch, is a lifetime ambition.

 

[4legsgood]

grateful for inheritance that let me retire early

I received a pretty juicy inheritance of $300k which gave me the means to retire early at 55. I'd already stashed away 1000k in an IRA on a salary always less than 100k and as a single mom so probably my best inheritance was a total lack of interest in luxury or keeping up with the neighbors.

 

[SecretlyFI]

I’m ok with the term “self-made” because I think the strongest driver of my financial success has been the choices and sacrifices I’ve made. Also, since I think it’s entirely possible to make self-destructive decisions and wipe out your million, I’ll take credit for preventing that and call myself “self-made”.

 

[Gumby]

++1

Any situation that is available to anyone would not be considered 'luck'.

Being born in the USA, having good health, and a bunch of other 'luck' doesn't by itself make anyone rich in financial terms. There are plenty of poor people with that same luck, therefore by definition, it is not luck.

Maybe being able to sweat, and having a higher IQ than others might be the number one piece of luck. For some, testing the theory of gravity on the surface of a couch, is a lifetime ambition.

MOD HAT ON -- I believe the questions, while infelicitously worded, were whether or not you received an inheritance and whether or not it was material to your FIRE status. Let us not revisit the "luck versus effort" debate. As you may recall, that thread was closed. -- MOD HAT OFF

 

[FIREd]

My ex-wife and I reached FIRE status without any inheritance.

But I am bound to inherit a substantial sum. My parents made an irrevocable donation some years ago (after I reached FIRE status) by putting assets in my name. But I cannot freely dispose of those assets until their death (I am not in the US and estate laws are different here). So I have not inherited anything yet per se, but I know exactly what I will inherit - eventually. That being said I still plan my FIRE journey without it. Any inheritance I receive will most likely be passed on to the next generation.

 

[nancyfrank232]

Nobody is self made and all of us are self made. It all depends on your definition of the self and what you think “you” are

 

[HI Bill]

What this poll tells me, is don't wait around, hoping to become a millionaire from an inheritance. It's just not that common! Of course, most who inherit multiple millions probably don't frequent this forum.

 

[Markola]

What this poll tells me, is don't wait around, hoping to become a millionaire from an inheritance. It's just not that common! Of course, most who inherit multiple millions probably don't frequent this forum.

+1,000. Money is like a gas - it looks for every opportunity to escape its container.

My grandfather used to ride me around on his tractor when I was a small kid, saying, earnestly, “Someday, you and your brother are going to be responsible for all of this (about 6,000 acres of pine lands), and you need to learn about it.” By the time I graduated college, the next generation had sold every bit of it off and, in my uncle’s case, largely pissed it away. That lit a fire in me that, if I wanted wealth, I needed to assemble it myself. As soon as I got my first real job in my twenties, I was saving and investing in stock mutual funds like literally nobody else I knew. At 53 and still going, I’m glad I did.