How Long Does It Take To Become A Millionaire? | Money Guy (2024)

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How Long Does It Take To Become A Millionaire? | Money Guy? ›

However, this is far from the truth. While it is true that younger people have more time on their hands, it is never too late to start taking control of your finances. A lot of people believe in get-rich-quick schemes, but the reality is that becoming a millionaire typically takes 27 years.

There is another way most self-made millionaires are similar to one another: It took them a long time to become one. According to data compiled by Rich Habits author Thomas Corley, it took the average self-made millionaire 32 years to achieve that.

The average age of American millionaires has risen to 61 as of 2022, up from 57 in 1992. Younger workers struggle to amass wealth, leading to increased reliance on inheritances.

Suppose you're starting from scratch and have no savings. You'd need to invest around $13,000 per month to save a million dollars in five years, assuming a 7% annual rate of return and 3% inflation rate. For a rate of return of 5%, you'd need to save around $14,700 per month.

Because if you want to become a millionaire, how much money you invest is just as important as the actual act of investing. We found that it took Baby Steps Millionaires, who invested 15% of their income toward retirement, about 20 years or less to reach millionaire status from the beginning of their journey!

If invested with an average annual return of 7%, it would take around 15 years to turn 500k into $1 million.

Making $4,000 a month based on your investments alone is not a small feat. For example, if you have an investment or combination of investments with a 9.5% yield, you would have to invest $500,000 or more potentially. This is a high amount, but could almost guarantee you a $4,000 monthly dividend income.

Once you have $1 million in assets, you can look seriously at living entirely off the returns of a portfolio. After all, the S&P 500 alone averages 10% returns per year. Setting aside taxes and down-year investment portfolio management, a $1 million index fund could provide $100,000 annually.

Retiring at 65 with $1 million is entirely possible. Suppose you need your retirement savings to last for 15 years. Using this figure, your $1 million would provide you with just over $66,000 annually. Should you need it to last a bit longer, say 25 years, you will have $40,000 a year to play with.

What is the only place you should keep your emergency fund money? ›

Bank or credit union account — If you have an account with a bank or credit union—generally considered one of the safest places to put your money—it might make sense to have a dedicated account where you can keep and maintain these funds.

By those standards, the five jobs with the most millionaires are engineer, accountant, teacher, people in management, and lawyer. Doctor is sixth. They make a lot of money, but also spend a lot.

While some wealthy Americans drive luxury vehicles, an Experian Automotive study found that a whopping 61% of wealthy people with household incomes of more than $250,000 don't drive luxury brands. Instead, they drive less showy cars, such as Hondas, Toyotas and Fords, Ramsey said in an article.

Nobody can guarantee what stocks will do, but those of us who invest do so with the expectation that the overall market will likely rise over time. At the market's long-run historical return rate of around 10% per year, $100,000 will turn into $1 million all on its own in around 24.2 years.

But the reality, according to experts, doesn't quite look like that. “It's very difficult to become a millionaire in one year, even under ideal circ*mstances,” said Jake Hill, finance expert and CEO of DebtHammer. “Building wealth is a time-consuming process that involves careful planning and a solid strategy.”

While the overall odds of someone in the U.S. becoming a millionaire are about 7.29% based on the percentage of the population with that much money, you can increase your odds significantly if you just take these simple steps.

In fact, most Americans are unlikely to ever become a millionaire. Estimates vary, but they range from about 12 million to 24 million millionaires in America. While that sounds like a lot, even the upper limit of that range is less than 10% of the approximately 332 million people in the U.S.