r/AskReddit • u/Longjumping-Editor94 • 8h ago
Millionaires of reddit, what was the biggest secret to your success?
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u/TheDadThatGrills 8h ago
Buy and hold as early as possible. Eventually the compounding will outpace income. That margin becomes a moat that will financially protect you from most bad decisions.
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u/Jmersh 54m ago
I had a 6% 401k match available from age 24, but didn't start contributing to it until I was 29. That 5 years I missed out on would have been worth over $350k now that I'm in my mid 40s and $1.5M by the time I hit retirement age.
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u/I_made_the_rooster_1 2h ago
Agreed. Starting early was the biggest contributor to the value of my current portfolio.
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u/ByteWhisperer 8h ago
Keeping a secret.
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u/ohdogwhatdone 5h ago
The lost art of keeping a secret...
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u/Parikh1234 5h ago
This. When you make money figure out a small group of people that’s important to you. Family. Friends. Count them on two hands. Disappear from everyone else.
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u/zeroObjective6004 8h ago
Doing something long enough to be really good at it and saving/investing the money. Don’t chase the short game, play the long one.
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u/didsomebodysaymyname 8h ago
Don’t chase the short game, play the long one.
People see the guy who made a long shot bet and won big and don't see the 99 other guys who made the long shot bet and lost.
And usually (not always) the guy who won wasn't making some genius move, he was just the lucky guy of the 100.
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u/CalmCalmBelong 4h ago
I've often said that the winning bells and chimes going off on a casino's slot machine floor whenever someone wins money would be drowned out entirely if there was a buzzer or sad trombone whenever someone lost.
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u/giant_traveler 5h ago
So many of millenials and younger have this mindset that wealth is beyond reach. They see that YOLO that paid off and equate that as the only way to success. Real success isn't that exciting. As a matter of fact, it's stressful and mostly boring.
Bust your butt, put in the hard work, don't engage in frivolous spending, save, invest, and make good personal choices. Now do that consistently for years. There, I just demisitifed being wealthy. But that won't get much engagement on TikTok.
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u/bluerog 8h ago
I put back 15%, 10%, now 6% of my paycheck for 34 years. Matching funds from my employer of 3% to 4.5%. Index 500 funds.
Will retire in 6 years with $5 to $6+ million in my 401k and some ROTH.
Started when I was making the equivalent of $40k up to $55k for 11 years working on a steel manufacturing floor. After getting my degree at 32, made more. Didn't need to put much more of a percentage in after 15 years of returns though.
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u/majerus1223 6h ago
Those 401k returns must be great, given the cap on 401k contributions right?
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u/bluerog 5h ago
It's $70,000+ max one can contribute a year.
After age 59-1/2, I can take out millions the first day I retire. The plan is living off 4% a year, but any returns from investments over 5%, I'll take out for fun play. I plan on $200k to $500k for that.
If I die with over $10,000 in my account for my kids... I screwed up along the way. 😊
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u/majerus1223 2h ago
I think your numbers are off.. I started in 2011 back then it was like 16k, this year its 24,500 on the 401k contribution limit max. This doesnt include employer match but still, to get to 70k you would need a insane plan match.
The ROTH ira is cool, and is part of a plan for sure.
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/401k-limit-increases-to-24500-for-2026-ira-limit-increases-to-7500
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u/Fantom1107 1h ago
The $70k limit they are referring to is for additional after tax contributions also known as a Mega Backdoor Roth. For 2026, it's $24,500 for normal employee deferral and then $47,500 for a total of $72k. Not all 401k plans allow for this though. I've worked for five different companies and none have offered it. My current employer hopes to soon.
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u/KingOfCook 5h ago
I had like 4 "once-in-a-lifetime" losses happen in two years Everyone and thing I've ever cared about is gone.
There's a lot of blood money to be made in loss. I'm young, I have my whole life ahead of me, and no one to share it with.
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u/teamhog 7h ago
Consistency.
Live below your means.
Automate as much as you can.
We’ve been DCA into a no cost broad market index fund for over 30 years.
No debt.
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u/Grandma_Butterscotch 6h ago
Yeah. Not much to add except - be DINKs. Kids are f’n expensive.
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u/theROFO1985 8h ago
I’m boring - DCA.
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u/friskevision 8h ago
I’m stupid, DCA?
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u/Teardownstrongholds 8h ago
Dollar cost averaging.
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u/sandm000 8h ago edited 8h ago
And that is?
Investing a fixed amount. Never looking
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u/chrisfrisina 8h ago
Dollar-cost averaging is the practice of investing a fixed amount of money at regular intervals, regardless of market fluctuations. Warren buffet’s single advice for every average persona and situation.
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u/tabulacose 8h ago
Keep putting money into the market every time period of your choice regardless of it being up or down. Instead of trying to time the market
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u/wishythefishy 8h ago
Boring; effective.
I am a wealth manager. A bunch of losers here saying something cheeky and this is the way. 99% discipline and like 1% investment advice… which is literally just DCA and some tax stuff.16
u/zeroObjective6004 8h ago
100%. DCA, even just VOO, has created plenty of millionaires.
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u/Dense-Panic-8620 7h ago edited 6h ago
I was the last person out of the hundred people who worked for me to have a smartphone. I’m now worth 3.5. Just sold my 16 yo Corolla with 260,000 mile and bought a RAV 4 limited… cash. “oh, then what good does the money do you? Blah,blah blah”. Paid for 3 undergrad degrees to give my kids a good head start. I am in Aruba for 3 week right now. I am looking at the blue water and palm trees as I type. Not a financial care in the world. That’s what good it does. Start early, spend less than you make and invest ( not gamble crypto etc). Very simple but not easy. Impossible for the whiners.
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u/Glittering-Equal-480 8h ago
rich parents
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u/genesiss23 8h ago
Consistent savings and investing. Also, taking advantage of any 401k match your company offers
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u/HedgehogFlimsy6419 8h ago
Do not buy stupid shit.
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u/Baddecisionsbyme1 8h ago
But how do you decide what is "stupid shit" vs. "regular shit" vs. "smart shit"? Smell or consistency?
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u/BeardedMan32 8h ago
If it’s something you stop using or caring about after a month it’s stupid shit.
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u/StevBator 8h ago
Delayed gratification. And, Don’t let emotion guide your business/investment decisions.
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u/AgainstTheEnemy 3h ago
Not just for millionaires but for every person in general.
Live below your means.
Stop having bullshit debts, credit card nonsense and buy things you don't need and don't like it by the time you get home.
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u/splitfins 8h ago
Im a pretty quiet millionaire. I drive a used Subaru that's fully paid off. I buy winter clothes in the late spring so they are at least half off. I meal prep on the weekends for enough food to last a whole week, sometimes less but close enough. I maxed 401k savings from my very early 20s. I run the wheel strategy for options trading. I don't blow money on tons of subscriptions or memberships. I hold mutual funds and ETFs that pay monthly, quarterly, and annually that I simply let keep compounding. I have zero debt except my home. I live a mostly quiet, simple, and boring life on paper. If you met me on the street, you'd think I'm just the average dude financially. I took out no student loans. I worked a lot of extra hours from age 20-40 and invested every bit of my overtime into mutual funds. The only frivolous thing I spend money on is traveling and even that is much cheaper as I go to Southeast Asia most of the time to scuba dive where a nice resort can run you $35/night instead of hundreds in Florida or the Caribbean. I also studied an in demand career and changed jobs every few years to bump up my pay as well as negotiated heavily for myself when doing so. Absolutely anyone could be me, even in 2026.
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u/RedJerzey 6h ago
It sounds like your single..... which is probably the secret to being a millionaire...lol
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u/Grandma_Butterscotch 6h ago
Hardly. A strong financial partner is critical. But avoid picking up any parasites along the way - they’re hella expensive
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u/splitfins 6h ago
This is the correct answer. MANY divorces are due to money issues. This is just reality. Find the correct partner, and you can build wealth and a life together. Find the wrong partner.........good luck lol.
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u/splitfins 6h ago
Was married in my mid 20s. It did not last long, mainly on money issues. I would work 60-80 hours a week and she took that as she could go buy new designer handbags. That marriage lasted only 2 years. Luckily, she only got half of everything acquired during the marriage....... which wasn't much. My home was purchased before the marriage and did not appreciate any (married right before the 2008 crash). She literally got barely anything. Wasn't married long enough for her to get any sort of alimony. No kids. It was a fairly easy split for me. I hear she's living in her elderly mother's basement these days and smoking a lot of weed. Good for her I guess?
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u/shrimpcest 7h ago
Not everyone even has access to a job with a 401k program in their early 20s, let alone the ability to max it out.
Absolutely anyone could be me, even in 2026.
How old are you now, and what makes you so sure of this statement?
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u/splitfins 6h ago edited 6h ago
How old are you now
almost 50
what makes you so sure of this statement?
Because I have worked in healthcare for almost 3 decades. Even in the worst of times, 2008 financial crisis, COVID, whatever, there was always a job for me. Many actually.
I know this borderlines boomer talk, but the major kickers were the following: I never held debt except my mortgage. I drove ugly old toyotas and finally my used Subaru that I drive now. I made way more money than my monthly bills needed so I invested the margin. I knew things were getting real when my "fun" account got to about 100k. This is the account where I run the wheel strategy selling options (only selling, NEVER buying). The premium collected doing this added more and more to my monthly income. My other accounts include things that compound over time. This is all separate than my 401k (actually a 403b) at work. If you stay out of debt, learn to say NO to every shiny thing, and know what to do with your money you make from an in demand career, you will be good. Just my 2 cents. Take it for what it's worth.
EDIT: Time flies. I've actually worked in healthcare for 3 decades if you count transporting patients when I was in high school.
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u/GreedyNovel 5h ago
Not everyone even has access to a job with a 401k program in their early 20s, let alone the ability to max it out.
This thread started with a question about what worked for that person. Maybe that solution doesn't work for everyone else in the world, but that's okay.
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u/lumpytrout 2h ago
Honestly, a million just isn't that much money any more. Go ask the billionaires
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u/GreySoulx 1h ago
I am, and will probably forever be closer to homeless than being a billionaire.
A billion is 1,000 millions. That's just insanity.
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u/CarbonReflections 38m ago
A million seconds is 11 days a billion seconds is 36 years.
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u/brobotbee 8h ago
Marry a doctor.
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u/TheCandymanfrombelow 8h ago
Keep your mouth shut. Dont share what you have don't share what you don't. Keep quiet and do you. Even if people think I have an extra hundred I'm certain I'll be asked. Keep quiet live a comfortable life and enjoy.
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u/yert1099 8h ago
Speak less than you know, have more than you show.
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u/TheCandymanfrombelow 8h ago
Love that saying, never heard it but yes exactly. Wealth isn't about the money it's about the freedom, I can go to my kids events at school or just show up with lunch etc.
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u/ChewinTheFat 8h ago
I think they want to know how you became successful
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u/TheCandymanfrombelow 8h ago
Ahh, luck. Got a signing bonus for joining the army back in 06. That topped with my savings I purchased Amazon stock in 07 when I deployed again and well, 250k worth of Amazon stock at 72 a share has grown.
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u/humans_being 6h ago
Can't say enough for the "keep your mouth shut" part. Knew a hilo operator at a salt plant who retired. When he died he left a 1.2 million endowment to the local university. He didn't even go there he just was a fan of the football team. Who else he gave money to is anyone's guess but as it turns out he quietly ran a very successfull real estate investment company when he wasn't moving pallets of salt. Why did he stay at that job? Why was he so quiet? Who knows but what they do know is he didn't inherit the money or win the lottery. He just consistantly worked very very hard and knew what and where to buy.
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u/LateralEntry 6h ago
First I made a dollar, then I used it to make two dollars, then my father died and left me all his money
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u/DreadChylde 8h ago
Growing up in a social democratic society offering free education (I was actually paid to study), a very safe community, and free healthcare when I needed it (spontaneous collapsed lung at 19).
Later on it was great employees who understood what I was trying to do in the company and took part in the vision governing its growth.
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u/SomeGuyInSanJoseCa 4h ago
As someone who just had his yearly compensation increase to $1M (seriously) for the first time a few days ago, the secret is ...
Luck.
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u/ViennaWaitsforU2 8h ago
Being super personable and unafraid of new situations above my pay grade
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u/lawanddisorderr 8h ago
Accepting positions above what you think you can do/above your paygrade is so underrated. Also negotiating/asking for higher salary, especially at the time of the offer.
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u/Sensitive_Hat_9871 6h ago
$3.4 million here. Live below your means. Max out your IRA and your 401k if you can. Invest in simple index funds, consistantly, during your working life.
You spend the first 1/4th of your life as a child and in school / college. You spend the next half of your life (ages 22 to 66) working. Save and invest. You spend the last 1/4th of your life (ages 66 to 88) in retirement. What you put away during those 44 working years defines how well your retirement will go.
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u/Big_Way8179 5h ago
Owning equity. Income pays the bills; ownership is what can really change the scale.
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u/spitfirejjp7 1h ago
Time in the market beats timing the market. My income was no more than a lot of my peers, but through >a decade I’ve made several hundreds of thousands more than my peers just because they were waiting for the “right time” to invest. Start small and just keep adding dollars over time at a rate that you can afford. Don’t watch your results daily, and over time I promise you you will be pleased with the result.
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u/MonsterAtEndOfBook 8h ago
Saving early and often. Marrying well helps too.
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u/lightofhonor 8h ago
Seriously. Finding someone who earns similar to you is basically the cheat code unless one of you earns crazy money. We basically live off one salary and save/invest/split using the other one. Living within your means is much easier with double means.
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u/thehatteryone 8h ago
So many young folk feel entitled to living in their own, where people don't used to do that on their first jobs. Whether it's a partner or a housemate, sharing (the costs of) one kitchen, one bathroom, one living room, one broadband bill, all the other things you can't buy half as much of, makes a huge difference to personal budgets.
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u/JakeDuck1 8h ago
Work a blue collar job for 20 years invest early don’t touch it buy a house and sell it and buy another house. 7 figure net worth with 90% of it in retirement and home equity. Not a millionaire millionaire but it’s a comfortable life.
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u/MikeEpps734 8h ago
Hard work. Reading a lot and learning new things to make yourself valuable. Knowing your worth and willing to move jobs if it increases salary or betters your career. Take calculated risks. And also very important, invest early and often. Pay yourself first (save before spending) and don’t buy shit you don’t need.
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u/Warm-Management-7323 8h ago
Invest early and often and diversify
Read the reports almost every stock you buy has report on all of the income and all the investments
Invest in mutual funds and direct stocks
Invest in real estate doesn’t have to be a huge home at first, but buy do not rent. That’s a waste of money.
Source MBA from a top 10 university and grew up poor.
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u/BoxPopular6883 8h ago
Start saving when young. Fully fund any company 401k so you can max out the amount of company match. When you get a raise, or maybe every few years, increase your contribution to 401k by 1%. Choose more aggressive investment options. Dont ever ever touch this money before retirement
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u/famguy31 8h ago
Multiple things. 1) Living below your means/giving up things you want/or nice to have and budgeting/saving/investing (no matter how small)
2). Working hard/honest work/sometimes unpleasant work that paid decent.
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u/Ethos_Logos 7h ago
Live below your means, be careful with anything subscription based (like streaming services or gaming), avoid gambling and gatcha games, and when it comes to the big dollar decisions like vehicles and housing, be very thoughtful. Don’t be foolish with your money, like ordering DoorDash when you have food at home.
Find a spouse with the same financial attitude that you have.
These things won’t make you rich, but they will keep you from being poor. It also frees up savings for you to invest, which is how I made my money.
Do the math and see when you get to retire. Retirement isn’t an age, it’s a dollar number. I did the boglehead math and realized I wouldn’t be able to retire until I was 57, which was about two decades longer than I wanted to work. So I took on more risk, concentrated into one stock after tons of research on the company and management team, (not advisable, most people lose it all) and ended up being right.
I was willing to lose 100% of my investment, and for three years out of four I was down anywhere between 25 and 80%. I kept buying at lower prices, and then it popped, and I was able to quit the weekend job I had taken on during those years, investing the entire paycheck.
Guys if you want to live different from others later down the line, you’ve gotta act differently today. How many of your peers are picking up weekend shifts on top of the regular week? It’s tough. There were definitely days where I was in my own head thinking “I’m 50% down, that’s half the last two years of weekends I could have spent with my young family”.
But it was worth it.
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u/Temporary_Macaron422 5h ago
We made it a rule to not loan money to people. After that, we were able to save.
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u/SimpleinSeattle 1h ago
Paying yourself first. Save and invest the money before it hits your banking account.
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u/AAron27265 8h ago
Lineage. My grandfather patented, among other things, the material used in many nautical sails, at one time including America's Cup vessels.
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u/CapableCan1842 8h ago
Our combined income averaged about 140K. We made a budget, lived within our means, drove our cars for over 200,000 miles, saved and invested in index based mutual funds. Did this for about 30 years. We were able to pay for our kids college and medical school (for one) and retired at age 61 with about a 5 million dollar net worth. Never made a ton of money. Just slow and steady.
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u/Mountain-Donkey98 8h ago
Not spending.
But, define millionaire. Net worth? Cash flow? Because Elon Musk is a trillionaire, he doesnt have anything close to a trillion in his bank account.
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u/Jmersh 8h ago
Who do you consider a millionaire? Someone with a net worth over $1M or someone with $1M+ in the bank?
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u/TheCandymanfrombelow 8h ago
I would assume liquid assets. It we're doing net worth then the game changes even further
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u/BeneficialPoetry4807 8h ago
I would define it as $1MM in the bank. Good question.
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u/shawnington 7h ago
Only an idiot would have 1m in the bank, FDIC only insures 250k. If you have a million in the bank, and are not an idiot, it's only because you haven't moved it into another asset yet.
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u/BeneficialPoetry4807 7h ago edited 7h ago
The only real reason you would worry about the FDIC insurance is if the bank would go bankrupt. That's why the wealthy bank with the bigger banks....we already saw how that would play out.
Edit: In addition, just because you have money in a bank, doesn't mean it's in cash...idiot
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u/Hot_Inside2528 5h ago
I know someone worth $4-6m.. it’s like partially real estate and mostly stocks. They don’t keep more than a few months of expenses on hand because everything stays invested. Need money? Borrow against the investments, don’t ever sell them. This person would never have 1m on hand but when I needed to borrow $50k they had the money in an hour
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u/futurefloridaman87 2h ago
I’m 38 and while I am not quite a millionaire, I am on the cusp and will cross the threshold likely within the next six months at most. Compound interest is the most important factor, start investing as much as you can as early as you can and build that good habit for life. Number two is owning, not renting. When I look at my peers who have similar income and lower net worth, it’s almost always because they are lifelong renters. On the flipside I have made multiple hundreds of thousands on selling properties and rolling that into a new place. To be clear I have zero rentals, this is all just hopping primary residences.
The third factor is the uncomfortable one…. Income. I’m not rich, but I do make 220 to 240,000 a year. That obviously makes investing easy, as well as homeownership easy. The reality is most people will never make that in their life, let alone years and years in a row like I have. A combination of hard work, but also good luck got me here. If you wanna make good money and you’re not the doctor/lawyer type, my advice is learn how to sell. Whether it’s technology, pharmaceuticals, financial products, or anything else, sales is a way to high income without ridiculously high education requirements or having to be a business owner.
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u/Dependent_Tune_1333 3h ago
Luck. I had a windfall in March 2001. It was a lot, hundreds of thousands of dollars. The .com bubble was bursting, telecom was in the dumps, and the markets all looked weird. So I sat on cash for months. And then something happened... September 11th. The market took a hit and I pushed all my cash in.
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u/morphinecolin 8h ago
Timing and effort. More timing. I could not replicate it in a vacuum. My first step up was because of 9/11, and the next one was because my mentor brought me along for an expansion. Both were 1/1 jobs, and easily could have gone to someone who wasn’t 20 and 25, respectively. I bought my first rental in 2000 and the second after the housing crisis in 2008.
I guess, don’t spend money like an idiot, and make sure you’re investing in your future. Buy used always. Never act like you can afford to spend a ton of money.
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u/pooroldguy1 8h ago
It’s not that hard to become a millionaire. I’m a millionaire but as you see in my name here I’m still poor.
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u/losstinthesauce 8h ago
It’s luck mostly. Worked hard but everyone works hard, you can only control effort not outcome. Got a job at decent tech company and got RSUs/equity. I’m barely a millionaire though, still counts 😂.
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u/Kiroh1307 8h ago
I was lucky with my business idea and worked hard for a while. Until someone wanted to buy my company.
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u/OkImpression8086 8h ago
Live on less than you make and learn and live the art of delayed gratification. The last few years of my job, I would change my retirement contributions to equal the raise I got that year. I didn’t have to have the latest iPhone, car or things like that. At the time I became a millionaire, I had 4 cars in my driveway that were worth an average of about 8k. None over 15k.
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u/thrwLittleStreet6766 8h ago
Assets minus liabilities, I’m easily worth 2 million. I just feel upper middle class in my day-to-day
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u/cleanbilly 8h ago
Invest consistently in low cost broad market ETF’s.
Consistently, no matter what.
You will be amazed with the power of compounding after decades.
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u/ICQ4Knowlwdge 8h ago
Start poor. Experience what it’s like to have the primary school principal ask if you want to sell cartons of milk to your classmates in exchange for a cafeteria lunch. Remember that feeling. It will serve you well in developing empathy for others.
Get educated. When you think you’re done, keep going. Be the best at doing what you do, but don’t brag. People who think you know nothing will usually leave you alone.
Keep your head down and do your job. Invest as soon and as often as possible. Do spend a little of what you make on an occasional vacation. Make some memories as you go.
Be kind to others. Remember where you started.
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u/SilentCfo 7h ago
Patience was the key - boring I know but patience in investing, and in my career has been the best path time and time again (not for everyone but for me I guess).
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u/NotARealDeveloper 7h ago
Luck.
Being born into the right family is 99.99%. I am not talking about being born a millionaire. But even being born into a middle class academic family will increase your chances by 10000% be becoming a millionaire later.
Next is contacts. Who you will meet in life.
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u/rhunter99 7h ago
Investing a regularly for a long period of time and ignoring the news. Add in dividend reinvestment to the plan and here we are
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u/RustySheriffsBadge1 7h ago
I live in a very high-cost-of-living area and was able to buy a house. I guess that makes me a millionaire by assets. 🤷🏻♂️
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u/YinzerInEurope 7h ago
Invest everything. Don’t spend large amounts of money on stuff that rapidly goes down in value. (Aka cars.)
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u/christianc750 7h ago
Patience, trial and error and actually spending time reading/learning on my area of interest.
And maybe luck?? I think at least being young enough to devote my time into something relevant at that point in time.
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u/lemachet 7h ago
Give people the first hit for free.
Then they get addicted.
Keep the purity pretty clean, so they don't OD.
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u/Breaker247 7h ago
Started with no debt so on easy mode, but my first priority after getting 3 months of expenses in the bank was trying to max out my 401k. Once that goal was reached, it felt like there was much more freedom whenever my income increased.
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u/wanttobedone 7h ago
Keep shooting higher and fake it till you make it. The truth is you're more capable than you think. Too many people assume they can't do it.
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u/AnozerFreakInTheMall 7h ago
Living in a country with raging hyperinflation, where everyone is a millionaire.
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u/lookingforadoge 7h ago
Making a lot of money, living below my means, investing in broad market index funds
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u/Accomplished-Egg2845 7h ago
I woke up this way bro.. then I had to decide what to do with the rest of my time 🤷🏼♂️
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u/Dank_Nicholas 6h ago
Hard work, keeping my expenses low, and being born to multi generational wealth.
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u/Unlucky-Meringue4813 8h ago edited 4h ago
Meeting the right people. You likely need hard work/luck to make the first big windfall but to really grow it's all about knowing the right people and being offered the right opportunities.
I made my first million(s) in construction but only recently started feeling rich. I have some ownership stake in a chain of car washes and those things print money. Built a house for a very wealthy guy he offered to bring me in when he was buying them.
Be humble and present yourself well. Dont burn any bridges unnecessarily and always listen and learn.