Personal finance and investing mega thread extravaganza

[Cheesedog]

More than 8% of American adults are millionaires. Here's how they got wealthy

Radio host and author Chris Hogan asked over 10,000 U.S. millionaires questions about how they built their wealth. Here's what he learned.

www.cnbc.com

I find those articles funny because millionaires usually tend to overlook and undervalue the role family connections and such in how they built thier wealth. There are some true rags to riches stories out there for sure but they aren't nearly as prevelant as movies would like us to believe.

 

[Cheesedog]

I have a mix of agressive and growth right now. Plus my work plan. I pretty much just leave it alone. Maybe someday I'll take a few hundred bucks and see what I can do with it..

 

[57packer]

Being a "millionaire" nowadays isn't all that rare. Heck if you bought a nice home in certain parts of the country in 1960 and maintained it for the past 60 years you could be sitting on well over a half million right there. While many millionaires come from family money you'd be surprised how many people have values north of a million that live all around you but don't look the part.

I personally know, and am friends with, at least 5 people/couples that have that kind of net worth who really came from pretty much nothing. No family money, no specials ties, just people who worked hard and made some solid life choices. Obviously it can't/won't work that way for everyone, but it's not the "miracle" some people believe it is.

 

[dannobanano]

Being a "millionaire" nowadays isn't all that rare. Heck if you bought a nice home in certain parts of the country in 1960 and maintained it for the past 60 years you could be sitting on well over a half million right there. While many millionaires come from family money you'd be surprised how many people have values north of a million that live all around you but don't look the part.

I personally know, and am friends with, at least 5 people/couples that have that kind of net worth who really came from pretty much nothing. No family money, no specials ties, just people who worked hard and made some solid life choices. Obviously it can't/won't work that way for everyone, but it's not the "miracle" some people believe it is.

I used to be in administration for a non-profit and the members of our BOD were all self made, wealthy entrepreneurs.
But, they were all genuine people too. Very much had a heart for philanthropy.

 

[GBP4EVER]

I want to be like the Million Dollar Man Ted Dibase. Everyone has a price! LOL in his evil laugh he did.

 

[realitybytes]

Being a "millionaire" nowadays isn't all that rare.

pretty sure that's what the article says. more than 8% - not rare. plus, the way that they calculated net worth is kind of cheating. most measures of net worth do not include the value of your principal residence. if you live in california like i do, just owning your home puts you almost there. our house has a market value of $800k and it's fully paid off. so hey, now all of you know a millionaire. lol.

 

[57packer]

pretty sure that's what the article says. more than 8% - not rare. plus, the way that they calculated net worth is kind of cheating. most measures of net worth do not include the value of your principal residence. if you live in california like i do, just owning your home puts you almost there. our house has a market value of $800k and it's fully paid off. so hey, now all of you know a millionaire. lol.

Sorry for the Captain Obvious moment. I was more trying to respond to CD mentioning how millionaires often have family help. The thing is, millionaires are now common enough that most of them did it without benefit of some kind of special help. I didn't make that clear enough.

 

[realitybytes]

Sorry for the Captain Obvious moment. I was more trying to respond to CD mentioning how millionaires often have family help. The thing is, millionaires are now common enough that most of them did it without benefit of some kind of special help. I didn't make that clear enough.

no need for apologies, i did understand your post. i was just piggybacking off your statement. and btw, i agree with what you said. becoming a millionaire is no big thing these days and i'm not willing to condemn millionaires for being millionaires.

i'll tell you what my experience was: my wife and i worked hard and lived off of only one of our two incomes. we made sure that our son had all the opportunities that he wanted. he never had a job until he was in college. that was both a blessing and possibly a detriment to his development. it allowed him to focus on school, and he graduated among the top three in his class. we made sure that he graduated college with zero debt. and we paid for him to go to a javascript bootcamp after he graduated that really boosted his career almost instantly. he has a terrific career now and makes more than his mom and i combined ever did. since we both worked in hospitality, neither one of us were high earners.

when i was 40 years old and coming off years of self-employment barely scraping by because of a failed business venture, i moved to the monterey area and completely changed careers, starting all over at $15 an hour and working my way up to a management position that paid all of $48k, which is what i had been making 10 years earlier in my previous career as a real estate appraiser. it was in this new career that i met my wife. she was a banquets server and made more money than i did as a manager. we were like minded about spending and saving and investing.we didn't always make great investment choices, but overall we've done well with the limited resources we had. and that's why i firmly believe that anyone can get there if they just put a little common sense into their lifestyle. i get so frustrated when i hear people say that they're struggling to make ends meet on a $100k+ salary. i live in one of the most expensive areas in the nation, and i never made more than $80k (and that was only within the past four years).

that's a lot of words to say "it's not that hard to become a millionaire".

 

[GBP4EVER]

What do you guys think of Torchlight Energy stock? A guy I know on FB is trying to tell me that he thinks the stock is going to go to like $15 before the merger with metamaterials and how you will get 1 share of metamaterials for every 3 or 4 of torchlight you own. I was looking at torchlight has lost like 25% of value in last couple days and metamaterials is trading at even less then torchlight so don't know why getting 1 share of a stock for 3 or 4 that is trading less then the company it's merging with would be a good idea to buy torchlight. You guys have any thoughts on either comapny?

 

[Packinatl]

What do you guys think of Torchlight Energy stock? A guy I know on FB is trying to tell me that he thinks the stock is going to go to like $15 before the merger with metamaterials and how you will get 1 share of metamaterials for every 3 or 4 of torchlight you own. I was looking at torchlight has lost like 25% of value in last couple days and metamaterials is trading at even less then torchlight so don't know why getting 1 share of a stock for 3 or 4 that is trading less then the company it's merging with would be a good idea to buy torchlight. You guys have any thoughts on either comapny?

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