How did you become a millionaire

[sugaraddictwithapinchoffluff]

Go on, make me extremely jealous of how you became a millionaire, what it's really like and is it what it's cracked up to be? What sort of luxury do you indulge in that people like me can simple not afford ...

Take it away...

One of my oldest friend is a multi-millionaire. Banks with Coutts so properly rich. We are both from the same council estate in one of the roughest parts of the North East. Her? Her Grandad died. Her Grandad who lived in a 2 bed ex council house, had to be persuaded to upgrade his washing machine that he'd had from 1948, in 2005. He left it all to her, as she was the only one who really bothered with him in the end, he was a lovely man but lived the most frugal lifestyle you could imagine. Worked his whole life but never "exec" jobs, just standard working class. She was absolutely floored, we all were. Still no idea how he got it all, but he did, it was legit and it's now all hers.

@PissyMum

ophanim you wouldn’t be much of a millionaire if you weren’t debt free.

Kind of a response to someone upthread who says they’re a millionaire but has a mortgage.

I married young and well

I’d like to be Millionaire

It must be fabulous not to have to worry about money!

A million is not a lot these days, BTL made me a millionaire.

@Mumoftwoinprimary

Just saved and invested it wisely – eg bought my double-fronted Victorian mansion in west London 30 years ago then sold it last year, try getting on the property ladder three decades ago?

I was just about to say….

My parents bought a house in 1986 for £66,000. It is now worth close to £1 million.

I don't think that really counts, as if they sold it for £1m they would need to buy somewhere to live. At current prices.

We started a tech company. We only have a tiny % share in it now, but it's still worth quite a lot (more than ten millions). We still work full time, and just sell shares here or there when we need to.

@CatRatSplat

I became a millionaire by .... Playing on the Sims 😅🤣🙂😂 my character has over 10mil simoleons.

Rosebud 😏

@Comedycook

According to many posters I've read on here...by being a sahm.... apparently then your husband can devote all his time to his career and make mega bucks. Full disclosure...I'm a sahm who does most house/child stuff and we're still not millionaires..... I must be doing it wrong

Snap. Me too then!

To some posters that have said they worked hard etc basically you sound like you worked yourself into the ground. Can you look back and say you were truly happy?

Yes, you might have the money now but do you regret not living your life a little bit and being so grounded to your work?

I don't believe money can buy happiness. Sure, it can give you a comfortable lifestyle and no worries, debt free etc but that must wear off. I mean, maybe you feel happy in that moment but there are truly experiences in your life that money can't buy.

I started with nothing and am a millionaire now in terms of pension, savings and property equity. No entrepreneur - always salaried but in a high demand area. Spent some and saved some from young. IMO a million is not enough for a crazy lifestyle but it's enough to buy you security and options in life.

What I have will buy me time- I will retire from full time work at 50- hopefully get some part time roles but even if I never work after that I can live comfortably (not extravagantly) for the rest of my life. To me that feels like a huge luxury- the choice.

@lousanne - this is very inspiring, I work in tech and want to do the same - create my own product. Would you mind to share more about your experience? Thank you very much.

But most people work hard so the argument that you are rich but not happy because you had to work so hard doesn’t really hold true. Unless you are in finance etc or inherit money the only way to make millions really is by running your own company. Some of it is luck but a lot it taking risks that others simply aren’t prepared to take. We were lucky , DH took the risks and I was better than most at what I did. We were a v good combo for making money for a lot of years

I'm hoping to be a millionaire one day.

I'm going to have lots of good luck and work very hard.

@Carpetsareforflying

I was never actually there

Eh?

@BlueberrySugar I’ve worked hard. 16 hour days were not unusual at some points but I don’t feel like I worked myself into the ground.

I’m in my 40’s, 4 DC, happily married. In addition to work, I’ve always volunteered, had a big group of friends. I love being busy and have used that wisely.

I don’t know exactly what you mean by millionaire. I have two companies that bring in a high income and could be sold for good money and property that has increased in value over time so that’s all in the millions but I don’t have a million sitting in a bank account doing nothing. And one million in assets is fairly common where I live but very different to 10 + million in an account waiting to be spent on frivolous stuff!

BlueberrySugar that’s a fair point and whether it’s worth it… well depends how long we live really. DH and I worked our butts off in our 20s didn’t have much social life etc. 30s juggled demanding jobs and non sleeping kids, nearly broke us. Now 40s… pile of money, senior at work so more flexibility … we will be able to have a long comfortable retirement hopefully and perhaps even retire or semi retire very early. If we go under a bus tomorrow our life choices will have been a bad idea as they were all predicated on long term returns. But if we live to 80+ it will have been worth 20-25 yrs of slog for 35-40 yrs of comfort.

Buying and selling property in nineties/noughties

I found a pocket watch in my lock up garage. It turned out to be a John Harrison maritime chronometer. Sold it at Sotheby's for £6.2m. My brother and I fell over backwards when the gavel struck.

@balonsz

Most honest answers will involve inheritance ..

yep

Nope. And @PicsInRed we had zero money from parents (mine are teachers). We didn't have connections either (no private schools or rich friends). We built it using our brain, and a lot of balls (not so much as risk). Also we went into the right industry (tech).

[quote mimi0088]@lousanne - this is very inspiring, I work in tech and want to do the same - create my own product. Would you mind to share more about your experience? Thank you very much.[/quote]
I'd say go in with someone else.
Also if you get stuck on something you don't have knowledge or experience on - don't worry you can get teams in to do it. You just have to really believe in your product.

Once you've proven yourself it's easier to start a second tech company - we just used influential people/friends to go in with us and that's opened doors a lot more easily (still working hard). But nothing to the comparison of hard graft starting from scratch when no one knows you. We also have 2 failed businesses behind us before we finally made it with the tech business.

My friend didn't succeed unfortunately - she had a great app and a business and is a very smart woman. Unfortunately it didn't work out and she didn't even make any money from it ☹️ she's only 34 though so I don't think it's her last rodeo 😀
I read once you've to start about 9 businesses for one of them to succeed.

You must have some friends in tech, try to get one or two of them to go into business together.

You'd need to be ahead of the game as much as you can (it's hard) - by the time people start understanding what Bitcoin and NFT is - switched on people have already made a lot of money in it.

All the people who became rich.on buy to let / property investors are greedy and responsible.for constantly driving up.property.prices.

Almost a millionaire. The majority received through an inheritance, the rest through investing wisely. I also didn't really upgrade my lifestyle and I work two jobs. My 9-5 job pays my bills and my part time weekend job is pure savings.