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...

@LadyCampanulaTottington I mean, you spent a long time there telling us how you spend your money... that's quite telling.

I haven't even got 1,000 but I do know someone who is a millionaire and they got it by working their way up from the bottom of a company of kitchen fitters. They decided they could do it better and started their own small company with family working for them and eventually sold the company for a few million.

@CatRatSplat

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

Motherlode

Property and being over 50. It's taken years of working, saving and investing.
Have a main home (fab location but only a large 2 bed), holiday cottage, three rentals all mortgage free. We aren't mega rich but have an income and other savings, investments, pensions etc still working part-time atm but early retiring very soon.

Bought a tiny house in London in the 90's with a 5k deposit. Bought and sold a couple more houses over the years and now live in a million pound house. Certainly don't feel like a millionaire as have very little disposable income, would only really feel the benefit of our asset if we sold it. We'll sell up and downsize when we retire so it's our pension really. I was just very lucky to have bought at the right time in the right place.

Most honest answers will involve inheritance ...including those with successful businesses which will have taken seed money and existing school and industry connections in order to be successful.

True social mobility is limited with few exceptions, lottery wins being one.

Most honest answers will involve inheritance ..

yep

I think the large part of millionaires nowadays are millionaires on paper only, and live in their asset.
The millionaires I know that aren't down to property are a mixture of selling own businesses and family inheritance.

@LadyCampanulaTottington

I created my own business.

I buy convenience as my luxury. We have a full time housekeeper (our house is relatively small as there’s just the two of us now). She does everything including batch cooking weekday meals. We have a gardener, a valet comes to the house to clean the cars and twice a year we get the carpets washed.

We travel business class when possible and pay for lounge access, speedy security checks and put all of our bags on the hold. Some airports have a private terminal that they keep hush. You can pay to use it even when flying commercial.

We pay for a black American Express for the extra air miles and use the concierge service regularly.

For me, money buys time because I pay others to do the things that either I hate or are not a good use of my time. I am the golden goose after all.

I'm more interested in how you created your business and how it made money for you than what you actually spend your money on.

My parents did not inherit anything till much later in life and it was minimal.

Everything they have, they have worked for. And my dad is brilliant at investments in his retirement, its his hobby. Plus, they have always been determined to keep pushing, moving house when they can and going wherever my dad's career took them all over the world (and not to the best places)
So lots of compromises that a lot of people wouldn't make but they have retired very wealthy.

My dad (well mum too I guess) is technically a millionaire. He had a defined benefit pension which he transferred out at a value of £900,000 and retired at 61. Obviously that money is now his only income for the next hopefully 30+ years. Before this although in the last decade they have been comfortable (before this they were mortgaged up to their eyeballs and struggled) my parents never saved a penny so it's been strange for them suddenly having all that money (not that it is easily accessible). They have also benefitted from house prices rising and if they were to sell now the house is worth £300k from when they bought.

How are we defining millionaire for the modern age? Inflation and house price growth in the SE and London mean being a millionaire on paper could mean an ordinary zone 3/4 semi. What would the modern South East equivalent be? Maybe a million in non-property assets?

I am not a millionaire and grew up in a working class household. My father took his trade, specialised into a niche, set up a company and once it started making spare money invested the profits into real estate and classic cars. He buys and sells the assets alongside his business.

By birth.

Bought bitcoin in 2015.

We have a lot of money on paper due to our house. We are on our 4th house now. Our first house was a 2 bed and we both saved 15k so that we could put a 10% deposit down. We were on 25k and 20k at the time (appreciate thats around the national average) but anyway it involved spending little and saving a lot. This was before kids which makes it easier. We made money on that house so upgraded each time and now we have a fairly big house. However the house prices are insane and we think it's worth nearly double what we paid in the 8 years we have had it.

Appreciate that it's not true wealth as we'd have to buy something else should we need or want to downsize.

My husband was also very lucky to start doing a job nearly 18 years ago that has become very sought after. He's now known as an 'expert' at what he does and he is paid a lot of money to do it. That was pure luck. He's not a genius at all just lucky that he stumbled into a career which has been interesting and which pays very well.

We both realise the unfairness of what he earns compared to teachers, doctors, nurses, firemen etc but he does pay a lot of money in tax. I am involved in a lot of charities and volunteer for a local food bank. I'm not saying that because I think I need a medal I'm saying that just because we have money doesn't mean my family parade around in designer gear and are a bunch of knobs.

My parents are millionaires. They worked their arses off, saved sensibly, then invested brilliantly. They’ve now sold the holiday homes and live comfortably having retired in their 50s. They were both lucky and hard working so I don’t deny they totally deserve it. I’m a broke single parent working part time and living off my universal credits. They help me as soon as I ask, but I’m so guilty and ashamed that I don’t ask often :(

[quote Batfurger]@LadyCampanulaTottington I mean, you spent a long time there telling us how you spend your money... that's quite telling.[/quote]
The OP asked

@Username134
But did you sell it or are you sitting on it?

Pfft a million won't even buy you a good family home with a garden where I am. I want to know how people made their billions

@LadyCampanulaTottington She asked how you had become a millionaire not what do you spend your money on.

By birth.

I know one definite self made millionaire, they had decent jobs so some spare cash. They bought a couple of cheap student lets a long time ago. They are close to 60 now. They ended up owning about 50 flats and houses. They were let to students but as on the coast were let as holiday homes in the summer when the students were not there.

DH Aunt and Uncle are probably millionaires, they live in a 16th century Manor House. He was a building surveyor but also got involved with buying and selling property again they are older. Close to 70. They would never say though, DH family is old money the absolute stereotype of muddy boots and look like tramps.

My friends uncle is a millionaire he somehow got involved with a patent on an electronic item from Japan. He is in his late forties.

I have a relative who worked for big pharma as did his wife, newly retired. He was made assistant Vice President of this company it’s one of the biggest in the world. He patented a drug delivery system. He may be a millionaire and if he isn’t he must be close.

DH two city boy mates are probably millionaires, they certainty act like they are. One had a bonus one year of 100k, he made sure to tell us.

Have a main home (fab location but only a large 2 bed), holiday cottage, three rentals all mortgage free. We aren't mega rich but have an income and other savings, investments, pensions etc
I know by “we aren’t mega rich” you meant you’re not in Bill Gates, Jeff Wanker territory but by the standards of most of us you are mega rich. You have five homes.

I’m a broke single parent working part time and living off my universal credit

You said your parents worked hard and saved...but what if someone suggested to you that if you worked harder, you could achieve what they did?