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...

Made sure 1 chicken fed us for at least 3 meals because you know if you look after pennies the pounds look after themselves.

Mmm, some people do….a relative in his 60s died with £1.3 million in his current account…I know as my DC were beneficiaries of his Will (2 of quite a few, plus lots of IHT to pay, so they didn’t get mega bucks)

that's one reason not to have it sitting in the bank!

@Mamlife

I took in ironing

I sold some stuff from around the house on FB marketplace.

@sugaraddictwithapinchoffluff

I think to me a millionaire is literally having £1,000,000 in beautiful shiny coins in your bank account. I know property can be worth millions but I literally mean having mills in the bank 🏦

Must be amazing to just dancer round Harrods and decide to buy 5 channel bags just because or to just decide to take a luxury cruise because you fancy a break.

I'll keep dreaming about it with a hope that I'll happen to us one day lol

If you had a million in the bank and spent like that I can promise you you’d run through your capital very quickly. The ideal is to retain your capital in good investments and use some of the income that generates for your spending.

I know a lot of very wealthy people. Most of them made it via banking, law and selling businesses.

Nice ordinary people who still have worries and all the usual problems ( albeit not financial).

So do you count a millionaire as having a million at hand to spend immediately if you need it?

I've got relatives who on paper were millionaires, cos of being lucky with property choices.

Thing is, think of the song "Who wants to be a millionaire? (I do!)". Came out in 1956. I think we ALL see a million as the holy grail because of that song. But I just put 1 million into the Bank of England inflation calculator from 1956 to see what the equivalent would be today (well, 2020) Do you know what it came out as?

£25,527,593.82 (2020 figures)

So, you should really be asking in 2021 "How did you become a millionaire 25 times over?"

I once spent a million a meal with some work colleagues ( ok so it was lira before they were devalued but i have still have the photo of the bill and the payment ) 😊
Other than land millionaires ( eg farmer friends ) who actually are really short of day to day cash the 2 millionaire families I know are both total self starters without any family money at all.
First ones a couple that retired from a public service job you could start at 16 in their 40s when she finally fell pg. They started as childminders, then opened a nursery, and now have a large local chain. Kudos to them, they work their arses off and live very modestly and give a lot to charity.
Second family, immigrants who came from very very poor backgrounds ( think lower caste, living in dung houses) imports stuff from India/Pakistan, repackages it and sells on ( spices mainly). Again very grounded.

@DumplingsAndStew

Am just following the thread for Xenia's response

I have my bingo card ready for at least three posters including a PBP.

DH just sold most of the stock options he had as an employee for a major tech company - he's worked for them for 15 years and the total amount was just over £1m. We only sold them because we need to buy a bigger house (in London, so it's not going to be a mansion, and we still need to get a mortgage).

We are in mid 40s so got through uni with grants and no fees which has made a difference. Obviously luck plays a huge part (country of birth, no major illnesses, uni etc) but for us

We both did STEM degrees to a high level (physics PhD me and masters Engineering him)
Went and worked overseas in mid 20s to a hardship posting (so got good financial uplift)
Moved where my husbands work has taken him - longest stayed anywhere was 5 years. Moved with in the uk and overseas (and not to glamorous places!)
I was a SAHM so kept home life stable for children
Husband works long hours often not in the same country we are in!
Both enjoy our jobs and working hard

As for lifestyle, we have a small yacht (not fancy - it is a floating Morris Minor) both kids through private schools (which we have never fully paid for as either overseas or short term uk or my teaching included a discount). Hoping to get them through uni with minimum debt.

Sorry nothing magic or wonderful

Buy a house in London twenty years ago

(I am not a millionaire. This is what you'd need to have done to be one)

@sugaraddictwithapinchoffluff

I am a millionaire. Got 1.5 million 'South Korean WON' in my bank account.

Work out the currency in google ... You'll be well jell.

Made it by selling knitted Squid Game toys.

I can tell you how three people I know did it.

1. bought a failing business along with three other people. Turned it into a successful business. Floated it on the stock market and became a multi millionaire overnight.

2. invented an original product. Formed a company. Sold the company to an overseas investor for 10 million.

3. started a company. Sold the company.

No inheritance here. And I don’t count our property.

We’ve both had successful careers that have paid us well into 6 figures and we’ve saved/invested a lot of it. We paid our mortgage off a few years back and decided to stay where we are debt free rather than move so a decent salary and no mortgage means we have a lot spare at the end of the month.

I married a geek

I got this email from a Nigerian Prince asking me to help him..

Parents are cash millionaires, early 60s, not in the U.K. Immigrated in early 20s to new country and worked in booming resource sector. My dad’s salary peaked at around $150-160k (+incentives and bonuses for working up north). Bought a few investment properties over the years and made money there too, but most money was made in stocks. My mom is an expert stock picker (amazing what you can do with a only a high school degree when you put your mind to it). Dad was work optional by mid-40s and finally quit work at 48. They live off the interest of their investments never touching the principle.

They lived frugally, although we never felt like we missed anything growing up and regularly took international vacations back to mother country to see family. Paid all big purchases with cash. Had same spending/saving habits. Zero debt, last house was paid for in cash. Didn’t buy a new car until they retired (previous were all used). Fired their investment manager in the mid-90s when they saw his fees and managed it all themselves.

You’d never know looking at them, they’re not waking around Harrod’s buying Chanel bags, but they do have a very nice life.

[quote Batfurger]@LadyCampanulaTottington I mean, you spent a long time there telling us how you spend your money... that's quite telling.[/quote]
If you bother to read the OP, you will realise that they asked what the money was spent on

Lol I would say your missing the point. To become a millionaire without a win or inheritance is more about NOT spending money than living the life of luxury. Once your there you make money from property and pensions but to get there you save and invest Boring buts that the facts. We did not have the fancy holidays and extensions on the house or eating out and designer clothes.

I divorced my husband .

Honestly, I guess we are technically millionaires (have property worth £2m but with a mortgage total of £800).

I landed in the UK at 23 in 2005 with no degree and £500 in my bank account. I lucked/interviewed well into a semi decent temp professional role on circa £26k which was made perm. Met DH who was in a similar role, both grew our careers, bought first property in 2008 and moved up the property ladder.

We've both worked hard, had 3 children and continue to work hard. DH rarely has any holidays and I feel like I have missed out on some of the childrens younger childhood due to work, however we are loving family and I know long term will be secure so to me it is worth all the sacrifices.

By having an accident which was sufficiently bad to mean a considerable sum in compensation which was enough to buy a small house in London in 2004.

My boss, back in the 80s bought a flat in an area that was tipped to be the next 'financial district' in London. Cost him 36k, he was in the army and had saved up a deposit, it was a toss up between the flat in the 'up and coming area' or a 3 bed semi in Newcastle. His wife was fuming as she wanted the 3bed semi. Needless to say she's forgiven him now

He sold the flat in Canary Wharf for a over a million.

Went to Minsk. Withdrew 1 million Belarusian roubles from the ATM. This was in 2014, before the currency was revalued. It amounted to about £200, which was more than adequate for the three weeks I was working there. But, technically, I was a millionaire at that point (and had millions more in the bank, if I could find £200 of things I wanted to buy in Minsk).

Two of my clients became millionaires.

First was a guy who invented and patented an underwater electrical connector in his home garage workshop, started a small business manufacturing it which grew and grew until it had a few hundred staff and he sold it for about 20 million.

Second was a husband & wife, husband managed a branch of a DIY store, wife was a SAHM. Husband became ill and got signed off sick, so they started selling a few items related to their hobby on hobby, which sold well, so they started buying more products to sell, and grew quite a nice little business, eventually built their own website and when their home became literally full of stock to sell, they rented a small industrial unit, ended up making half a million pounds profit per year. Rather than take on staff, they sold out to a competitor for a couple of million.

In both cases, the rewards were excellent, but that was after a few years of literally living and breathing the business with barely any time off, no holidays, etc.