Needless to say, a $20 million net worth is a substantial amount of money. It firmly places you within the top 1% of net worth, with the current minimum threshold around $13 million. But is $20 million enough for you to live happy and free? Not necessarily.
Previously, we discussed how a $10 million net worth, and even a $5 million net worth, are both ideal amounts for retirement, depending on your location and expenses.
In this post, however, I thought it would be intriguing to profile people with a $20+ million net worth, explore how they achieved it, and what their plans are moving forward.
You might think having a $20+ million net worth is enough to guarantee happiness and freedom, but these individuals still share the same hopes and worries as many others with far less. I write from firsthand experience as someone with an eight figure net worth too.
A $20 Million Net Worth Is Achievable With Enough Time And Discipline
Although achieving a $20 million net worth might seem like a pipe dream to some, it's becoming more attainable due to inflation and investment returns. You just have to live long enough for your investments to reach that level!
For example, if you retired with a $3 million net worth fully invested in risk assets, after 20 years with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10%, you’d have just over $20 million. If we reduce the CAGR to a more conservative 6.5%, your $3 million would grow to $20 million in 30 years. Not bad! Stay healthy. Eat your veggies.
I start with $3 million because I believe it’s now the minimum amount to feel like a true millionaire. It's also what I semi-retired with in 2012, and I like to write from firsthand experience. While inflation acts as a tailwind for our investments, it's a headwind for our purchasing power.
It would be great to have a net worth of over $20 million in 20-30 years. But today, we're discussing whether a $20 million net worth is enough to live a happy and free life right now.
Profiles Of People Who Have A $20 Million Net Worth
To better understand what it’s like to have a $20+ million net worth, I reached out to my newsletter subscribers, which includes over 60,000 people. I also talked to people I know who fit the profile.
Interestingly, though, having a $20 million net worth doesn’t yet place you in the ultra-high net worth category. That distinction begins at $30 million and above.
Loading ...Here's what these decamillionaires had to say. I've edited the responses for clarity and flow. In the end, I’ll also share some key takeaways to help you get to multi millionaire status as well.
Multimillionaire Profile #1: Husband (58), Wife (52), Two Kids – Following the Estate Tax Threshold
Our net worth currently falls between $19–$21 million, depending on how you value our primary residence ($4–$5 million) and our rental properties ($7–$8 million). The rest is mostly in individual stocks and one venture capital fund.
Our goal has always been to accumulate a net worth equal to the estate tax exemption threshold and then call it quits. Given that the estate tax threshold in 2024 is $13.61 million per person, and there are two of us, our target net worth is $27.22 million.
We don’t need more money, but as long as the estate tax threshold keeps increasing each year, we figure we might as well keep working. I earn between $700,000–$1,200,000 a year as a physician with my own practice.
My parents encouraged me to start investing in real estate as early as possible. They told me that in 20 years, I’d be tired of my work, and owning real estate would be a good way to generate retirement income. They were right.
There’s too much bureaucracy with insurance companies, and the pay has been declining. But it’s hard to quit because the money is steady and it still feels good helping others heal. So, I just keep going, treating wealth accumulation like a game to stay motivated.
Besides, I don't know what I'd do with all my free time. I should start taking more vacations from now on.
Multimillionaire Profile #2: Husband (42), Wife (40), No Kids – Love Making Money
Our net worth is around $25 – 30 million. I run an online education company that teaches people how to make money online. In other words, I make money by teaching people how to make money online. Yes, I know—how meta.
I produce online courses, write books and run paid seminars. Eighty percent of my net worth is in my company.
I’ve been hooked on making money since I was in college and haven’t been able to quit since. I first crossed a $10 million net worth threshold at around age 35, and the money keeps snowballing. My goal is to reach a $50+ million net worth, and then maybe I’ll take it easy.
We live in New York City and enjoy the finer things. We rent a luxury penthouse apartment, take great vacations, and occasionally fly private. My wife is a fashion stylist. Her business doesn’t make much money, but it doesn’t matter. She’s doing what she loves.
Although my wife and I got married years ago, we don’t have kids. We talked about it, but we enjoy our freedom and money too much as a child-free couple. At 40 years old, it’s a bit late for us to have kids naturally anyway. She also didn't do egg freezing as she met me in her 30s.
We are happy being rich, but we do wonder from time to time what it would be like to have children. We love our dog so much.
Multimillionaire Profile #3: Woman (47), Man (50), Two Kids – Good Work Life Balance
We’re unmarried but have two kids, ages eight and eleven. We met in college when we had nothing, and now our net worth is around $20 million. I work as a mid-level executive at a big tech company, and he’s a managing director at an investment bank.
Our combined income ranges from $800,000 to $2.5 million a year, depending on stock performance and year-end bonuses. We’ve both worked continuously for over 25 years, with no breaks for graduate school or sabbaticals.
The reason we didn’t marry earlier is that we ran the numbers and realized we’d pay between $15,000 and $22,000 more in taxes each year if we did. We didn’t think it was worth being financially penalized just for a marriage certificate.
By staying unmarried, we’ve saved at least $200,000 in taxes, which we’ve allocated to our children’s 529 plans. We’d rather fund our kids' education than contribute to wasteful government spending.
Given my seniority at my tech company, I can work from home three days a week—or whenever I want. I average about 35 hours a week and make at least $500,000 every year. Working in big tech is ideal if you have kids. If you want to take a chance at a startup, do it before age 35.
At this pace, I can probably work until I'm 60. My husband, on the other hand, wants to retire ASAP. Maybe he’ll negotiate a severance package like Sam did next year. Let’s see how this year’s bonus turns out first.
Multimillionaire Profile #4: Husband (36), Husband (34), One Kid (3) – Got Lucky Twice
We both worked at a ridesharing company for six years before it went public. Within a year of the IPO, we cashed out for about $3 million each.
We then joined another startup when it was valued at around $500 million. After five years, the company raised a funding round that valued it at $10 billion. Our $500,000 in equity each is probably worth around $7 million after dilution. Together, our total net worth is roughly $20 million.
The “problem” is that only about 20% of our net worth is liquid, mostly in stocks and money market funds. We own a three-bedroom condo in an amenity-rich building that cost us $2 million, and we spent about $150,000 on surrogacy to have our daughter.
The $14 million in equity we have in our company is essentially a big lottery ticket. Unless we get acquired or go public, we can’t liquidate anything. There might be a secondary offering in the future where we could sell up to 10% of our stock, but that’s not available yet. With so many former unicorns never making it, we’ve conservatively halved our equity valuation in our net worth calculation.
Liquid net worth much lower
So realistically, our combined net worth is closer to $12 million, with $3 million mostly in the S&P 500, $1 million in Treasury bonds and cash, $1 million equity in our condo, and $7 million in company equity (at half valuation).
We feel extremely fortunate to have won the lottery twice. But we’re living closer to a $5 million net worth lifestyle than a $20 million one. Anything can change at any moment.
If you want to increase your chances of getting lucky, move to a city where there's a lot of opportunity. We know a good handful of people worth 20 million in their 30s and 40s.
Multimillionaire Profile #5: Husband (52), Wife (44), Three Kids – Early Retirees
After over 25 years in the mutual fund industry after business school, I (the husband) decided to retire at age 51. I was the lead portfolio manager of an actively managed fund with about $8 billion in assets under management. Over the last five years, my average compensation was $2.2 million.
But, the active fund industry is in decline due to the rise of low-cost index funds and ETFs. While I had some really good years, outperforming my index by 5%–10%, there were also more bad years than I would have liked. My advice: invest most of your money in passive funds, but work at an active fund if you want to potentially make more money in your career.
My wife also recently decided to retire from teaching after 21 years. She made about $95,000 a year and was burnt out. Classroom sizes kept growing, and public funding kept shrinking. With three kids of our own (ages 5, 8, and 10), we’ve decided to embark on some slow travel abroad and homeschool them for a year or two.
We figure we're still young enough to make this happen, and so are our kids. Once they hit middle school—and definitely high school—it becomes harder for them to adjust to a new environment. Plus, one of our kids has special needs, so we want to show him the world as much as possible before he can no longer walk or see as well.
Our $20 million net worth composition
$8 million of our net worth is invested in the fund I managed. $4 million is in the S&P 500 index, $2 million is in Treasury bonds (1-2-year duration), $3 million is in four venture capital funds, $2 million is in a paid-off rental property that used to be our old home, and $5 million is in our paid-off house. So our net worth is around $23–$25 million.
The key to us building a $20+ million net worth was saving and investing 50%–70% of our income every year for over 25 years and taking more risk on average. Our net worth in 2020 was about $16 million, but it started to balloon after the pandemic.
We have an annual household budget of between $350,000 – $400,000 a year. Our expenses will go down by $160,000 when we pull our three kids from private school and travel.
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Multimillionaire Profile #6: Husband And Wife In Their 50s – Small Business Owner
We are a married couple in our early 50s with one adult daughter and a net worth of roughly $21 million, broken down as follows:
- Index funds and 401(k): $7 million
- Individual stocks: $2 million
- Bonds, cash, CDs: $4 million
- Business equity: $5 million
- Real estate: $3 million
Total net worth: $21 million
We own a logistics company that generates about a million dollars a year. We also collect $840,000 a year in rent from a commercial property and $250,000 to $300,000 annually in dividends and interest. Our core expenses are around $75,000 a year, with property taxes and insurance accounting for about half of that. We have no debt. Our discretionary spending is $150,000 to $200,000 a year, and we donate $50,000 to $100,000 annually to charity. Everything left over is reinvested.
Are we happy? Yes, but it took some effort.
My wife and I went through three difficult years and almost divorced. It required a lot of work and change from both of us to get through it, but now we're reaping the benefits.
We feel incredibly grateful that we can go to the grocery store and buy whatever we want without worry. If the furnace breaks, no problem—we buy a new one. We fly first class and stay in nice hotels or houses when we travel. Our life is pretty good.
While money alleviates many day-to-day worries compared to most, we’re still human. We still worry, we still argue, we still deal with addiction and dementia in our extended family, and we still worry about losing our money.
Happiness is a state of mind, regardless of wealth. Once we realized that family and friends are more important than anything else, we really began to enjoy the fruits of our labor.
Multimillionaire Profile #7: Husband (78), Wife (75) – Max Frugality
We both worked for the government for 40 years until we retired in our early-60s. I joined the service after serving in Vietnam, and I met my wife while studying abroad for my master’s degree.
Our parents lived through the Great Depression, so they instilled in us a savings mindset. We appreciated the stability of real estate, so over a 30-year period, we bought several multifamily buildings in Northern Virginia. These properties are now paid off with a combined value of approximately $9 million.
My parents also invested in prime oceanfront real estate in Honolulu, which is now worth between $12-15 million. We inherited these properties 20 years ago when their value was much lower.
In addition to our real estate holdings, we retired with federal government pensions totaling about $135,000 a year, which adjusts annually for inflation. The most income we ever made from the government was around $200,000. Our pensions alone are sufficient to cover our annual expenses of roughly $85,000.
Hard to Spend More Money
Despite our net worth, we continue to live as we did in our 40s and 50s. For example, we retired to my parents’ old house, which hasn’t been updated since it was built in 1980. We also drive a $2,500 car that’s 30 years old.
I can’t recall the last time we bought new clothes. In fact, my wife prefers to declutter as much as possible. This way our children will have less to manage when we’re gone.
We’ve increased our spending on food delivery since the pandemic, but that’s about it for personal expenses. We regularly donate between $15,000 and $20,000 a year to charities. While this might seem modest given our net worth, it feels significant relative to our annual spending of $85,000.
We are well past the investment threshold amount where we need to continue working for a living.
Our Kids Don't Rely on Us
Our proudest accomplishment are our three kids, who are financially independent due to their own frugality and successful careers. They are each worth between $2 and $5 million and never ask for anything. Instead, they call regularly to see how we are doing and if we need anything. However, we fully fund our three grandchildren's college educations and enjoy hosting family visits and vacations.
Ultimately, our children and grandchildren will inherit our assets. We don’t feel compelled to spend more because we are content with our current lifestyle. We also feel good our kids will be responsible with the assets to keep generational wealth alive.
Key Takeaways from Those with a $20 Million Net Worth
Here are the key takeaways from the six multimillionaires:
- Accumulating Wealth as a Couple: It’s generally easier to build wealth as a couple. If you’re single, consider investing more time in finding a life partner.
- High-Paying Professions and Longevity: Working in high-paying jobs can accelerate wealth accumulation, but longevity in your career is equally crucial. Diligently saving and investing over 20+ years can lead to significant wealth thanks to the power of compounding.
- Net Worth Composition: The composition of your net worth affects your financial freedom and sense of wealth. If most of your net worth is tied up in illiquid assets like private company stock, it can be harder to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle.
- The Role of Luck: Luck plays a significant role in achieving exceptional wealth. Joining a company pre-IPO twice, for instance, is highly fortunate.
- The Challenge of Decumulation: It can be difficult to spend more money when you’re accustomed to saving substantial amounts. Wealth tends to snowball, making it even harder to spend down your wealth as you get older. Therefore, start practicing decumulating well before 60.
- Passing Down Financial Habits: Good financial habits are transferable to children. Therefore, concern about raising spoiled or entitled children may be exaggerated if parents educate them well.
- Didn’t Get Rich Through Index Funds: To achieve next-level wealth, they pursued lucrative careers, saved aggressively, invested in real estate, and engaged in entrepreneurship. Investing in index funds was more of a means to preserve wealth.
- No Sense Of Greater Happiness: Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like anybody is happier with a $20 million net worth. Instead, there might be more stress from figuring out how to manage such a large estate. Working for many more years in order to retire rich may not be better than just retiring early with less money. Maybe $5 – $10 million is good enough to retire happy and free after all!
If you have a net worth of over $20 million, which is double the ideal amount to retire comfortably, I’d love to hear your story too.
A Conversation With A Man Who Walked Away From $20 Million
Some people choose to walk away from substantial wealth. Khe Hy made Managing Director at BlackRock at 31, earning $1-$2 million a year in his 30s, when he decided to leave at age 38. Had he stayed until 50, he likely would have amassed a net worth of over $20 million. Here’s his story.
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A $20 Million Net Worth Should Be Enough is a Financial Samurai original post. All rights reserved.
Sixty years old with 17 million in net worth. Am I crazy to buy a 5 million dollar home with cash. We budget well but don’t want to be over extended on a home.
You’re not. It’s less than 30% of your net worth. You should enjoy your wealth as you will likely die with too much.
See: Income And Net Worth Guide To Buying A House
Also, you will enjoy this post as it talks exactly of your situation: One Year Later: A Review Of Buying A House I Didn’t Need
Sam – my net worth qualifies. Are you collecting stories?
Sure, feel free to share your origins story and how you got to $29+ million and how long. Thx
Story for Financial Samurai
I was the black sheep in my family. The trouble maker when I was growing up – with the principal at school, parents and police. My father was a patent-creating heart surgeon, my sister sold her company to Microsoft at age 29 and my brother became a biomedical professor at Vanderbilt at age 27. I had seven corporate/real estate jobs from age 21 to 34. I felt like a misfit or delinquent (living up to my childhood). With no other choice after either quitting or getting “released”, in 2002, I started my own commercial real estate brokerage firm (with a 50/50 business partner). I hit my stride (tapping into my then-discovered energizing talents and dislike of bosses…) and grew the firm into a respected regional company then sold the firm to a national brokerage platform 17 years later. In 2020, at age 52, I retired.
Along the way, I put 90% of my earnings in stocks and bonds (70/30) because my daily income was in commerical real estate. I did not want to double down in my livelihood of commercial real estate. The GFC of 2008-2009 made that very clear to me. However, 10% of my earnings did go back into commerical real estate investments with clients. I lived well, never denying quality or opportunities for myself, my wife or two sons, but always below my means.
When I retired in 2020, I accumulated $25MM. With continued patience, the portfolio now sits at just under $30MM, and that includes my wife and I living better than when I worked and with no “earned” income. Our sons are now happily independent earners/adults. Now, I, along with my wife, choose what we want to do with our time – travel, rest, and/or visit family etc. I also engage in interesting investment opportunities, almost all commercial real estate with partners I enjoy working with or in helping them to grow.
I believe the greatest generator of wealth is our back, not our wallet. However, what you do with that wealth to preserve, grow and/or use is where smart investing comes in. Thank you for your blog Sam, it is on point. Grateful to have access to your writings. Regards.
Awesome story! Thanks for sharing. I hope you all enjoy all that wealth fully.
With the way investments are going, it seems like most of us savers and investors will end up with too much. I’m trying my best to spend more intentionally now, while in mid-age.
It’s interesting that several of the cases considered their unsold stock at the business’ current valuation as part of their net worth. We have $15M worth in stocks at a startup, but we consider this as $0 in our net worth because a startup could always go under. Are we thinking about this the wrong way?
Depends on what state your startup is in and how positive you are about its future?
Isn’t the estate tax exemption expected to plummet in a few years?
It is, if the Congress doesn’t pass a new law.
What do you make of hardly anyone (no one??) mentioning holding bitcoin as part of their net worth?
Don’t think of it. It’s a speculative asset, so I’d be surprised if anybody had more than 20% of their NW in Bitcoin that made them rich. So maybe that’s the takeaway?
How rich is bitcoin made you? And what percentage of your net worth is in bitcoin?
I understand your goal is to inspire your readers to have a net worth in excess of $20M, but the vast majority of your surveyed readers are far below this goal. I would like to hear more from those trying to increase their net worth with “normal” careers.
An added column regarding high net worth families actively involved in the transfer of wealth would be of secondary interest to me.
Can you specify what a normal career is? I think there are a lot of sites out there that have different topics and can cater to your needs.
Easier to wear slippers than carpet the world.
Maybe you will like this post: The Broke Mindset
I’m actually shocked at the number of his readers that have a $20M or $10M to $20M net worth. The very large salaries were also eye opening. But you should keep the faith.
My wife and I made nowhere near these salaries, and we’ve done quite well. In my early 40s, I left my corporate career, and my wife maintains her “dead end” job. She’s been stuck at the same pay (< $200K) for the last 10 years. Her pay has not kept pace with inflation. However, by me focusing on managing investments, the tailwind from a bull market, and most importantly investing in real estate, we've been able to grown our net worth faster than then when I was earning a paycheck.
We live in a VHCOL area, and I don't think you need anything close to $20M to be financially fulfilled.
What is your formula for converting pension income to net worth? None of your examples include those who derived wealth from the earned “gift that keeps giving”.
Sure, the answer is right here: How To Calculate The Value Of A Pension
Thanks for the reminder on the value of a pension. I think less than 15% of working Americans receive a pension nowadays. So count yourself lucky!
Feel free to share your story if your net worth is over $20 million.
We have a high net worth but a large % is in a single stock that pays a small dividend with high capital gains. But it is still growing. Is it better to cash out, pay taxes and generate income or hold it and let it grow. We are 60 and we are already looking at hellacious RMD’s down the road! Cash flow is king!
I am still baffled we achieved the net worth we have in the period in which we achieved it. My wife is 35 and I am 37. In 2018 we had a net worth of about 1m. Today our net worth is in the range of 25-60m depending on how you value our rolled equity. I take the conservative approach and value it as zero which makes us worth about 25m. 20m of that is in liquid after after tax investments. My wife never really returned to work fulltime after we had our daughter 18 months ago. She slowly faded out. I officially stepped back in March after working towards my exit for 9 months.
While neither of us currently work, we both plan to return to the workforce in the future. We will probably run another business together. I plan to return to some sort of regular work next year.
For me it’s impossible to imagine never working again. I have always enjoyed work until I hit a point when I didn’t. There have been a handful of pivot points in my career. I have been doing a lot of self reflection in the last year and attempting to design a life I want to live. I miss have something to work on and winning in a work context. I also think I have a skill set that is of value and feel like it would be wasteful not to put to use.
We will spend over 1m this year, but this year our income is in excess of 4m. I struggle with it, but look at my father who has been an extreme saver his life and don’t want to end like him either, I don’t think he is happy. Life has been a journey and I am still attempting to figure it out.
Nice! What is your “rolled equity” consist of? Maybe you can treat your father to something special.
Can you sell some of your equity to diversify into hard assets?
My rolled equity consists of the 20% of the company I sold to private equity 2 years ago. They have bought several companies in the same space and are putting them together. Leveraged rolled up strategy. I wish I could sell it and fully move on, but it will be sold or go to zero. Just need to see how things play out.
My dad has earned multiple seven figures for over 15 years now and probably has a higher net worth than me. I’m the oldest of his 9 children. Half his children don’t have a relationship with him. His best thinking had him move half way across the country by himself to contine to working in his field. His attitude was to go where he is wanted and do what he is good at. For all the wealth he has accumulated he doesn’t enjoy the fruits of his labor.
My plan is if we transact again is purchase 100k mercedes for both of my parents. Something they always comment on, our nice cars and something they would never purchase themselves. My mom has never really worked and lives a financially free life with around 5m net worth. My father probably has 10x that and has no friends or hobbies outside of work. I try to learn from them and live the life I want.
Wow! What does your dad do? 9 kids is a lot!
He climbed to eventually become CFO of fortune 100 company. A lot people who know what my father does think he has helped me financially and paid for my college but thats it. He didn’t start making crazy money until I was in college. But today he drives a 10 year old car and lives in a tiny old home, loney and I don’t think very happy.
Funny thing is most of the big business/career decisions I have made in life he tells me they aren’t a good ideas. He told me not to sell my company… I think he taught me a lot about hard work. But I don’t want to end up like him either. It’s honestly depressing.
Sam unrelated to this article…will you write an article on direct indexing.
Here’s the article on Direct Indexing. It’s been on my mind since the beginning of the year.
I’m 50 and walking away from a $3 million a year income.
Net worth: $18mm
Last kid starts college next year (have 3)
I’m sick of the grind and politics.
I work in private credit as an MD.
Love ur content and have since beginning
As always, great article. The thing about net worth/money is it’s just a ‘tool’ to meet some needs/desires.
Many of your examples used that wealth to gain time with family and friends by moving out of full-time work, which feels like true wealth.
$20m is nothing if your health is poor. In fact $200m is nothing if your health is poor. The most valuable asset anyone has is their health. After that, $20m, as a few have said, just snowballs – because it is really way more than you need. Of course everyone’s situation is different, but for most, you can live a life better than 99% by being healthy and having ~$5m.
True. But they are not mutually exclusive. It would be great to have your health and $20 million. But it is always interesting why some with huge net worths choose to remain stress and unhealthy when they have all the resources not to be.
My Personal Capital number says $50M but it’s actually a lot less. I have too much pretax money and unrealized gains. I always calculate net of future tax, but the big unknown is what the future ordinary income and capital gains rates would be. I see the Harris proposal is to go to 44.6% for both, which would be disastrous for both me and the country. Of course she would have to get elected and get it through congress, but still a reminder of how important this election is. If you live in CA and are high income, this would move your marginal rate to 61.4%. At that level the incentive to work goes way down!
Nice. Can you share your age and how you got to ~$50 million net worth? What do you plan to do with all that money, especially with the estate tax threshold at $13.61 million per person. Thanks
We’re in our mid 60s. I had a long career as a senior exec in a F 500 company that was very successful, so equity grants became very valuable. We spend over $500k a year, including generous charitable contributions, but the number continues to grow. Don’t have a concrete estate plan in place as I’m waiting for election results. Will be lots of action on the estate planning front everywhere next year if the threshold gets cut in half.
Thanks for sharing. I hope you can spend most of your wealth while still living!
If you could rewind time to when you were 45 year old with let’s say a $25 million net worth, what are some of the things you would’ve done differently in terms of spending your money, etc.
Thx
An interesting take from the survey is that 50% of readers are already millionaires and 5% are multimillionaires with net worth equal or higher than $10M. Congratulations! Our profile resembles couple #5 in terms of needs although we have not received most our wealth through inheritance but rather built it through stock and real estate investing.
We are retired so we don’t need $20M to be happy and live well although given our investment performance over the last 30 yrs we should be there sooner than later. If I make there I will probably be one of the few who started investing late in my 40s and never made $100K in the best year while working. Whether our net is $20M or more there will be no change in our lifestyle as we are living frugally like we lived 20 yrs ago with under $500K net and perhaps will tighten screws farther rather than increase spending.
How old are you now? Getting to a $20 million net worth after starting in your 40s while not making more than $100K is truly impressive. What did you invest in?
Yes, the reader demographics of Financial Samurai are wealthier than average. A lot of readers are very focused on their finances here!
I have not gotten to $20M yet but we are on the way. Investing mostly in growth stocks, funds, and ETFs, although now about 25% is in Treasuries. Until this year I was 90/10.
BTW, I am 73 wife is 70 and we are not big spending types.
Thanks for sharing this post! Very timely.
I’m pretty much there, right at the $20M mark, depending how you valuate some of my investments (e.g. real estate, private equity holdings, etc).
In my late 40’s not quite 50, but almost there.
3 kids all late teenagers, starting college next year.
Wife has not worked in years, she stopped when they were born, so i was sole financial provider.
We have been extremely fortunate, amazing run in some big companies as an executive, lived around the world and expat (most of my life paid for), so I was aggressively trying to invest and grow. So this is how I got here.
Since my kids were expats for most of their education, we made a big choice to keep them in private schools when we moved back to US 3 years ago, and got a nice house for their high school years. The school and house are the most costly expenditures, but with 3 kids in private school it’s all 3x. I moved around between companies, currently not working. Sharing this (as I said it is timely) because i should feel SO HAPPY AND FREE, but i don’t at the moment. I am very logical so I know I am in a dream position, i’m very data driven, my plan was to have about $3M when I first started saving in the early 2000’s, then that went up to $4M then $7.5M then 10M… I think one part i did not account for so well was the inflation. when I see what i pay for insurance (i live in florida), housing, cars, school, etc… so much of the income is gone… I want to provide my kids with the opportunities they have had all along, college is outrageously expensive, i will not get any breaks because of my NW, so I have that weighing on me… I know i should not, i have the money. I just don’t feel like all this time to build it up, to see it start to go down.. was not my plan, i wanted to get to a point where it would be self-maintaining. It’s early, i just stopped working a few months ago. I want to see what happens after a year… Just felt like sharing another side since the article was timely… I think the age and family situation really matters. If I was 60+, i would not worry a bit, but being in my forties, and seeing how inflation has gone crazy, and thinking to go another 40 years, and still want to get my kids stabilized (seems like another 8-10 years until they are all there)…. the math does not workout as I originally anticipated it would.
Sharing, so I’ll welcome any thoughts and questions. I don’t normally post on these things but figured why not? (long time reader, thanks for all the content and sharing Financial Samurai! Appreciate it!)
The good thing about inflation is that it acts as a tailwind for your investments. What’s your passive income and expenses? Calculating these two should help you feel more at ease perhaps!
Are you completely done working now?
Probably not done working. I’ve really thought about it, my wife definitely does not want me to stop yet, I am a very active person, so having me at home all the time is too much for her. Also, there is too much uncertainty on how much support our kids and family may need in the future, no one in my family (or wife’s family) has this level of wealth, so I was consciously working to make sure we had more options for them later if needed.
I’m working to figure out my passive income now, never needed to really focus on that before. Just always a lot coming in, more than I was spending, so just kept investing it. I have a lot of Private Equity/Alternative Investments in play, so they are not very liquid. I’ve been looking at this more intently lately. I expect I should be fine as you put it. I will be close with the passive liquidity coming in versus my costs, even with the other money tied up. I just expected it to feel better at this point…
Thanks for the reply and all you do!
I used to love money and blindly chase it. But when I met my wife and had children, my view on money softened. I’d much rather spend time with family than continue to blindly chase money.
Although I don’t have $20 million, I have about a $5 million net worth. I wouldn’t trade my two children for any amount of money in the world.
I wonder if the guy from Profile #2 also has narcissistic tendencies?
There’s this one guy that is similar to the one profiled who has a podcast on relationships where he gives advice to couples with children. But he doesn’t have children himself. Bizarre. Then again, he also wrote a book about how to get rich when he was 26, without being rich himself. Funny how the public eats it up.
Come to think of it, a lot of gurus heavily marketing themselves and products seem to either have no kids or are divorced. I wonder if there is this correlation with loving money more than life itself. Hmmm.
Haha! Yes- his advice to people with children is always clueless.
Haha, Instantly identifiable who #2 is. I’ve always wanted to know if Multimillionaire profile #2 was childfree by choice as its such an important topic and I’d love to have him address that but he’s never mentioned it in his podcast or socials when having children is such a financial topic as well. It’s good to learn more about that decision in your post.
Yeah I thought the same about being instantly identifiable.
Maybe he’s looking forward to giving the masses parenting advice, even though he is childless. Hey, it worked teaching people how to become rich as a recent college graduate! haha. Remember, he even had courses on how to get a promotion and raise without holding a job for more than two years.
The guy is just a marketer, but also a sociopath. He’s obsessed with fame and money. And I wouldn’t be surprised if he got a divorce in the next five years.
“Some people are so poor all they have left is money.” This quote describes him perfectly.
He also is giving what sounds like therapy without having been qualified…
But let’s be fair he does have some really good advice and more empathetic approach than a lot of other personal finance people.
Getting to a $20 million net worth kind of snuck up on me to be honest. I knew I was doing well as I use Empower to track my net worth. But after the rebound in stocks in 2023 and 2024 so far, my net worth went from $15 million to over 20 million $ in just two years.
I also live in San Francisco and I’m assuming property prices have also rebounded quite well from 2023. So with the technology and AI boom, and mortgage rates very visibly coming down, I’m hopeful my property portfolio will continue to rise as well.
Wealth really starts to snowball after the first million. Keep on saving and investing party people!
I’m retiring next year at 48. My wife is a SAHM. Maybe I’ll finally upgrade my 10-year old car to electric.
Hi Sam, great article, I’m also in the same boat, happy to share my story privately with you if you’re interested.
Feel free to share here, don’t be shy! Change your handle if you have to.
I think most helpful to readers will be understanding how you were able to get to $20 mil and in what time frame.
Only issue is 20 millions can’t buy you the most precious thing you have. Time.
Most everyone will be able to stop working well before $20 million and live perfectly comfortably.
Hi Sam,
Great article as always.
Question: What do you consider assets when calculating net worth?
A few that I’m not sure about adding in:
Military pension/VA disability paying now in our early 40’s:
according to your pension formula is worth 2.8 million.
Kids accounts: 529’s and Roth IRA’s
Everything of value that generates income or can be sold.
So definitely pension, 529 plans, and Roth IRAs. I would hope the hundreds of thousands I’ve contributed to two 529 plans are worth something.
Married couple, early 50”s, 1 adult child, net worth 21 million.
Index funds and 401k 7 million
Individual stocks. 2 million
Bonds, cash, CD”s. 4 million
Business equity 5 million
Real estate. 3 million
Total. 21 million
We own a logistics company that makes about a million a year. We collect 84k a year in rent from a commercial property and 250 to 300k a year in dividends and interest. Our core expenses run about 75k a year. Property taxes and insurance are roughly half of this total. We have no debt. Discretionary spending is 150 to 200k a year. Charity is 50 to 100k a year. Everything left over gets reinvested.
Are we happy? Yes but it took some work. My wife and I had 3 tough years and almost divorced. It took a lot of work and change on both our parts to get through this but we are now benefiting immensely. We feel very grateful that we can go to the grocery store and buy whatever we want without worry. Furnace breaks, no problem, buy a new one. We fly first class and stay at nice hotels or houses when we travel. Our life is pretty good.
Money makes our day to day worries pretty insignificant compared to most but we’re still human. We still worry, we still argue, we still deal with addiction and dementia in our extended family, we still worry about losing our money. Happiness is a state of mind regardless of wealth. Once we realized family and friends are more important than anything else we are really starting to enjoy the fruits of our labor.
“ My wife and I had 3 tough years and almost divorced. It took a lot of work and change on both our parts to get through this but we are now benefiting immensely”
Thanks for sharing. I think this is quite common as a lot of effort and stress is often required to run a business or work to the top of your profession.
I’m curious what your adult child thinks about your net worth? Does he or she wanted to take over your business? Do they know how wealthy you are? And what are their views about making their own money etc? This is actually the part im most fascinated with.
Thanks!
My daughter knows we are very well off. She also knows that it’s mom and dad’s money, not hers. She wanted no part of our business and we are grateful for that. She realizes the importance of money, however, she’s more motivated by purpose and passion. Her goal is to be comfortable and fulfilled rather than be rich.
I could’ve learned a lot from her in my younger years.
Good to hear about your daughter. I mean you raised her well !
Are you OK with sharing what type of stresses were put on your marriage during your financial independence journey to $20 million?
What do you think some differences are beyond the normal marital problems for people with lower networths?
My wife and I have been together for 34 years, 28 of which we’ve been married. Our problems transcended wealth. It was simply almost death by a thousand cuts. No infidelity, abuse, addiction or anything like that. It was a slow creep of resentments. I was to bossy. I treated my wife like an employee. For her part, she forgot to be my girlfriend. Every time I nitpicked her she would nitpick me back. We spent a year trying to prove to each other that we were right. Happiness be damned! It was more important to be right. We went to marriage counseling and it was nothing but bitch sessions so we decided to go by ourselves. During my counseling I rediscovered why I loved my wife. I learned to communicate my feelings in a way that wasn’t combative. It helped some but what really changed things was my wife being my girlfriend again. Rather than nag me to clean the garage for the up teen time she would come up to me, give me a big hug and say sweetie I’m gonna put a 6 pack on ice, cook you a nice dinner and we’re gonna eat in front of the TV watching football tonight. Would you mind cleaning the garage while I’m cooking? Hell, our garage is spotless now!! I learned how to be a man, and she learned how to be a women again.
Wonderful to hear. Thanks for sharing. I do wonder how much the stress of running a business hurts a marriage.
If it makes you feel any better, I do a lot of housework and childcare since being a stay at home dad. And my wife and I still get into arguments regularly.
I think we all get used to a certain level of comfort and took each other for granted overtime. So one of my plans has been to go back to work given I’ve done all I could do being a stay at home dad as my youngest goes to school full-time this September.
Hi Stealth – just wanted to say thank you for your post.
-Adam
Thanks for saying that Adam.
Stealth, thanks for sharing, this line is priceless. “I learned how to be a man, and she learned how to be a women again.” Appreciate your candor and wisdom!
Thank you PaulV,
It was very cathartic to write all this down. One hell of a blog!
unless my kidneys are worth 10 mil each I ain’t getting to 20! Good article sam ;)
Haha. Your kidneys are priceless, so you are worth much more than $20 million!
Fascinating profiles, thanks for sharing so many. It goes to show that having a lot of money in and of itself doesn’t bring happiness or solve problems. Finding a way to achieve a healthy balance in your lifestyle, asset make-up, stress reduction, etc are so important as well. Life can really get increasingly complex as we age so it takes active maintenance, control, and simplifying to make things feel manageable and enjoyable even if you have significantly less than $20 mil. Organization is also super key. Our minds sadly just don’t stay as sharp as we age and developing good organizational habits long before that starts to happen is worth it. I see that with my parents especially my mother who has never been organized and it’s made her senior years challenging.