Ninety percent of all millionaires become so through owning real estate.
Some people become rich by creating a successful business or investing in the stock market, while others inherit wealth or win the lottery. However, there are some common traits that many wealthy people share, such as hard work, persistence, and a willingness to take calculated risks1.
“Beyond entrepreneurship, no conventional career path — even medicine, law, or engineering — generates a million-dollar income for a newcomer in only a year.” So, aside from a lucky crypto investment or a windfall of some sort, Kellzi said becoming a millionaire is highly improbable.
There are over 22 million millionaires in America, which means that roughly 1 in 15 Americans are millionaires, per the 2024 UBS Global Wealth Report. The report also shared that the millionaire population in the U.S. is expected to grow 16%, to 25.4 million, by 2028.
The wealthiest people earned their coveted places by investing in risky assets like their private businesses and then multiplying the returns, regardless of whether or not they had initial wealth from rich parents.
Of course, there are many of them. Some of them get their wealth illegally, and they keep it in a secret. For example recent BBC investigation "Putin's Secret Riches" revealed that his net worth is billions of dollars, but he is not included in any rich people list.
As of the second quarter 2024, the average American household had wealth of $1.17 million. The average wealth of households in the top 1 percent was about $35.5 million. In the top 0.1 percent, the average household had wealth of more than $158.6 million.
Stocks and Stock Funds
They invest in index funds and dividend-paying stocks. They seek passive income from equity securities just like they do from the passive rental income that real estate provides. These millionaires simply don't want to spend their time managing investments.
The people who have all the money often go by unnoticed, dressing well, but without flash, driving used cars and living in the first house they bought in a modest neighbourhood. The authors called them the quiet millionaires. They often work in, or own, unglamourous businesses that spin off steady streams of cash.
Even as it will be a while before the world sees its first trillionaire, it turns out that we already have a trillionaire family in our midst. The richest family in the world, the Saud family of Saudi Arabia, is also the only family that's worth more than a trillion dollars.
This is what the memes get exactly wrong: billionaires don't become and stay rich by hoarding; that's the last thing they want to do with their money. There are related myths and assumptions, such as that the only way to accumulate a net worth of so much money is through evil, if not outright unethical, means.
The famed wealthy entrepreneur Andrew Carnegie famously said more than a century ago, “Ninety percent of all millionaires become so through owning real estate. More money has been made in real estate than in all industrial investments combined.
Many Americans don't think they necessarily need to make $1 million a year to feel like they're well off financially, according to Bankrate's 2024 Financial Freedom survey. On average, Americans say they'd need to earn around $520,000 annually to feel rich, according to the survey.
Thousands of people have risen from poverty to riches; some are: Pryce Pryce-Jones – left school at 12 and formed the first mail order company in 1861, with the BBC calling it an extraordinary rags to riches story.