Key Takeaways
Most aspiring full-time traders severely underestimate the capital needed, requiring around $200,000 minimum between trading capital ($75,000 to $100,000), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's (FINRA) mandatory $25,000 for pattern day trading, and about 12 months of living expenses.
Historically, the stock market has an average annual rate of return between 10–12%. So if your $1 million is invested in good growth stock mutual funds, that means you could potentially live off of $100,000 to $120,000 each year without ever touching your $1 million goose. But let's be even more conservative.
Invest in Dividend Stocks
Last but certainly not least, a stock portfolio focused on dividends can generate $1,000 per month or more in perpetual passive income. However, at an example 4% dividend yield, you would need a portfolio worth $300,000, which is a substantial upfront investment.
If the goal is to get to $50,000 in annual dividends, then you'll need to aim for a portfolio worth more than $1 million, which would mean you need to collect a yield of approximately 5% to earn that level of dividend income.
To be precise, you'd need an investment of $900,000. This is calculated as follows: $3,000 X 12 months = $36,000 per year. $36,000 / 4% dividend yield = $900,000.
Dividend-paying Stocks
Shares of public companies that split profits with shareholders by paying cash dividends yield between 2% and 6% a year. With that in mind, putting $250,000 into low-yielding dividend stocks or $83,333 into high-yielding shares will get you $500 a month.
If you have 10 or 20 years, you can turn that $500 per month into hundreds of thousands of dollars. For example, if you were to invest $500 into an S&P 500 index fund for 10 years, you could have more than $101,000 by the end of the 10th year.
Bottom Line. If you put $1,000 into investments every month for 30 years, you can probably anticipate having more than $1 million by the end, assuming a 6% annual rate of return and few surprises.
At age 60, a $1 million annuity could pay around $62,000 annually, but delaying payouts until age 65 could increase the yearly payout to approximately $90,000. You may find drawbacks such as limited access to funds, penalties for early withdrawal, fees and inflation reducing the purchasing power of your payments.
So, let's break it down – how many Americans have a net worth of $1 million or more? According to the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances by the Federal Reserve, only about 12% of U.S. households have a net worth over $1 million. This means that the vast majority – 88% – are nowhere near that level.
In fact, many wealthy people can and do "live off the interest." That is, they put a chunk of their fortune in a relatively safe collection of income-generating assets and live off of that—allowing them to be more adventurous with the rest.
While day trading offers an entrepreneurial career route and a high profit potential, there exist some limitations and risks to the profession. These include high financial loss, emotional pressure, lack of access to certain markets, time commitment, and regulatory requirements.
As of Jan 4, 2025, the average hourly pay for a Stock Market in the United States is $20.30 an hour. While ZipRecruiter is seeing hourly wages as high as $36.30 and as low as $9.86, the majority of Stock Market wages currently range between $16.11 (25th percentile) to $20.67 (75th percentile) across the United States.
Kevin O'Leary: By Age 33, You Should Have $100K in Savings — How To Get Started. If you're just starting out in your career, $100,000 might seem like a lot of money. After all, the median salary of a 20- to 24-year-old, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, is just $37,024.
If your Social Security and other retirement savings allow you to retire on $4,000 per month, you're likely in good shape to retire in many cities nationwide or abroad. Aside from the most expensive markets, $48,000 annually is enough for a comfortable retirement for many retirees.
According to the $1,000 per month rule, retirees can receive $1,000 per month if they withdraw 5% annually for every $240,000 they have set aside. For example, if you aim to take out $2,000 per month, you'll need to set aside $480,000.
Let's consider some examples: Investor A can only invest $1,000 every month and has nothing in savings. If he earns a 10% annual rate of return (compounded quarterly) in a portfolio created by a robo advisor, Investor A will need 22 years and seven months to become a millionaire.
Thus, it will take approximately 8.17 years.
Each stock you invest in should take up, at most, 3.33% of your portfolio. “If each stock generates around $400 in dividend income per year, 30 of each will generate $12,000 a year or $1,000 per month.”
To generate $5,000 per month in dividends, you would need a portfolio value of approximately $1 million invested in stocks with an average dividend yield of 5%. For example, Johnson & Johnson stock currently yields 2.7% annually. $1 million invested would generate about $27,000 per year or $2,250 per month.