This is a popular idea in Latin America.
Many people live in multi-generational homes. If in USA you stay living with your parents for 10 years and you get a 100-150k job (assuming you studied STEM or an in-demand trade). You save up everything and in a decade you will be a millionaire, (and so will your siblings if they do something similar).
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I mean sure the math works out if you have no bills lol.
Possible, but difficult.
Most people do not want to live with their parents for that long if they don’t have to.
STEM is starting to become a much more crowded field – and, like the trades, not everyone is cut out for it.
It isn’t possible for most people. It is possible if you get lucky.
I would say that as a rule, the idea that one can become a millionaire in a decade in the United States is false.
It seems very unlikely that a parent would allow a grown child making more than 100K to continue living at home rent-free. It seems even less likely that someone making that kind of money would want to continue living with their parents, rent-free or not.
Sure, you *can*. You usually need a rather unique combination of skill/education, talent, and luck. It’s not like literally anybody in America can just put their mind to it and become a millionaire in 10 years with a little elbow grease.
The actual number is closer to $250k a year, factoring in taxes, bills, living expenses, and assuming you don’t have kids, pets, hobbies, or anything else to distract from the goal.
I personally think that sounds horrible
I mean…. I guess? No bills, no debt, no other responsibilities and a $100-$150k job? I could see that being possible. But there’s reasons everyone isn’t a millionaire
You can find data on how many Americans have a net worth of over a million dollars. It’s not as many as this popular belief would think.
You live with your parents? Who is paying for your phone, medical, car, costs for food?
I don’t think, without being lucky, you can do it in ten years. That said, I started my life over at 29 and by 55 I had over a million dollars in my retirement fund, paid for house and cars. So, 10 years probably not, 25 years, with a little luck and a lot of work, it’s possible. America is still the land of opportunity, even if it’s a little rough right now.
If you were born to a rich family and had your college paid for in full by them and you could make the right connections and have no debt. Sure.
Reality?? Hell no!
People who are self-sufficient living with parents is VERY unusual here.
Even more unusual is the idea that you would be making a lot of money and not only living with your parents, but not paying a dime towards your own care.
That would be considered using/taking advantage of your parents here.
not true at all. Unless your parents are millionaires and give you money.
Mostly it’s going to be false. Yeah, the ceiling for earning is high, but the floor is pretty low as well. A million dollars isn’t the same in Los Angeles as it is in Nebraska. If the formula were as easy as you are saying, then we’d have a lot more millionaires.
Possible. You can save $50k/year on a $150k salary. Live with roommates, drive an old car etc. invest in stock market, make 7% / year. You end up with $1M or the about s.
Taxes, social security, healthcare through employment, and already it’s eating through what you take home. It’s also hard to see someone even at home spending absolutely nothing. No gas in vehicle, no entertainment, no vacation, etc.
It’s possible. If you sacrifice literally everything else in your life but work/making money and hope you’re lucky and everything goes your way.
Millionaire you say lol
Likely no.
$100k minus tax is $77,000
Say you save 25% of it with 8% interest in S&P500, you’ll have $293k. In 20 years, you’d have $945k.
The probability of that is extremely low but still much higher than most anywhere else in the world.
Unless you’re a congressman, it’s not likely.
I would say realistically they’d be living with their parents for 2-5 years, buy a million dollar house once they saved the down payment, and pay it off over the course of the next 10-ish years after that. But then you literally just have a decent house and no cash. Being a millionaire isn’t that exciting, here. But if you pay it off over 30 years, you get to actually enjoy that income while you do it.
Yeah, that’s not quite how it works. I wish it did, though.
If this were the case, wouldn’t every American be a millionaire by like age 30?
Even if you lived without bills, it can take ten years of building your career before you even make $100k per year. Many first jobs out of college pay less than half that and you work your way up from promotions and job-switching over the course of the many years it takes to establish a career
With inflation, every American will be a millionaire eventually, but it will not mean they are rich.
Is it possible to become a millionaire in 10 years or less? Sure.
Is it possible to become a millionaire with the kind of job you listed in 10 years or less? Not likely. You would have to literally have no expenses at all, and somehow not pay taxes.
It’s definitely possible if you strictly keep your living expenses low (and luck out of unanticipated expenses and the economy doesn’t tank).
The r/FIRE movement is built around that basic idea. The concept is more about investing saved income than saving it, as it will not lose value to inflation and eventually the annual return on your investments will be worth more than your contributions.
In ten years, very unlikely.
But to retire and not be a millionaire is increasingly uncommon. Mainly this is because of the huge benefits from compounding returns on American equities, and strong growth in housing values. If you moved here from, say, Honduras, worked as a roofer for your whole career, then retired, you’d probably have a million or more.
20-30%+ of that goes to taxes so you’d need closer to $150K-$250K to hit that number in 10 years.
You would also have to spend literally zero of it- no travel, no fun, no living expenses, no dates or romantic relationships…just living with your parents getting an allowance from them to do anything outside the house.
Most people like to have a social life though, especially in the prime of their life.
So in this scenario:
> You’d be making at least $100k post tax
> You would have zero bills (contributing nothing)
> You would spend zero dollars, or your total spending for the year would come out to at least a net positive of >=$100,000, for an entire decade
Possible? Yes. Realistic? No.
No sane parent wants their more than capable child of living with them for a decade into adulthood, and those who do are probably not going to bankroll them for the whole time either. Even still, at ~30 years old you’d be “just starting out”, and while you’d have a million dollars to fall back on you’d (probably) have no life skills and be in a much worse spot than your peers in all areas sans financially.
Sounds miserable, tbh.
Exceptionality unlikely, but not completely impossible.
The expected income in the popular Latin American hypothetical you shared is not typical of the USA.
In the geographic regions of our country where employers would offer such salaries, the cost of living is much higher. For example, I dated a man who earned around $125K/year working in tech, but he lived in New York City, so he never saw 1/3 of that (city + state + federal taxes!), and the basics here (like groceries) are more expensive than more rural areas (I almost cried when I visited a supermarket in Muncie, Indiana) so such recurring expenses eat up more of the budget. In addition, in order to qualify for that job he needed a degree, which he (it’s been over 10 years now!) is *still paying off*. (Most Americans in this income tier have taken out student loans and need to pay that debt.) While that guy would certainly have been able to pay off his college debt already had he chosen to live with his mother (not in NYC, but 2-3 hours’ drive away), his job opportunities would’ve been more limited, and he still would not be a millionaire.
Also this scenario presumes you have living parents/family who have stable enough housing and finances that they can provide to you room and board for free for a decade (and legally I think at that income bracket you’d earn too much to be filed as a dependent on the head of household’s taxes, so the homeowner would effectively be taking multiple losses to support you over those years). Most people across generations are struggling, and given our healthcare system, all it takes is one significant medical misfortune to destroy everything you’ve built.
The truth is, if you can become a millionaire in 10 years in the USA, you started from a place of privilege. Maybe you worked hard and you got lucky too, but having a multigenerational home that can support you contribution-free for an extra decade as a fully employed adult is a privilege here.
Certainly feasible, but not nearly as easy to do as your description makes it sound. Housing is hardly the only expense that will prevent you from saving money. And getting a six figure job isn’t as easy as just getting a STEM degree or learning a good trade. And you’re not going to start anywhere near $100k when you’re new. And having kids will eat up all your money. And you’re probably going to have like $40k in debt from a stem degree. And if you get a serious illness or injury the healthcare system can bankrupt you and/or make you unable to continue with your current job.
The math ain’t mathing 😂
$100k isn’t that much now once you compare it against cost of living, especially in areas where jobs actually pay that much.
We’ll use my home state of California as an example:
-if you make $100k a year and are single, your tax liability is about 20% of your gross income. This gives you $80k to take home.
-the average cost to rent a one bedroom apartment in a HCOL city where there are jobs that actually pay that wage is $2800. You’re left with $46,400, and that’s without any utilities. Sure, there’s ways to live cheaper, but that is extremely dependent on your individual tolerance for bullshit.
-groceries (food, basic household goods like cleaning supplies and toilet paper) will probably run you $400 a month on the low end. This leaves you with $41,600.
-utilities depend on where you live and individual factors, so let’s call it $100/month. We’re down to $40,400.
-internet and cell phone service will run you about $200 for both. Total is now $38,000.
So far we’ve just covered the basics; we haven’t even gotten into saving for emergencies and retirement, health insurance, entertainment costs, or having a car. Over half your $100k income has gone to just basic survival.
Yes, you can work hard and live cheaply to save as much as possible, but you’re not becoming a millionaire in a decade on that wage. It’s simply not possible unless you have zero bills because you mooch off your family or significant other.
I work in agriculture. It’s a fucking lie lol. Don’t ever get sick have kids or eat…not own a house or a car.
Possible: maybe depending on the exact location, luck, and willingness to live extremely frugally. Very unlikely
Practical: Fuck no
lol
took me a bit longer than 10 years as I wasn’t living with my parents, but yes. Also you need to invest the money, not just save it.
So leech off your parents for shelter, food, utilities, laundry, toiletries, insurance, transportation, clothes, and everything else like a fucking toddler?
In other words, an adult toddler?
Our people have the wrong mentality that we get rich just by being in the states. Having lived here for 20 years now with a higher education in the stem field, it’s far from the truth. I see it in my cousins, aunts, etc from Mexico that keep having the illusion that it’s easier. There’s a lot that I can go into it to describe it but it’d just be a wall of text. Sure $16/ hr converted to pesos is a shit ton of money, but use it Here and you’ll struggle fr. I’ve known people who moved here for the “richer better life” but as soon as they started manual labor for what they now realize is shit pay, they go back home
That’s not how it works… Salary is described as an annual sum, and it’s pre-tax. Right off the bat you’ll pay 10-20% in taxes, depending on the nature of your income and where you live. They also withhold for social security and other federal programs. Your paycheck would also be deducted for your retirement account like a 401k, but for these purposes we can assume you’re not contributing.
You’re living with your parents, but does that mean you have zero expenses? You’re not a dependent, so you could be on the hook for other stuff. Vehicular property taxes, student loan payments and interest, union fees, etc. You still have to renew your license and put fuel in your car – are your parents paying for that? Are they also insuring your car and packing a lunch for you every day too? And you would spend nothing on clothing, food, or entertainment for a decade?
Don’t get me wrong, I know someone who lived with their parents for years so they could put a $80k down payment on a townhome. It’s feasible to save a lot of money this way. But I think you’re understating the expenses that lead to having a $150k/year job, and the portion of your total annual salary that you can reasonably save. It would be literally impossible with a salary of $100k.