The death of the ‘Millionaire Next Door’ dream

[Zwaen]

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that book is also a fun read. They also repair shoes + have low or no mortgage.
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Sorry i do not agree with the low or no mortgage. Current mortgage rate (in my country) comes close to 1.0%, where average yearly prices rises with 9%. The 9% includes crashes like 2008. So it is a no-brainer to use your house as an investment vehicle on the side.

Besides, when I am able to compound money with high enough percentage, I would not like it to 'lock' a significant part of my money in real estate..

 

[VicBee]

It takes money to make money, and today it's nearly all in fintech, where early investors in start ups in the 2k's are today's multi millionaires and billionaires. Hundreds of start ups founders and top employees have created thousands of millionaires and thousands of early investors have created 10's of thousands millionaires. One company alone, Microsoft, created 12,000 millionaires..
Many here complain that government is creating inflation; I'd say fintech creates far more with outrageous returns on capital. Time to stop the outrage around the $15/hr burger flipper?

 

[morganpbrown]

I'm afraid that most of my (non-retirement) horde was earned by fixing and flipping my primary residence. I owned a house in Denver for 8 years and doubled my money at sale. At the typical 5x leverage (20% down), the cash-on-cash return was phenomenal. I typically buy estate sale homes, as they are structurally sound, but UGLY...and the only fairly priced homes available in a tight market. Do the easy renovations myself and I lock in lots of equity if the market goes south.

I've spent several years looking for an angle in the stock market, and still find it difficult to beat the index. Though trading is more fun than laying tile or painting!

 

[morganpbrown]

While the millionaire described in the story had $8 million in assets, you will find almost no one "next door" with 10 to 100 million or a 1 billion. That level of wealth requires a return on investment that can't be achieved using the earn and save model. It usually requires creating/controlling an assets that can grow in value many orders of magnitude faster than the stock market (real estate, businesses, intellectual property).

The guy who owns my company (oil and gas) made his breakthrough by buying a potash mine in 1998 when commodities were in the tank, then flipping in the early 2000s after a 10x spike in the commodity

 

[VicBee]

I'm afraid that most of my (non-retirement) horde was earned by fixing and flipping my primary residence. I owned a house in Denver for 8 years and doubled my money at sale. At the typical 5x leverage (20% down), the cash-on-cash return was phenomenal. I typically buy estate sale homes, as they are structurally sound, but UGLY...and the only fairly priced homes available in a tight market. Do the easy renovations myself and I lock in lots of equity if the market goes south.

I've spent several years looking for an angle in the stock market, and still find it difficult to beat the index. Though trading is more fun than laying tile or painting!

I went to graduate school in Denver. Absolutely loved that city and region. Back then I was trying to convince (and failed) my parents to buy a house there for me that they could sell 2 years later and make a profit from. Around DU, these were selling for around 75K. Great memories.

 

[morganpbrown]

I went to graduate school in Denver. Absolutely loved that city and region. Back then I was trying to convince (and failed) my parents to buy a house there for me that they could sell 2 years later and make a profit from. Around DU, these were selling for around 75K. Great memories.

We moved to Denver in 2011 from Houston (after flipping another estate sale house, hahaha). At the time, Denver was cheaper than Houston for a comparable house! Since then, Denver has gone nuts. So expensive and crowded. We bought our latest junk house in Greenwood Village but are plotting an escape to something less frenetic after fixing it up. Fwiw the Denver house was near the Wellshire golf course (Dartmouth & Colorado Blvd), about 2 miles south of DU. Those little DU houses are selling for 700k or more now! Mom and dad could've had a 10 bagger. Hahaha

 

[murray t turtle]

While the millionaire described in the story had $8 million in assets, you will find almost no one "next door" with 10 to 100 million or a 1 billion. That level of wealth requires a return on investment that can't be achieved using the earn and save model. It usually requires creating/controlling an assets that can grow in value many orders of magnitude faster than the stock market (real estate, businesses, intellectual property).

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MOST dont aim @$ 8 million \ or hit that target.
same way with Stock Traders Almanac,plan
$5,000 per year @ 12% , for 50 years=> $14,777,000. I used abit less total to allow for slippage. His numbers did not allow for comissions \which for last few years, maybe right.
First 5 or last 5 years could be the toughest, in that, especially if the early ,years did much worse that 12%.........................................................................................