How Ordinary People Have Built Extraordinary Wealth (2024)

FAQs

How Ordinary People Have Built Extraordinary Wealth? ›

The five habits that were displayed were: Millionaires takes personal responsibility, they practice intentionality with their finances, they're goal-oriented, they are hard workers, they are consistent wealth builders. Millionaires do not waste their time and money on debt.

To become a millionaire, start saving early and invest your money to take advantage of the power of compounding interest. Savvy savers limit their spending so that they can put more money to work for them. Maximize your retirement contributions every year to earn tax-deferred or tax-free growth.

While get-rich-quick schemes sometimes may be enticing, the tried-and-true way to build wealth is through regular saving and investing—and patiently allowing that money to grow over time. It's fine to start small. The important thing is to start and to start early. Earn money and then save and invest it smartly.

Generational wealth can provide long-term financial security and open opportunities for your children and beyond. Strategies for building generational wealth include investing in education, financial markets, and real estate, and creating and preserving assets.

It's really common sense, but budgeting, maintaining a consistent savings habit, avoiding or paying off debt, stashing money away in an emergency fund and spending less than you make are all pillars of building wealth. Investing is the more glamorous side, and that's also necessary, of course.

Individuals who practice stealth wealth often have significant amounts of money, but few people know about it. They keep it under wraps in order to safeguard their assets.

1. Earn More Than Your Spend. Regardless of how much money you make, if you never save any of it, you will never build up any substantial amount of wealth. It is not how much you make but how much you keep that matters.

Indeed, it's never too late for anything in life and by following certain rules, you can still get wealthy after 50, experts said. “If you've started saving later in life, don't get discouraged,” said Joe Camberato, CEO of National Business Capital. “Instead, focus on what you can control.

Key Takeaways

The great wealth of America's richest people came from the businesses they created, not inherited wealth. Billionaires' wealth is concentrated in company stock, and their companies' value lies mostly in ideas and processes, not cash and physical property.

How did the Rockefellers create generational wealth? ›

The Rockefeller Waterfall Method is a sophisticated estate planning strategy designed to facilitate the efficient transfer of wealth across generations. This method leverages the strategic use of whole-life insurance policies to create a seamless and tax-efficient legacy.

“Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” is a common phrase that describes the unwanted outcome of transitioning hard-earned wealth to the next generation. It turns out that this unwanted outcome has been present for centuries, with many cultures having familiar colloquialisms.

That can include a number of components, such as budgeting, investing and managing your money well. The most important factor in building wealth: your salary, according to 67% of both millennials and Gen Zers, a recent survey from financial services company Empower found.

Compound interest makes early investing one of the most effective ways to build wealth fast. By starting to invest at a young age, individuals can take advantage of the exponential growth of their investments over time.

“Your most powerful wealth-building tool is your income. And when you spend your whole life sending loan payments to banks and credit card companies, you end up with less money to save and invest for your future.

Invest In Your 401(k) At Work

One of the most common ways to become a millionaire is to contribute to your 401(k) at work. At Fidelity alone, there were over 485,000 401(k) millionaires at the end of the first quarter of 2024. That number surely jumps if you include all of a person's retirement accounts.

Corley found that 41% of the 177 self-made millionaires he surveyed were reared in poor households. “Yet, somehow they managed to break out of their poverty as adults,” he said. One of the keys to their ability to get out of poverty was their willingness to take risks to get to the top.