Financial Adventurer

So I Became a (multi)-Millionaire

As the title suggests I became a millionaire and will soon be able to add “multi” to that title. This journey took 18 years. In a lot of ways I am an unlikely millionaire. I grew up in a small town and raised by a divorced mother with no college education. I also started my working and investing years in the early 2000’s. The 2000’s and the next 10-15 years were a terrible time for investing. The stock market was essentially flat for more than a decade. To top it all off I bought my house at the peak of the 2007-2008 financial crisis which resulted in years of declining real estate prices. Obviously, financial resources were stacked against me, yet I still succeeded. If it wasn’t for these things I would have become a millionaire much sooner than 18 years.

Growing up I just assumed I would always be poor. There did not seem to be any reasonable way out, but in high school I came across two books that changed my perception. “Rich Dad Poor Dad” and “The Millionaire Nextdoor”. I still have these two books. I have not read them in over 20 years and do not remember a lot of the content, but it wasn’t so much about the content of the books as it was the mindset these books created in me. These books changed the way I thought about money. They essentially instilled into me that becoming so called “rich” is more a mindset. If we do things just a little different than average you stack the cards in your favor. This is when the ideas of “not keeping up with the Joneses” and “living well below your means” was introduced to me. Two things that seem so simple yet is apparently so hard for most people. I haven’t always been perfect in living up to these concepts, but adhering to these two things most of the time is the reason I am where I am some 20 years later.