Earning your first million dollars may seem an impossible challenge. But many people have achieved this elusive dream through hard work, determination, and innovative thinking. Whether you are a salaried employee or a business owner, you should learn better allocation of funds to achieve a seven-figure net worth.
We found an interesting Reddit thread where users shared their insights and strategies about how to make your first million dollars. These stories aren’t just tales of financial triumph. But they are blueprints for hustlers who dare to dream beyond their current financial position.
So, fasten your seatbelts and get ready to deep dive into the fascinating journeys of successful Redditors. These gems will guide you towards your financial dreams.
TheWindWarden
User TheWindWarden identified a service that people really wanted. But none of the big companies allowed access. So, he found a loophole to make it accessible to the general public.
“If you find something people want, it’s just a matter of working long enough hours to fulfill as many of their wants as you can.” He added.
When he started, he already had competition from other small entrepreneurs. But he realized the demand is large enough in a sense that everyone can win big.
fstezaws
Another Redditor, fstezaws, shared his detailed journey to becoming a millionaire.
He came from a family of entrepreneurs. Being a good student, he got a scholarship for his college education. But he knew it would never provide for him. Despite having limited funds, he set up his first business venture at the age of 21 right after getting married.
His parents couldn’t provide much financial support since they didn’t have much means either. But the good thing was that he didn’t have any student debt to pay off. Then he put in the work and effort to make his first million.
fstezaws started with a small service business. His vision made this venture successful within 2 years. In his third year as an entrepreneur, i.e. July 2008, he decided to finally quit his full-time job.
Then came the housing market crash. This event affected his service business too. But instead of losing hope, he launched a very small e-commerce business. The site was focused on selling an education product he had developed himself and made him about $10k in the first 60 days.
This business idea gave him the first taste of “making money while sleeping”. He was aware the service business may not be sustainable in the long run. So, starting an e-commerce business was long on his mind.
Along with managing his service business, he kept grinding at the online store. For the next 4-5 years, he sold a wide range of educational products and e-commerce stuff. But at the same time, he kept looking for his next business idea.
Soon enough, he identified a pain point he had experienced as a service business owner/technician. Thus, he studied patents and all that jazz. Now it was time to design a physical product and file for a patent. He invested $8k out of pocket to produce the prototype of the product.
For promotional purposes, he made a video, designed the packaging, and pitched the product on Kickstarter. It took off like a rocket. Four months later, the business started generating high profits and was starting to scale.
fstezaws designed more products to continue expanding the product set. It grew with the help of Amazon and global distribution partners. 10 years after the first Kickstarter campaign, the business generated a total of $25 million in revenue.
Currently, he owns four utility patents and dozens of trademarks and ships his products all over the world. He owns 100% of business shares and never needed any debt to scale.
But that’s not all, his net worth outside the business is also a few million dollars. It mostly comes from real estate. He achieved this by responsibly taking money off the table and being consistent with this habit.
He started a business from scratch and built sellable assets. Now he is considering selling it in the next eighteen months. That’s because he intends to focus on his new consumer goods business in a much broader market. His goal is to scale it to $100mm in value without any outside capital.
The successful Reddit user is turning 40 soon. When he turned 24 right after establishing his first e-commerce business, he set a personal goal to have the means to retire by the time he was 40. And this goal played a major role in helping him reach where he is today.
“Have one big freaking goal that seems impossible. Because if you put in the work, you’ll accomplish it and then some.”
caem123
caem123 will help you figure out how to make your first million.
He built wealth by buying rental homes. At the same time, he kept his full-time corporate job. The initial purchase was $32k down. After acquiring his first real estate rental property, he kept buying a property every 2-3 years. Now his wealth outside his primary residence is worth over $1m.
He found it tough to stop maximizing his 401K. But he still took the “free money” 401k match. Now about 20% of his wealth is in 401k and IRA retirement accounts. Yet, real estate is his largest source of income.
Using leverage is key to wealth creation. You can better understand this concept via Rich Dad Poor Dad book.
anonthrowawayaft
anonthrowawayaft has a 7-figure net worth. A year after completing college education, he purchased his first rental property. Then gradually, he continued to buy single-family homes (SFH). His focus was on buying foreclosures or complete gut job houses.
The millionaire Redditor self-managed all his rentals until Covid hit. Things began getting overwhelming because of his full-time career that came with a 6-figure salary and great benefits. So, he decided to farm it out to a professional property manager.
anonthrowawayaft lived with his parents until his late 20s. After renting an apartment for a few years, he moved in with his sibling for cheaper rent. Later, he ended up selling all his SFH and moved into commercial and residential development. It wasn’t until he reached his mid/late 30s that he bought his first primary home. At that point, he was also maxing out his 401k annually.
The Redditor added, “There’s nothing fancy. I just continue to grind and look for opportunities. I’m 39 now with a goal to want to retire with a minimum of 5M in combined assets or obtain a passive income of around $15-20k/month.”
PhallicusMondo
Who doesn’t want to know how to make your first million? PhallicusMondo achieved his goal of earning his first million slowly and deliberately with a life partner.
First, he took a job in sales. This is where he specialized in a technical field and learned about aggressive commissions. Working hard, he became one of the highest revenue-generating reps in his field.
Then he began saving and investing for 10+ years until he hit one million in net worth. He decided to take a portion of this amount and use it as capital to start his own business. By industry EBITDA multiplier, this business is now worth about $10 million.
Second, after reaching a net worth of $1 million, he married a woman who was also worth one million dollars. This effectively doubled the net worth of the couple.
Third, the couple started investing in real estate. They bought a dilapidated home in an up-and-coming neighborhood. After some very light renovations, they gained $1.3 million in equity over the past four years.
Further, they had been dumping cash into rental properties since before their marriage. Also, excess cash goes into stocks and retirement.
Lastly, they kept saving. Not spending lavishly on useless things helped them better manage their finances. They don’t waste money on designer goods or exotic cars but travel extensively and spend money on experiences rather than things.
As per the Redditor, picking your course and staying with it is the most important thing you can do. Treat yourself periodically with small gifts but keep your head down. Do what you enjoy and work hard. If you don’t like what you do, you’ll never be as successful as someone who does. Also, be careful with choosing your partner when getting married.
jeffathuemor
jeffathuemor started his digital agency around 12 years ago. The agency’s been profitable, but not world-beating. Over the years, he continued to:
- Save – High-interest bank accounts, IRA, 401k
- Invest – Real estate, stocks
Around a year or two ago, he exceeded 1M net worth. This doesn’t include his business.
7FigureMarketer
7FigureMarketer did it twice. The first time, he became a millionaire with Affiliate Marketing. The second time, he did it by launching his solo agency/consultancy.
He says that making money isn’t that difficult when you have in-demand skills or capital. You can easily leverage it for hundreds of thousands per year, or higher in a limited capacity. But when you want to go higher, say $500k-$1m per year, it can become a lot more difficult.
You need elements of scale e.g., traffic, MQLs/SQLs, employees, and the ability to meet this demand. With affiliate marketing, there are definite barriers to scale such as advertiser caps (a limit on how many conversions you can have) and traffic costs.
But when it comes to a solo agency, you need consistent deal flow and availability. For instance, you can only take on a maximum of four clients. The upside is that they each can pay $180k – $200k over a year. But the downside is that contracts don’t typically last longer than that. They can easily replace you with internal talent.
Both routes were easy to get going on since the Redditor had skills and capital for each. But it became difficult to scale and sustain in the long run.
CSCAnalytics
Wondering how to make your first million dollars? CSCAnalytics points out the following important factors:
- Work hard
- Aggressively save money – cook at home, negotiate utilities, etc.
- Avoid carrying large balances on credit cards / taking debts
- Buy affordable used cars from reliable brands
- Buy a house as early as possible (FHA if needed)
- Invest – buy low-fee, diversified index funds (VT is an easy one-fund solution)
- Find a great CPA and make a tax plan before you’re hit with tax burdens
- Ensure you have good health, auto, and homeowners insurance
Always think in terms of the time value of money. You can go out every weekend and drop $300 a weekend on fancy dinners and bottles at the club when you’re doing well. But guess what? If you’re in your 20’s, you are passing up 40+ years of compounding i.e., around 20x expected returns. Those $300 weekends are actually $6000 weekends in time value of money.
The social media user lived well below his means since he was 16 and saved no less than 50% of everything he made. Initially, he made $10/hr for 3 years. Then he started making $18/hr for about 6 years. But he kept living as if he was still making $10 while saving half.
CSCAnalytics finished his degree at 28 while working full-time. Then he started making $60k but kept living on very little. Also, he invested all along the way in ETFs.
The Redditor became a first-time homeowner at the age of 18. He fixed it up while living there when he was making $10/hr. Saving up, he bought the worst-condition house in a good school district and a slightly better neighborhood. Then he rented out his first house and moved to the second residence after fixing it up.
In 2019, his net worth crossed a million dollars excluding his main house. At this point, he owned a 10-year-old Corolla. And his net worth has only grown since then. Now, he makes $150k/yr and still saves most of it. The goal is to reach $4 million, retire by 52, and live off the interest of about 3% a year.