Here’s our latest interview with a millionaire as we seek to learn from those who have grown their wealth to high heights.
If you’d like to be considered for an interview, drop me a note and we can chat about specifics.
This interview took place in December.
My questions are in bold italics and their responses follow in black.
Let’s get started…
OVERVIEW
How old are you (and spouse if applicable, plus how long you’ve been married)?
My wife and I have been married 35 years this past June 2023. I am 58 years young and my wife is 57.
We are high school sweethearts, we met in my senior year when I transferred schools.
Right after she graduated from college in May, we got married on June 26, 1988.
Do you have kids/family (if so, how old are they)?
My wife and I have 3 children, ages 30 (son), 27 (girl) and 24 (son).
Due to my career aspirations that involved several relocations, each child was born in a different state: Maryland, Tennessee and Pennsylvania. Fun fact: my oldest was born in the same hospital as myself, Holly Cross in Silvers Spring, MD.
I also moved a lot as I was growing up; Boston, New Hampshire, West Virginia and back to Maryland. My parents divorced when I was five, and I lived six years with my mom and 8 years with my dad until I went out on my own.
What area of the country do you live in (and urban or rural)?
We have lived in South Florida since 2000.
We live in a nice suburb called Parkland, which is just south of Boca Raton and north of Fort Lauderdale.
My wife and I both moved a lot during our early years. She is one of 4 siblings, and they were all born in different countries (her dad was in the CIA). Her dad spent many months away from the family and he never shared the work he did for the country.
What is your current net worth?
Our current net worth is $3,757,000.
What are the main assets that make up your net worth (stocks, real estate, business, home, retirement accounts, etc.) and any debt that offsets part of these?
Assets
- 401k/Profit Sharing – $2,337M
- Roth IRA – $49K
- AmeriTrade – $78K
- Money Market(s) – $283K
- Home – $1,068M
Liability
- Mortgage – $58K
EARN
What is your job?
I have been in the Automotive Finance business for 25+ years with GMAC, Ford and now Toyota.
I started as a collector repossessing vehicles for GMAC in the DC area.
I moved companies to accelerate my career path, I am currently an Assistant Vice President level for the previous 6 years in several roles.
My wife was a CPA until the time I started relocating with these companies.
I am retiring early at the end of 2023 with 23.5 years of service.
I purchased a franchise that has been operating for 50 years, focused on sales performance training and leadership coaching. The best part of purchasing the franchise is having my oldest son join! After obtaining his MBA, he worked as a consultant for 6 years, so this is an easy transition for him. The business is two months young and I will be jumping in full-time in January.
What is your annual income?
Income the past few years has averaged $425K (salary & bonus).
This doesn’t include profit sharing (15% of compensation capped at $290K) and a pension.
Tell us about your income performance over time. What was the starting salary of your first job, how did it grow from there (and what you did to make it grow), and where are you now?
My starting salary was $16,200 repossessing cars for GMAC. I didn’t hit $100k until the age 35.
My best income years were the last 10.
It will be interesting how much I can generate with the new business — it will depend how much both my son and I hustle for clients. 🙂
I spoke to many franchisees. One person north of us makes in the $400k+ range working 4 days a week. Several others after 4-5 years are achieving $1M working 5 days a week.
What tips do you have for others who want to grow their career-related income?
Great question.
You no longer can count on working hard and performing your role at a high level. You need to not only be a high performer, you need to network with both peers and senior management while building strong relationships.
Emotional intelligence is important, be a great listener and show empathy.
Do not talk negatively about others with another associate, this will come back to bite you and potentially hurt your career.
Be willing to leave for another company to satisfy and achieve your goals.
What’s your work-life balance look like?
Family life was important to us. I coached my kids as they grew up. I coached both recreational and travel level competition.
My wife and I had a blast during these years. There were many times my manager would suggest I work later to show senior management my dedication to the company. Years later this same manager complimented me about my decision of putting family first over the years.
Do you have any sources of income besides your career? If so, can you list them, give us a feel for how much you earn with each, and offer some insight into how you developed them?
As I mentioned, I am retiring early at the age of 58 to follow my dream of owning a business.
I am excited to start a business from the ground and see the revenue levels that can be achieved.
SAVE
What is your annual spending?
Our expenses were between $189k – $200k in 2023.
We have a small balance on our mortgage that we are paying, although we could pay off with some savings.
Once the mortgage is paid, our expenses will be $140k a year.
If we absolutely needed to, this could be reduced further, however we are blessed to live a nice life.
What are the main categories (expenses) this spending breaks into?
My wife has created many lines of expenses, the main accounts are:
- The mortgage — we have been paying more than required to payoff by YE 2024
- Charity
- Insurance
- Food
- Restaurants
- Amazon
- Home improvement
- Electricity
- Several smaller accounts
Do you have a budget? If so, how do you implement it?
My wife maintains the budget and inputs every expense that is created during the month. She uses EveryDollar by the Ramsey organization.
Within the expenses, she also escrows for gifts, vacation, property taxes, Disney Vacation Club maintenance fees for the time we need to make the annual payment.
Budgeting is key to make sure you don’t spend more than you make.
What percentage of your gross income do you save and how has that changed over time?
The company contributes 3% to a 401K of my gross income and 12% on an income cap of $290K.
I also contribute an additional 10% of my gross income to a Roth 401K along with a backdoor Roth for my wife.
After retirement, we plan to contribute the IRA option of $7,500 each, and once we start generating revenue in the new business, we’ll set up a retirement account.
What’s your best tip for saving (accumulating) money?
If I could do it over again, I would have contributed 20% from the day I started working.
Highly recommend building an emergency fund between 6 to 12 months and when you hit the 50’s, begin building cash to cover your first 3 – 5 years of retirement before dipping into your retirement investments.
What’s your best tip for spending less money?
Keep a budget that includes savings and investing categories.
Document your expenses and don’t divert from your plan!
If you’re married, it’s important for the two of you to be on the same page to achieve success.
What is your favorite thing to spend money on/your secret splurge?
Tough question, this has changed over the years.
Over the past few years my wife and I have done short getaways.
With my current company, we have been fortunate over my career to use the company yacht with clients in the BVI’s, and taking annual incentive trips outside of the US.
INVEST
What is your investment philosophy/plan?
I will have full control on my profit sharing in January 2024, most likely I’ll put the money in a couple of index funds.
I do want to learn more about building a dividend portfolio. I am actually connecting with a member of MMM to learn about his success using a balance of $2M. Within 10 years he generated an additional $1M — nice ROI!
What has been your best investment?
As for individual stocks, both Apple and Tesla have been the most successful.
The majority of our investments were either in target date funds through work and selected mutual funds in the 401K.
What has been your worst investment?
My Paris Hilton hair extension investment from listening to a friend.
What’s been your overall return?
Unfortunately I didn’t track our ROI, this is something I wish I had done.
I am sure I could have done better if these stats were maintained and monitored.
However, I can’t complain about our current state of portfolio, we are blessed.
How often do you monitor/review your portfolio?
I became obsessed over the last five years, most likely because retirement wasn’t too far away.
I have the Empower app on my phone along with the Fidelity and Charles Schwab apps.
NET WORTH
How did you accumulate your net worth?
There was NO inheritance.
Early in my career I started with the normal 401K contributions with company matching. I don’t think I was investing 15%. I eventually moved the contribution percentage to 15%, wish I started early.
When I was 35, I was recruited by a company that provided 15% of my compensation towards a 401k (3%) and profit sharing (12%). When I received bonuses in December and March, I contributed 5% of the money towards my investments. Again, I wish that I contributed more to our wealth faster.
About 5 years ago I started a backdoor Roth IRA for my wife that we continue to contribute. We also increased our investing and added another 10% my salary the past 3-4 years.
Finally, we focused on paying off our mortgage faster and increased our principal payments moving up the payoff by 10 years.
What would you say is your greatest strength in the ESI wealth-building model (Earn, Save or Invest) and why would you say it’s tops?
I believe earning more money helps provide the means to experience more enjoyment in life along with building a retirement portfolio so you can maintain the same life after working.
As a result, I was always open to leaving my current company to advance my career and compensation. Because of this, each one of our 3 children were born in different states.
We also believed in saving — we were able to pay for emergency events without stress. We saved my bonuses to pay for private education and build that emergency fund.
As for investing, our success has been consistent with monthly contributions invested in index and mutual funds. I played around with individual stocks, done well at times and not so much other times. If you invest in individual stocks, you must be disciplined and put your stops and sell triggers to be successful.
What road bumps did you face along the way to becoming a millionaire and how did you handle them?
We had 3 kids, and the expenses over the years slowed the process of investing and growing as a millionaire.
We paid cash for two of our kids in private high school and all three for college.
We did tell our children if they went to a state college (two went to UF and one to UCF), we would cover the expenses. If they went out of state, they would pay the difference. All three made the right choice! 🙂
What are you currently doing to maintain/grow your net worth?
The last five years we have increased our retirement contribution over and above the 15% by the company.
We also have a backdoor Roth IRA for my wife.
Starting in 2024, I’ll create either a SEP IRA or another option after my conversation with our financial advisor and accountant so we can continue building our wealth.
Do you have a target net worth you are trying to attain?
My next goal is to achieve $3M dollars excluding the home value, with the ultimate goal of a combined $4.5M net worth.
We don’t need this level of wealth, it’s just a fun goal to work towards.
The larger the portfolio, the more we can share for charity.
I have a pension that I’ll start taking at age 65.
How old were you when you made your first million and have you had any significant behavior shifts since then?
Unfortunately I can’t remember, however we are thinking it was in our mid 30’s.
I do remember thinking it was cool to say we were a millionaire.
What personal habits and/or traits have you developed that have made you successful at growing your net worth?
We never carried debt outside of our home and auto loans/leases.
We always maintained a budget to keep us inline with living at or sometimes below our means.
We saved my bonuses that helped pay for private high schools and college for our children.
When making purchases, we always ask ourselves if this is a “want” or “need” purchase. We didn’t always stick with the “need” purchase, but we tried to always check ourselves.
What money mistakes have you made along the way that others can learn from?
I’ll take this responsibility over the years — I made some BAD investment decisions to grow our net worth.
For one, we have a good friend that is a hair stylist. She introduced this company that partnered with Paris Hilton to sell Hair Extensions using her name. They were selling territories to people to distribute the product. Our friend convinced me this would be a hit, so I purchased way too many territories. It was a bust!
The other area is trading individual stocks. The problem is getting emotional and not cutting your losses and moving on. I hate losing money!
What advice do you have for ESI Money readers on how to become wealthy?
Start investing when you begin working, invest 20% of your compensation, save your bonuses if you are fortunate to qualify, focus on increasing your compensation through promotions, bonuses or transferring to a new company.
Track your net worth regularly.
Either create a group of like minded investors and meet frequently, or join an outside group that already exists. The sooner you focus the faster you’ll achieve the goals you desire.
Have a partner that is on the same page, this will also help in accelerating your wealth.
Use tools to forecast your goals in the future and be consistent.
FUTURE
What are your plans for the future regarding lifestyle?
As I mentioned, I am retiring at YE 2023 at age 58, we could begin our retirement today and live a good life.
However I am fulfilling a dream of mine and starting a new business with my oldest son which is pretty cool. I’ll put in a couple of years to help jump start the business, then I’ll work when I desire and take more vacations and do more charitable activities.
Our lifestyle should not change when compared to having a salary and bonus.
What are your retirement plans?
In addition to the prior question, my wife and I will have a bucket list and begin experiencing each location.
Are there any issues in retirement that concern you? If so, how are you planning to address them?
I have no concerns in retirement.
We are fortunate to have a pension, built up a nice net worth and Social Security will only be icing on the cake.
I enjoy making money, whether it’s selling on eBay or doing a side gig. Therefore money has never been a concern.
MISCELLANEOUS
How did you learn about finances and at what age did it “click”?
Another great question.
From a very early age I believe in saving, working hard and being dependable. I had a penny save paper route when I was 9, I can’t believe the work I did for delivering a paper for once cent. At that time I lived in Boston, I was so dedicated that I made my mom drive me in their Cadillac to deliver the paper in snow.
I self taught myself finances, I didn’t have a family that discussed investments, rather they were hard working and my dad would work two jobs to support a good life.
Who inspired you to excel in life? Who are your heroes?
My hero is my dad.
He worked hard, coached me in baseball, and tried building side businesses with a carpet cleaning business and a craft store. He wanted to buy a Baskin-Robbins in the early days, however didn’t pull the trigger for reasons.
I attribute a lot of who I am because of my dad.
Do you have any favorite money books you like/recommend? If so, can you share with us your top three and why you like them?
I started reading the Money magazine for years when I started my career.
My top three books are:
- “Money Master The Game” by Tony Robbins
- “The Simple Path to Wealth” by JL Collins
- “Keys To A Successful Retirement” by Fritz Gilbert
I wish I had these books in my 20’s.
Do you give to charity? Why or why not? If you do, what percent of time/money do you give?
We have given to charity for years, however the percentage varied over the years.
As the kids finished college, we increased the percentage to the recommended levels.
In future years, we’ll be more involved and contribute our time in addition to our money.
Do you plan to leave an inheritance for your heirs (how do you plan to distribute your wealth at your death)? What are your reasons behind this plan?
We have a living trust, which I highly recommend for everyone. This makes it easier for family or heirs to collect and obtain your assets when time has come.
The majority of our money will go to the family with sufficient money to charitable organizations.
MI-388 says
“I will have full control on my profit sharing in January 2024, most likely I’ll put the money in a couple of index funds.
I do want to learn more about building a dividend portfolio. I am actually connecting with a member of MMM to learn about his success using a balance of $2M. Within 10 years he generated an additional $1M — nice ROI!”
Great interview. Congrats on your success and upcoming retirement/new business venture! Best of luck!
Food for thought: S&P 500 average rate of returns for the past decade is 12.68%. The Rule of 72 (72/12.68) gives a doubling time of about 6 years. So in theory, $2M invested into a S&P500 index fund 10 years ago would be worth about $6.6M today. And the index fund is more tax efficient than a dividend portfolio. This is “back of the napkin math” and I am by no means a financial professional. Interested to hear other’s thoughts.
Sam says
I was thinking the same. The past decade has had very good returns for passive investments. So, the ROI of 1M is just average.
Financial Fives says
Overall a very well-lived life, with so much accomplished before even the age of 60! The fact that you had time to coach, parent, maintain a household and work a full time job while looking for other ways to save money means impressive scheduling or little personal time. Valid points on advice to other readers, thanks for affirming that starting sooner and jumping to a company that values you will pay off!
Ace says
Now in mid-2024, I assume you are retired and the business is up and running. Congratulations, and can we have an update?
Maverick says
Curious…what degree did each child achieve? Did they feel their degrees were helpful in their careers so far?