Millionaire Interview 448

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 June.

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 are both 30 years old.

We’ve been married for almost three years and have been together for nearly 15.

Time really flies when you’re having fun!

Do you have kids/family (if so, how old are they)?

No kids yet, but we hope to start a family in the next few years.

What area of the country do you live in (and urban or rural)?

We live in a major city in the Northeast.

What is your current net worth?

Currently around $1.65 million.

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?

Our net worth is composed of:

• Cash: $50K
• 401(k)s: $670K
• Roth IRAs: $90K
• Brokerage accounts: $730K
• HSAs: $30K
• Crypto: $35K
• RSUs: $50K

We’re currently debt-free and pay off our credit cards in full each month. We do not yet own any real estate.

EARN

What is your job?

I work in finance at a large bank.

My wife works as a recruiter at a law firm.

What is your annual income?

My total compensation (base + bonus) is $400K, and my wife earns $150K.

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?

I’ve been with the same company since graduating from undergrad, consistently moving up through promotions and expanded responsibilities. My starting total comp was $85K, and over time it progressed as follows:

$145K → $155K → $175K → $290K → $300K → $325K → $375K

Each jump was tied to promotions, stronger performance, and a more significant bonus component. I’m currently happy in my role, although I recognize that switching firms could bring a compensation bump.

That said, as the saying goes, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

My wife started at around $55K, and through hard work and a few strategic job moves, increased her comp to $125K within three years. She’s remained in the $150K range in recent years and will start to see some further upside in the next few years.

What tips do you have for others who want to grow their career-related income?

• Find strong mentors and learn from their habits and approach.
• Make your boss look good — be someone they can rely on to get things done with high quality and minimal supervision.
• Volunteer for stretch assignments — those “above and beyond” moments can be career-defining.
• Under-promise and over-deliver.
• Time management and attention to detail are critical. The ability to produce quality work efficiently makes you stand out.

What’s your work-life balance look like?

It has improved significantly over time. In the early years, I often worked 60 to 80 hours a week.

Today, I average closer to 55 hours, with the occasional late night when deals heat up. I also travel fairly often for client meetings. My wife works around 50 hours a week as well.

That said, I take every single vacation day. My wife and I love to travel, and I make it a point to ensure I’ve earned the right to enjoy life by staying on top of things throughout the year.

Do you have any sources of income besides your career?

Not currently, but we’ve been seriously exploring rental property investing. I’ve done a fair amount of research and would love to learn more from others in the MMM community who’ve successfully taken that leap.

Our dividends are all reinvested, so we don’t currently view them as spendable income.

SAVE

What is your annual spending?

Last year, we spent around $150K, which was our highest annual spend to date. Historically, we’ve kept our spending relatively low compared to our income and have worked hard to avoid lifestyle creep.

One of our guiding principles is to “invest until it hurts.” My wife jokes that we always feel broke because our money is constantly flowing out of our checking accounts and into investments.

What are the main categories this spending breaks into?

• Housing & Utilities: $50K
• Travel: $30K
• Groceries, Dining & Drinks: $30K
• Amazon/Household Supplies: $5K
• Health & Wellness: $8K
• Clothing: $10K
• Gifts & Miscellaneous: $15K

Do you have a budget? If so, how do you implement it?

We don’t follow a formal budget. Fortunately, we’ve always been aligned when it comes to spending and investing.

Neither of us needs a large or fancy living space, and we’ve intentionally kept our housing costs low — never exceeding 10% of our gross income, which has allowed us to save aggressively.

We focus our discretionary spending on experiences, especially dining with friends and travel. I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to credit card and travel rewards, so we typically find great value when booking trips.

We love researching destinations and exploring like locals.

Our saving and investing strategy is automated — we max out our 401(k)s, HSAs, and backdoor Roths annually and contribute heavily to our brokerage account. Because saving is built into our system, we always know that a large portion of our income is being invested before we ever think about spending.

What percentage of your gross income do you save, and how has that changed over time?

We’ve consistently saved 40%+ of our gross income, sometimes more, depending on bonuses or other income changes. This includes maxing our retirement accounts (401(k)s, HSAs, Roth IRAs) and investing the rest into our brokerage.

As our income has grown, we’ve been able to increase both our savings rate and discretionary spending without compromising either. We’re aware that starting a family will bring new financial responsibilities, but our goal is to maintain a strong savings mindset through that transition.

What’s your best tip for saving (accumulating) money?

I’ll echo a common piece of advice in the ESI community: pay yourself first. Automate your savings and investments so the money never hits your checking account — it makes a huge psychological difference.

If you never “see” the money, you won’t miss it.

Another principle we follow is to “save until it hurts.” Prioritize investing during your peak earning years, especially when your responsibilities are lower.

And while saving is important, it’s also okay to enjoy the fruits of your labor — we’ve always believed in balancing aggressive saving with meaningful experiences like travel and time with loved ones.

In our early careers, we scaled back on international travel to focus on saving, but as our incomes grew, we expanded that budget without compromising our long-term goals. Each of the ESI pillars are interconnected, and our strategy has always been to let income growth fuel both savings and quality of life.

What’s your best tip for spending less money?

• We’re not into designer fashion — we try to avoid high-cost clothing that loses relevance quickly. If it brings you joy, set a modest limit (like one item every month or two).
• Use travel rewards strategically. We love tools like PointsYeah, which help optimize credit card points for international travel.
• Host friends for dinner instead of going out. A home-cooked meal often tastes better, and you can enjoy higher-quality wine and cocktails at a fraction of the cost.

What is your favorite thing to spend money on/your “secret” splurge?

Not much of a secret — travel is our biggest splurge. After our honeymoon, we caught the international travel bug. Our goal is to visit at least two new countries each year.

We also love quick getaways with friends and family, even if just for a weekend.

When we travel, we don’t skimp on accommodations, but we do hunt for the best deals. Beyond travel, hiking and skiing are two of our favorite hobbies, and we’re always looking to incorporate them into our trips.

I also love to buy nice wine and drink it on special occasions. A nice bottle in the $75-$150 range. Drinking wine with friends and family is the best way to drink it.

Counterintuitive to the above wine comment, but we have no spending limits when it comes to health. We are willing to spend whatever it takes to ensure we are eating healthy and getting in workouts 3-4 times a week.

INVEST

What is your investment philosophy/plan?

Set it and forget it. Our core strategy is built around broad-market, low-cost index funds.

In our brokerage and Roth IRA accounts, we primarily invest in VTSAX and VFIAX. For our 401(k)s, we take a diversified approach with 33% allocated to each of a large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap fund—all of which are low-cost index options with fees no higher than 0.04%.

Automation is the backbone of our investment strategy. We invest $2,300 weekly into our brokerage accounts through automated transfers, in addition to maxing out our 401(k)s, HSAs, and an employee stock purchase plan (ESPP).

We like the idea of removing emotion from the process—if we never “see” the money, we’re never tempted to spend it.

We do have a small portion of speculative investments—primarily ETH (Ethereum)—and occasional single stock positions. But these total less than 5% of our net worth. The vast majority is long-term, boring, and effective.

What has been your best investment?

Our best investment was sticking to our plan and continuing to buy through the COVID crash. A lot of people tried to time the market, but we kept dollar-cost averaging like nothing happened.

That discipline paid off significantly as the market rebounded.

Our ESPP shares during that period more than doubled within a year, and I sold some for over 100% gains. A few individual stocks also performed well—$5K–$10K wins—but nothing life-changing.

That said, our best investment remains our ongoing, consistent contributions to VTSAX and VFIAX. We plan to hold those funds until retirement.

Since we’re targeting early retirement, our brokerage account will help bridge the gap until we can access our 401(k)s penalty-free. We may explore 72(t) distributions, but it’s not in the immediate plan.

Our current retirement goal is age 45, but we’re realistic—life is unpredictable, so we’ll stay the course and adapt as needed.

What has been your worst investment?

I got caught up in the Cathie Wood/ARK hype and made a few bad calls on speculative tech and biotech names. I also took some positions in green energy ETFs that underperformed.

None of the losses were catastrophic—probably a total loss of around $15K, with some still unrealized.

Those losses were a good reminder of the value of simplicity and discipline. They reinforced that low-cost index funds are the best path for long-term success.

Losing money—especially early on—is a powerful (and sometimes necessary) lesson in staying the course.

What’s been your overall return?

Roughly 10–12% annualized across the portfolio. It’s difficult to pin down an exact figure because of regular dollar-cost averaging and the lack of solid return reporting in some retirement platforms.

That said, we’re likely tracking fairly close to the historical S&P 500 averages.

How often do you monitor or review your portfolio?

Every day—though mostly out of curiosity, not to make changes. I’m in the financial world and read the Wall Street Journal daily, so I naturally stay plugged into the markets.

Even though everything is automated and I’m not making trading decisions, I like staying informed.

That said, when the market’s taking a beating, I’ll purposely avoid checking net worth updates to keep my emotions in check.

Long-term, I know the plan works, so there’s no need to react to day-to-day noise.

NET WORTH

How did you accumulate your net worth?

My wife and I both grew up in middle-class families. Our parents worked incredibly hard and gave us amazing upbringings.

Although they lived mostly paycheck to paycheck, they made sacrifices that allowed us to attend excellent undergraduate schools. We were fortunate to graduate with a combined total of only ~$20K in student loans.

We’ve been together since high school and moved in together right after college, both with full-time job offers. From day one, our two main financial goals were to max out our 401(k)s and aggressively pay off our student loans—which we did within two years.

Once our debts were paid, we turned our focus toward building after-tax investments.

Our net worth has been built entirely through income and disciplined saving—we haven’t inherited anything. That said, starting with minimal debt and full-time jobs out of college did feel like we hit the jackpot.

We both worked hard through school, held internships every summer, and were committed to being financially self-sufficient the moment we graduated.

What would you say is your greatest strength in the ESI wealth-building model (Earn, Save, or Invest)?

It’s tough to pick just one, as Earn, Save, and Invest all work together. But if I had to choose, I’d say Earn has been the most impactful.

My wife and I were fortunate to grow our income quickly while still in our twenties. That income enabled us to pay down debt early and then focus on saving and investing.

But income alone doesn’t build wealth—you have to avoid lifestyle creep. That’s where our discipline around saving and investing came into play.

We’ve done a good job of keeping our lifestyle relatively stable even as our income has grown. This allowed us to significantly increase our savings rate over time.

Ultimately, keeping expenses low supercharges both your ability to save and your ability to invest—and we’ve leaned heavily into that philosophy.

What road bumps did you face on your path to becoming a millionaire?

Knock on wood, we haven’t had any major setbacks. One missed opportunity was not investing more heavily during the 2020–2021 bull run.

We held a significant cash reserve to fully pay for our wedding. But that’s a choice we’d make again—no regrets. It was absolutely worth it.

What are you doing now to maintain or grow your net worth?

We’re staying the course and increasing our annual investments. This year, we’re on track to invest $225K—and we plan to maintain or increase that figure in the years ahead, depending on how our compensation evolves.

We also keep our lifestyle modest. Our housing costs are around 10% of our income, and we avoid lifestyle inflation.

Not keeping up with the Joneses has been a huge contributor to our continued financial growth.

Do you have a target net worth you’re aiming for?

We’re currently targeting $7.5 million to enable early retirement and support our planned annual spending. That figure accounts for future family expenses, especially the cost of raising and putting kids through college.

Post-college, we estimate our spending could drop well below the $300K annually, but the $7.5M gives us peace of mind and flexibility.

How old were you when you hit your first million, and did anything change after that?

We were both 28—just shy of 29—when we hit our first million. Outside of occasionally telling Alexa to play A Milli by Lil Wayne to annoy my wife, there haven’t been any major behavior shifts.

We’ve stayed the course with aggressive investing and haven’t scaled back.

That milestone did bring a sense of peace—less stress around bills, budgeting, or financial emergencies. If one of us were to lose our job, we’d be okay.

We’d simply scale back discretionary spending.

When it comes to travel, for example, we feel comfortable booking what we want, but our preferences naturally keep spending in check.

We don’t care for first class, prefer Airbnb over five-star hotels, and find joy in simpler experiences. Our taste acts as a built-in governor on lifestyle inflation.

What personal habits or traits have helped you grow your net worth?

One of the biggest habits has been “investing until it hurts.” We’ve never been into designer clothes or luxury products, so we naturally save a lot on lifestyle expenses.

That hasn’t changed, even as our income has grown.

We’re fortunate to be aligned on values and were both raised in families that modeled smart money habits. Sticking to our roots—prioritizing saving and living below our means—has helped us stay disciplined and consistent.

We also focus on paying ourselves first, which helps us avoid the trap of letting lifestyle creep chip away at our savings rate.

Travel has shaped our perspective too. Seeing how people live outside the U.S. has deepened our appreciation for financial freedom.

Being able to take long trips abroad—or even retire early to travel—is a huge motivator. Just as importantly, we want to build a strong financial foundation for our future family.

What money mistakes have you made—and what would you do differently?

One mistake was waiting to invest, thinking I could “time the market.” At one point, we had cash just sitting in our accounts while I waited for the “right time” to jump in. That’s a losing game.

I would also say my years of 24-26 were mostly spent saving up for an engagement ring and then our wedding. Although this wasn’t the best financial decision, it was an excellent life decision to ensure my now wife was happy. 🙂 After dealing with me for 11 years she deserved a nice ring!

I highly recommend starting as early as possible, and automating your investments—even if it’s just $10, $20, or $50 a week. If you’re hesitant, dollar-cost average.

The most important thing is not sitting on the sidelines.

Compounding may feel slow at first, but over time, it snowballs. I’ve seen friends put off investing for years, stuck in analysis paralysis.

My advice: take the leap, stay consistent, and think long-term. You’ll be amazed at what time can do.

FUTURE

What are your plans for the future regarding lifestyle?

We don’t have any immediate plans to stop working—we’re still relatively young and focused on growing our gross income and accelerating our investment pace. The long-term goal is to reach early retirement by age 45.

We both believe there’s still meaningful upside to our earning potential and haven’t yet hit our peak income years, so we’re making the most of this phase while keeping lifestyle inflation in check.

We also plan to have kids in the near future. As our income grows, we expect it to cover the additional expenses of raising a family without derailing our savings rate.

At some point, we’ll likely move to the suburbs, though renting vs. buying remains an open question. We’re in a VHCOL area, and for now, renting continues to make more financial sense.

Fortunately, we have a few years before needing to make that decision, and we’ll continue monitoring the real estate market and interest rate environment.

One idea we revisit often is purchasing land and building a custom home—something we could enjoy ourselves but also rent as a short-term vacation property. We haven’t taken the leap yet, but it’s on our radar, and we’ve already done a good amount of research.

What are your retirement plans—financially and lifestyle-wise?

Financially, our current goal is to accumulate $5 million in after-tax investments and $2.5 million in retirement accounts by the time we’re 45. The after-tax accounts would be used to bridge the gap between early retirement and age-based access to our 401(k)s, with the retirement accounts continuing to compound untouched in the background.

I tend to take a more aggressive stance with asset allocation. I plan to keep ~90% of our portfolio in the S&P 500, even in early retirement.

We know markets can fluctuate, but our plan assumes conservative returns and $5 million should be more than sufficient to cover the ~14-year gap before traditional retirement kicks in. Even modest growth on $2.5 million over that period should set us up very comfortably for traditional retirement.

Lifestyle-wise, we hope to spend a lot of time with our kids—coaching their sports teams, going to their games, and being actively involved in whatever they’re passionate about. We love staying active, so hiking, skiing, snowboarding, and working out will remain a regular part of our lives.

One of our biggest retirement dreams is to take extended trips abroad, staying in one city or town for a month at a time to truly experience the culture.

Are there any retirement concerns on your radar? How are you planning to address them?

Nothing major, but two key areas we’re preparing for are:

• College costs – We plan to open and contribute to 529 plans once our kids are born. With a long enough runway and regular contributions, we should be able to build a sizable education fund.
• Healthcare – We’ve built a buffer into our projected annual retirement expenses to account for private insurance or out-of-pocket costs. We also invest every dollar contributed to our HSA and don’t plan to touch that money until retirement.

That will serve as a secondary healthcare nest egg.

MISCELLANEOUS

How did you learn about finances and when did it “click”?

I’ve been excited about money and saving for as long as I can remember. It really started to click during my senior year of high school and into college—I was watching a lot of YouTube videos on personal finance and started realizing that earning money is only part of the equation.

The real game-changer is learning how to save and invest to make your money work for you.

My parents were a huge help. They were always open about finances, especially as I was finishing high school.

They taught me the importance of investing in your 401(k) early and putting leftover money to work, even though those weren’t lessons they grew up with themselves. I’m extremely fortunate to have had that early guidance—it gave me a head start and helped me unlock the power of compound interest.

I also pursued a degree in Finance and Accounting because I was genuinely interested in the subject. Ironically, personal finance isn’t covered in school, which I think is a massive miss.

It’s wild that people can graduate with six figures in student debt and still not know how to budget, invest, or manage credit. I was lucky enough to be curious enough to learn on my own—but I know many people don’t, and they struggle because of it. Even in the finance industry, it’s surprising how many professionals don’t understand personal finance at a foundational level.

Who inspired you to excel in life? Who are your heroes?

Definitely my parents. Like a lot of people, I didn’t fully appreciate the sacrifices they made until I was older.

They prioritized our education, encouraged hard work, and always pushed us to surround ourselves with good people and take on challenges. They set me up for success in school and in life.

They also made it possible for me to attend a private college with a top business program, and I graduated with just $11.5K in student loans—something I’m thankful for every single day. Now that we’re in a position to do so, one of the things that brings us the most joy is giving back to them—through nice dinners, thoughtful gifts, or family vacations.

It’s incredibly rewarding to see them enjoying retirement and traveling the world after all the hard work they put in over the years.

Top 3 money-related books you’d recommend—and why?

• I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi: A fantastic introduction to personal finance—clear, approachable, and actionable. I read it at 25 as a refresher and plan to have my future kids read it. It’s foundational and great for anyone just getting started.
• The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins: This book is the Boglehead bible. It laid out the case for low-cost index fund investing in a way that just clicked. I fully subscribe to the “set it and forget it” strategy, and this book was a big reason why.
• Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss: While not a personal finance book per se, it’s an incredible resource for learning how to negotiate—which is key for maximizing your earning potential. Whether it’s negotiating a raise or a big purchase, this book builds confidence and skill.

Do you give to charity?

Yes—we donate to fundraisers that friends organize and frequently give away clothes and items we no longer need. That said, charitable giving is an area we want to grow into more intentionally.

As we continue to build wealth, we hope to make philanthropy a more meaningful part of our financial plan.

Do you plan to leave an inheritance? How do you think about distributing wealth?

It’s not top of mind just yet—we don’t have kids at the moment—but we absolutely plan to leave our children an inheritance and help support their education. Both of our families contributed significantly to our college educations, and we’d love to carry that tradition forward.

Ideally, we’d also be in a position to help fund our grandkids’ education one day too. We haven’t done much estate planning yet, but it’s something we’ll tackle as our family and finances continue to grow.