Through the years, I have interviewed hundreds of millionaires with the goal of learning from their experiences and knowledge.
I’ve published these as Millionaire Interviews, featuring my specific questions and their responses.
After a few hundred interviews, I realized that there was phenomenal wisdom in several of the questions I asked, especially when the responses from different interviewees are read one after another.
I’ve decided to publish these here on ESI Money in my Millionaire Wisdom series.
Note, not every millionaire answered every question and I did change around questions from time to time, that’s why every millionaire isn’t listed below.
Today we continue the series (see part 1 here to start the series) with millionaires addressing the following question:
What advice do you have for ESI Money readers on how to become wealthy?
Here are their responses…
Educate yourself by reading blogs like this one. Decide what you really want to spend your money on and consider ‘financial freedom’ as something you can purchase.
You can buy your freedom just like you can buy a new car. Do you really want that new car, boat, whatever, or would you rather delay those purchases and buy your freedom first?
I think that’s a question everyone should ask themselves on a regular basis. Consistent investment in the stock market is a time-tested way of becoming wealthy.
Pay yourself first and automate your savings and investments. Don’t fall for get rich quick schemes.
Work on your money mindset, have an investment statement, and stick with it. Having a high income certainly helps but it’s not absolutely necessary (I was convinced of this by reading JL Collins’ most recent book, ‘Pathfinders’).
Be mindful about spending. Spend where it will give you value.
Do not keep up those stupid expenses that truly mean nothing to you. Do not spend to impress.
Understand what it is that you actually need right now. If it’s more than what you can afford, figure out a way to either make more money or go without something.
Put the rest into trusted investments (index funds if you don’t know what you’re doing, or get more sophisticated if you’re going to give the subject the attention it’s due). If at all possible, start your career maxing out at least one retirement account from the beginning (that way you’ll never miss the money).
Be good at whatever job you take. Try to pick an industry where your company is quite profitable.
Be nice to everyone because you never know who will be your boss someday. Try to get exposure or relationships at work with the people who make the decisions or control the money.
Most importantly pick the right partner.
No new tricks or tips that have not been outlined above. It is a boring formula with tried and true success. Try to earn as much as you can in your field, save 10/20/30% if you can, and invest in index and mutual funds for the decades ahead.
This will be a guarantee to grow your bank account and net worth measuring stick. Just remember to enjoy your life along the way and spoil yourself and others.
This is something I am not very good at, and have to work on being more generous and less tight with our budget.
Also, surround yourself with like-minded individuals and mentors. Befriend the people who are leaders in your field or who are earning the good incomes.
There are a lot of good habits and networking opportunities that you can yield.
I may sound like a broken record, but earn, save, and invest as much and as early as you can. They are the Holy Trinity of wealth-building.
Don’t waste your time—enjoy life, but don’t splurge on lifestyle too soon. You can drive a budget-friendly car when you’re 25.
Can you live in a more affordable place? Plan where you want to be in the future and stick to that roadmap.
The real magic lies in knowing why you want to be wealthy. That’s your ultimate motivator.
For me, it’s all about ensuring my family’s comfort, securing a blissful retirement for my wife and me, and giving my daughter a stellar start in life.
I can’t say it any better than this website – earn, save, invest.
Identify what your purpose is for becoming wealthy. Create a goal. Stay consistent.
Be flexible, knowing that there will be many ups and downs. You can’t become wealthy without taking some risks and ensuring that you save more than you spend.
Every year you can continue to live like a college student and keep your expenses low after you get your first job in your 20s will set you up for financial success the rest of your life. Couple that with the compound interest you can get from low-cost index funds, and your net worth will grow exponentially.
And you also don’t have to be perfect. In my case, I’ve made countless big and small money mistakes, and we’re still on track to be multimillionaires before we turn 40.
I understand we are all under different circumstances, but if you’re reading this blog and have sound ESI money habits, it’s almost a guarantee to be financially successful.
Lastly, I just hope ESI readers pause for a moment and realize how fortunate we all are…
The fact that we are reading a blog like this is a natural selection that we are financially conscious, and we will all be financially independent sooner or later. It’s never been easier to get personal finance (or any other) information online if you know what to look for.
I’m guessing most readers are living in the US or other developed countries which are incredibly wealthy. It’s never been a better time to make money online and/or to work from home.
I, too, have to remind myself how lucky I am.
I cannot say that I am in a position to provide advice to this esteemed group of folks as I have learned so much from you all for the past several years — and continue to do so each day that I read John’s website.
The only piece of advice that I have is to continue reading the articles and interviews on this website, and hope that John continues posting for many more years!
I believe the best advice is to really utilize all ESI aspects to accumulate your wealth. Each on their own really will not bring wealth as if you have minimal earnings you will struggle to find money to invest.
You can make a solid income yet if you struggle with saving you again will find it very difficult to amass a lot of wealth. Each part of ESI is very vital in accumulating wealth and the sooner you start building health earning, savings, and investing habits the better off you will be.
Create goals and actively monitor your progress toward them. Save & invest – rinse & repeat.
Even if you are not a high earner, if you save & invest 10-20% of your income from the very beginning, and you live within your means, you will have enough to retire at the same or better lifestyle as you’ve had during your career.
This is huge. You may not be in the top xx% of wealth, but the ability to choose to not work when you are older is a bigger deal than most 20-40-year-olds realize.
Get into a sector where there is money, where you are paid well. Work to gain knowledge, gain more experience, and with time your earnings will increase.
Save and invest consistently throughout this time. Start now! Read, learn, and research about money and investment.
Do not compare your situation with others, income, and way of living. Comparing is only going to make you miserable and do things irrationally.
Every person has unique circumstances, what works for others might not work for you. It is important to have your goal/target and work for it in whatever way it works for you.
Making money is a life skill—go out and learn it, get good at it, but don’t let it control you. 💪
Summer of 2023, I had a small reunion with my college roommates in Palais de Longchamp, France. It got me thinking about how different our paths have been.
One roommate immigrated to Spain, but now works in the UK. Another moved to Germany, worked hard to learn the language, earned a degree, and just bought her first home with her husband.
Then, there’s the one who stayed in China after a year-long assignment in Kenya. None of them were financially free, or even close to it. But I was.
Looking at their journeys, I realized how much living and working in the U.S. has helped me build wealth. Here, it’s relatively easy to earn a degree and start building homeownership— especially if you’re in a smaller city or willing to live in the suburbs.
Salaries in the U.S. are often higher than in Europe for people with similar skills, and our stock market has outperformed much of the world in the last decade.
Yes, the U.S. also comes with higher economic disparity compared to other developed countries, and many of us have to pay for things like education, healthcare, long-term care, and much of our retirement.
But the longer I work in the industry, the more I see the U.S. as the “Wild West.” There are endless opportunities for the informed, skilled, and brave, yet most people never achieve financial freedom.
That’s why I believe financial education, and more importantly, experiential learning, are key to economic empowerment. I’m passionate about inspiring, educating, and supporting others to take control of their financial futures.
The U.S. offers a great environment, and we shouldn’t waste it. Each moment is an opportunity to make a difference, build wealth, and live our best lives!
I hope our story serves as encouragement to others with modest incomes. It is possible to achieve wealth over the long term by saving and investing early in life.
There is a tradeoff between working in a public sector vs a private sector job. The private sector job pays more but entails a higher risk of burnout, layoffs, and unemployment.
A public sector job pays less but has stability and benefits like defined benefit pension plans. To receive the pension, one usually must work for 20 to 30 years for a government agency. This is a less exciting path to wealth but Dad and I proved it can work.
I listened to a podcast recently where a father of several children encouraged them to save money for a down payment on a rental property instead of a car. He wanted their first major purchase to be an appreciating asset versus a depreciating one.
I love this kind of thinking!
Building wealth is an exercise in patience. My father (who passed recently at age 96) became a millionaire after he retired.
He turned modest savings, a retirement settlement, and a defined benefit pension into over two million dollars through diligent research and regular investing. This is contrary to our culture who want hacks, tips, and tricks to become instant millionaires.
Most millionaires do not achieve wealth instantly, but that’s what we want. Dad was still reinvesting his dividends at age 96, and he lived off his pension, social security, and RMDs.
Start early and stick to the principles. The earlier you establish good habits, the easier it is to maintain them.
I really didn’t figure this out until I was in my late 30s/early 40s. If I’d known in my 20s what I know now, I’d be much wealthier — not that I’m complaining.
With this in mind, I taught both my kids about finance at a young age and can see that it’s clicking. Both work summer jobs and are the only ones in their friend group with Roth IRAs.
I think more people should start small businesses. The barrier is often the loss of income while you get the company started.
Over time I believe you can create larger wealth by running a business. Owning/starting a small business is not for everyone.
As a business owner, purchase the building you are in if you can. I know so many companies in my industry that shut down or filed bankruptcy after covid that would have fared way better if they personally owned the building they occupied.
There are a lot of wealth-building mechanisms out there. Real estate, entrepreneurship, investing, W-2 salary/bonus, etc.
Figure out where you’re most comfortable, where you thrive, where you can be passionate, and spend untold amounts of time dedicated to your mission. Be prepared to grind, to work hard, to sacrifice.
Pay attention to the details. Prepare. Plan. Think long-term.
Yes, there’s nearly always some luck involved, but as the saying goes, luck happens when preparation meets opportunity.
And don’t forget there are two sides to the equation: in and out. What also worked for me was watching every dollar I spent, tracking how/where/when/why I was spending money, and adjusting habits as needed to help meet goals.
It also helps tremendously that I enjoy spending a lot of time pouring over the data and building spreadsheets to extract insights into our income, spending, investing, and overall financial well-being.
I don’t have any novel advice. I think that you should not be afraid of a dip in your income.
If you make intentional choices, you will make adjustments to your spending, and you will still make progress. I know that if I make a change, it will not derail my plans completely.
Definitely find a partner who has the same overarching goals and interests. My husband is less interested in “retiring early” because he likes his job.
But we’ve definitely discussed that being financially independent is never a bad goal to have and that no one is immune to job loss or bumps along the way.
I guess I’ll just reemphasize things I’ve already said. Focus on your earning potential.
Do what others won’t so you stand out. Be a people person.
Invest in others whether you see an immediate benefit to you or not. As your income grows, do not inflate your lifestyle at the same rate.
You can certainly enjoy the benefits of your efforts, but think more about the future you than the present you. I suspect folks that read the ESI blog have already drank that Kool-Aid.
Make a plan and stick to it. I mentioned earlier that our biggest wins came from perseverance and patience in sticking to the plan.
Make intelligent trade-offs and stay balanced. In hindsight, I may have been too fixated on our financial progress and lost out on some of life’s joy by trying to save money but now I try to spend more mindfully in our journey through life.
What’s right for us may or may not work for you. You can factually analyze most of the financial aspects of retirement planning but in the end, an enjoyable (and hopefully early) retirement is about having the freedom to do what you want without worrying if you have enough money.
How much is enough is a state of mind as much as it is an actual net worth, cash flow stream, and set of risk probabilities. How you view different factors of risk, what lifestyle you want and how much work and sacrifice you’re willing to put in to achieve a certain FIRE lifestyle are all highly personal.
It’s more than the risk of running out of money. It’s also the risk of working too long or hard and missing out on life’s joys.
You need to figure out what you want balanced against the sacrifices you are willing to make that best fit your own unique self.
Good personal finance blog sites are the best sources of information for me. I think blogs are more timely than books. Also, I’m not a book reader.
I think just about anyone can find a few bloggers that are in similar situations to them such that their advice and experiences are relevant and meaningful.
Work hard in a field with strong income potential. Save early and often.
Don’t get caught up in influencer “must-dos”. Set a strategy that works for you and your family’s goals and stick to it.
Focus more on FI and less on RE. This will keep your attention more on the things you can control (savings rate, spending, job performance) and less on the things you can’t (market downturns, corporate reductions in force).
The journey is the most important part.
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.
There are no secret skills needed. Starting early, investing regularly, and investing in every market climate will eventually get you there.
As mentioned earlier, don’t try to time the market. Keep funds in the stock market, even and especially during the bad times when everyone else throws in the towel.
There will always be people who achieve financial independence faster and more efficiently, through picking the right individual stocks or starting the right business at the right time. I also acknowledge that real estate investing can accelerate the path to financial riches.
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Lots of good stuff, huh?
Stay tuned, we’ll be adding to this series in upcoming future posts.
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