Personal Finance

I Want To Be A Millionaire In 5 Years?

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  • Mar 6th, 2006 4:54 pm
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Deal Fanatic
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Oct 24, 2004
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I Want To Be A Millionaire In 5 Years?

I'm not one who needs money to be happy as I have lived very frugally my entire life, but I would like to have money in order to do the things I love (travel, help my family, etc...).

I'm 26, a UofT graduate (Italian/History) and living in downtown Toronto.
With the exception of having a mortgage, in another 3 months I will not have any debts/loans whatsoever.

I'll be as blunt as I can be: I want to make my first $1-million by the time I'm 30 years of age.

I'm not sure if that is an unrealistic goal, but I've always been one with high hopes.

The problem here is that I have NO idea where to start!
I'm not interested in pyramid schemes, nor do I want a get-rich-quick route. I'd like something long-term and prosperous.

Can anyone give me any advice or what I can focus on?

Much appreciated,
Marco
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Dec 4, 2004
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newt_101 wrote:Can anyone give me any advice or what I can focus on?

Unless you are making $250000 a year at your job, illegal drugs is your best bet.
Deal Addict
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Mar 27, 2003
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Go with drugs or 1 big bank heist.

You can google it.
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Deal Fanatic
Feb 1, 2006
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Muskoka
You could do it if you had $500,000 now, and managed to earn a fantastic 20% rate of return for the next four years. How much do you have now?
Deal Fanatic
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Jul 27, 2004
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have you looked into gameshows?
Back for a limited engagement.
Deal Addict
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Sep 30, 2003
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how much do you have saved and what's your risk tolerance?
do you want 1mil in cash or assessts?
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Deal Fanatic
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Nov 15, 2005
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Vancouver
Marco it's hopeless for you brother.

You're 26 and you want to be a millionaire by the time you're 30, but your thread title says you want to be a millionaire in 5years.

30yrs-26yrs=4yrs :confused:

Continuing further you say:
newt_101 wrote:I'm not one who needs money to be happy as I have lived very frugally my entire life
If you live frugally, then why do you want to be a millionaire? Just live frugally and do whatever you want to do.. ie) travel, help your family..etc.
Sr. Member
Feb 2, 2003
843 posts
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Well its tough for anyone to save $1mill in 5 years. Even a business will take a while to generate that kind of cash. My recommendation is to set a more realistic goal of say $300,000, and work towards that. Assuming you are making 100K now with a frugal lifestyle decent investments you should reach those goals.

Good Luck
Deal Fanatic
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Nov 15, 2005
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Extremely rough numbers:

$100k - $40k (taxes, deductions, pensions..etc) - $25k (living expenses)

Leaves you with say, $35k/yr to invest.

With moderately safe investing, does it seem realistic that $35k/yr x 5yrs would grow into $1million?

To make that $1 million you're going to have go outside the conventional box, and outside the box is risky. So you can risk and either achieve the $1million in 5years or possibly achieve bankruptcy in 5years.
Deal Expert
Aug 2, 2001
18945 posts
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The only way is through illegal activity or an amazing business idea.

Don't let anyone tell you it's impossible - there are many, many people who have their first million by 25 even through successful businesses and hard work.
Deal Addict
Mar 22, 2005
2008 posts
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Watch The Apprentice and see how those candidates became successful. Essentially, they all involve running your own business or working at a job that has no salary ceiling (such as commission based work). If you work on a salary for someone else, you have very little chance of making $1 million in 4-5 years unless you're an Ivy league business grad with connections.

One of your best shots is to develop real estate, perhaps in Pemberton, B.C. Get some capital investment and develop a recreational condo project.
Member
Jan 15, 2004
462 posts
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Calgary
Marco,
First of all I just want to say that I like your way of thinking. It's nice to see people who set goals and then strive to achieve them.

Unfortuntaly, as others have mentioned, it's not going to be an easy thing to do.

If it were me, I would take out a Home Equity Line of Credit on your house (you said you had a mortgage).

Lets say you can get out $100,000 out of your house.

I would then fly to Las Vegas, and put everything you own on "Red" on the Roulette tables. If you win....you just doubled your money. I would then put it on "Red" again and if you win, you just doubled again!!!. I would then switch things up a bit on put some money on "Black"........ BAM!! if you won that one you should now have $800,000. Now here is where it gets tricky. You said you like to be frugal.......so you can just take that 800 grand and be happy, or go for the 1.6 million payout.

Forget about selling drugs and wasting time with opening up a business. You can literally make your million dollars in less than 10 minutes if you use my method.
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Nov 15, 2005
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pacman wrote:I would then fly to Las Vegas, and put everything you own on "Red" on the Roulette tables. If you win....you just doubled your money.I would then put it on "Red" again and if you win, you just doubled again!!!.I would then switch things up a bit on put some money on "Black"........ BAM!! if you won that one you should now have $800,000.
No, he would actually have $700,000.

But that would still be enough to come home and drop in secure investments for 5years to hit the $1Million. :D
Member
Feb 20, 2006
423 posts
buy some run down house and decorate it to the 9's then flip it, get another house do the same until you have your mill

start out with a really cheap one and make a little then gradually as you get more money invest in better properties.

this is the best way to make money without too much risk, the worst that can happen is you spend more on the renovations than you get back after the flip.
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Nov 15, 2005
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Princess Buttercup wrote:buy some run down house and decorate it to the 9's then flip it, get another house do the same until you have your mill

start out with a really cheap one and make a little then gradually as you get more money invest in better properties.

this is the best way to make money without too much risk, the worst that can happen is you spend more on the renovations than you get back after the flip.
You mean that *WAS* a great way to make money.

Once something has been around long enough that they make TV shows about it, it's time to jump onto the next goldrush idea.

The flipping business is flopping.
Deal Guru
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Sep 14, 2003
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Georgetown
Ok, I'll be the voice from left field:

You mentioned that you want to be a millionaire by the time you reach 30. Why? You said that you live a frugal lifestyle. You're 26, you've got very little debt, and you're no doubt working in a very well paying job in order to accomplish such a thing.

Why not focus less on trying to hit a numeric goal, and try focusing on something more esoteric, like enjoying life (ie. taking some trips, buying some cars, etc).

I figure, there's enough people on this forum that can tell you how to get more money - I wanted to suggest that just having $1 Million might not make you "rich" necessarily.
4chan melts your brain.
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Aug 24, 2004
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newt_101 wrote:I'm 26, a UofT graduate (Italian/History)
That has already negated your chances of becoming ultra rich in life.

Go back to school and study something that would cause you to be beneficial to society... like a doctor.

Or make your goal feasible.

Like "I want to make 100k/yr on my own by the time I am 35." now that is feasible!
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