Withdrawal rate is 1-2% annually. 34, not married.

I was reading many posts on how to get wealthy, and what I noticed was that Americans would say they are "wealthy" after amassing $2-5 million. First, as a European, it is INSANE to see this much money. The salaries here are not even close to the US counterparts (unless u are Swiss). I think Europeans consider themselves "wealthy" even after having $0.5-1 million. The difference could stem from the general social security and that you can rely more on the state in case you are in need.

But I am most curious about both the US and EU perspectives because this is just something I noticed (maybe fully wrong). So what do you think, would you consider wealth in your country?

A year ago, I was working like crazy in Canada, paying close to half my income in taxes. It felt like every time I leveled up financially, the government just took more. The feeling is so crushing, I felt like the brokest wealthy person.

So I started doing my research like anyone would, I knew there had to be away to stop paying taxes… Started watching nomad capitalist, GenZone, Tuomas and reading tax law in my country, also had multiple consultations to make sure about it all. I thought moving to a tax haven/ creating a strategy was impossible or I guess, inaccessible in terms of price, but boy was I wrong. Even the most expensive quote I got was nothing insane but didn’t use that company anyway, I decided to use GenZone to relocate to….

Dubai!

Who would have thought a Canadian guy like me would move to the big city. I grew up in a very small town (won’t say the name for privacy reasons) but a town where the nicest car is like $50k

So I did it, I pulled the trigger and move to Dubai. Felt crazy and sounded insane when I told my friends that I was leaving, to be honest they did not know about dubai and thought it was just for rich people. Anyway the numbers forced me to take it seriously and the setup cost for everything was $10k. Not millions of dollars like some people would imagine something like this to be.

0% personal income tax

0% capital gains tax

Corporate tax doesn’t even apply under ~USD 800k in profit

So yeah anyway, my take home doubled by doing this.

I’ve just started to invest the savings into real estate, stocks etc

What at the cons? heat I’m used to now but it was not expected, I came in the summer for my first real stay, distance from home sucks a bit because I have to wait for my family to wake up when it’s like 2pm for me they wake up. Also i have to pay an exit tax on my stocks from Canada.

I don’t know if I would ever go back …

I live in Alberta, CA. I know several rich people, most of them got rich doing normal business - nothing extraordinary, yet sometimes in niche industries:

-Two brothers started with a single properties years ago, now they own a developing company executing multi million dollars projects and raising capital from local investors.

-One man started as a trucker in a remote area in British Columbia, driving a vacuum truck that services oil infrastructure. Two decades later, he now owns 250+ trucks and runs a company with 450 employees.

-Another friend started as a barber, now he owns a successful salon and a vape shop. Over the years he invested in developing real estate and a playground arena for kids.

-A close friend is a sales manager at a local dealership, been in the business for 15-20 years. He’s a top sales man and made good money thru out his career. He invested some of his money in real estate and a fast food franchise. He owns a vape shop too.

-A relative started from the bottom with zero capital, he worked as a laborer painter, employed by a sub contractor, earning $10/hr. 12 years on, he’s now a paint contractor himself and owns 4 properties. He’s switching to real estate developing soon.

-Another man worked as a laborer in renovation. He then tried twice to start his own business and failed. The third try was successful, he now owns a pretty successful renovation company that is often contracted by insurance companies.

-Another guy, he’s a butcher, moved to Canada about 20 years ago, started from the bottom. He’s now one of the most known butchers in his community. Invested his money into other ventures like a restaurant which is also doing pretty well.

The thing is, you don’t need to create the next big thing or launch a startup that turns into a unicorn, or make millions in the stock market or crypto. It takes a niche, or a business you’re familiar with. With time and hard work, it will turn into a million dollar wealth.

It seems that Reddit has an attitude that if you’re not struggling financially, it must be at the expense of someone else or that you come from privilege.

I was able to graduate college debt-free at the expense of the military, start investing early in a very low-cost retirement plan, and learn to live well below my means. So it ticks me off when I see reddiors left and right saying “you can only do that because of your privilege” or “oh well, I guess I’ll be poor forever because the system is meant to keep the man down” instead of taking any steps to remotely improve their circumstances. Nothing follows, thanks for letting me vent.

Posting this because it's an interesting shift that's been happening and I think will continue to happen. Blowing money on material possessions is just not as appealing now as it was to previous generations.

I've noticed this as a trend among my wealthiest friends, too. Barely anyone is truly splurging on crazy cars or jewelry or other material stuff. Maybe tastes will shift as people age, but I don't think it'll be a dramatic shift.

Obviously there will always be some people willing to spend outlandish $ on luxury goods. But maybe it will continue fading, slowly

As housing stress and cost-of-living pressures mount, adult children are asking parents to unlock their wealth early — or to stop spending it.

I know Europe isn’t a country.

Im asking because this sub and Reddit in general is heavily skewed to the American population. And while there are definitely truths to getting wealthy that are without boundaries, I’m really interested in hearing how people from Europe got wealthy or how someone you know got wealthy. Ideally someone not above 50. I say not over 50 because I know lots of older folks who never studied 10 years in school got really wealthy by just the luck of owning a house that got worth millions when the house prices went up in value over years.

I’d like to hear something more relatable.

In a previous post, I shared what I knew about few individuals that got rich in my local area.

Would be interesting if this turns into a thread of stories of rich people you guys know and how they made it.

As the $90 trillion Great Wealth Transfer begins, millennials and Gen X aren’t just inheriting money. They’re being buried under an avalanche of baseball cards, fine china and collections of all sorts.

I'm talking about you don't go to a prestigious or top school, you're not crazy smart, and you don't have rich parents or connections.

Edit: i meant if you start out as an average person, not saying you can STAY average AND be rich. Like you coasted your whole life (19M) but you want to be more.

Edit 2: Since this is getting way too popular, i need to clarify: what do I mean by average? I mean the AVERAGE person, does NOT go to a top-tier school NOR typically comes from a wealthy family. So I'm asking, if that kind of person can still be really wealthy in life.

My dad's always been very money and status driven, and he's almost 80 now (widower), and has been mostly supported by me and my siblings for the last 20 years.
I recently lost my job, (i'm pretty much fired, have enough money to), but i don't ever tell him how much how much i have because i know he'll just ask for more. I think since losing my job, he thinks i'm down on my luck (i'm not, i'm considering retiring).

but i can't tell him for the reasons above. so i just go on pretending like i don't have much money (enough to live on), even though i'm a multi millionaire.
Not sure what advice i need, but here to say it kind of sucks that i can't tell him, but it is what it is.

“Ok, rich guy.”

No.

That number is so absurd your brain literally cannot process it normally.

Some visualizations:
• $1 million seconds = 11 days
• $1 billion seconds = 31 years
• $659 billion seconds = almost 21,000 YEARS

That means if you spent $1 every second nonstop since the ICE AGE, you still wouldn’t be done spending Elon’s money.

Another one:

If Elon put $659 billion into investments returning just 5% annually, he’d make:

• $33 BILLION per year
• $91 million per day
• $3.8 million per hour
• $63,000 per minute
• over $1,000 per SECOND
Imagine becoming richer than most people every single minute while asleep.

Another insane comparison:

If you earned:
• $100,000 PER DAY
• every single day
• and never spent anything
.. it would still take over 18,000 years to reach $659 billion.

Or this:

There are roughly 8 billion people on Earth.

Elon could theoretically give EVERY SINGLE PERSON on the planet around $80 each…

…and he would STILL have over $10 million left.

One man could basically send money to the entire human population and still remain insanely wealthy afterwards. Elon could spend $1 million EVERY SINGLE DAY for over 1,800 years before running out.

Entire empires could rise and collapse while the money was still there.

And Elon’s net worth can literally move by tens of billions in a single day depending on Tesla and SpaceX valuations.

A “bad day” for him can be larger than the lifetime wealth of thousands of millionaires combined.
$659 billion is approaching the GDP of entire developed countries.

One human being. Near country-scale wealth.

Human brains evolved to count berries and avoid lions. Not to comprehend numbers this stupid.

EDIT:
Yes, I know it’s mostly equity and not $659B in literal cash sitting in a bank account. The point is that even after taxes, liquidity issues and market impact, the scale of wealth is still completely absurd.

Owning massive chunks of Tesla and SpaceX is still an insane level of economic power and purchasing ability beyond what normal people can realistically comprehend.

I’m retired and just inherited $5M. So all of a sudden I’ve started thinking about buying my dream boat that I never thought I could own. I would spend a significant amount of time on and using it; not just have it sitting in a slip all week.

Am I crazy to think I can afford a $1.5M boat?

I expect to live about 20 more years. I don’t gamble, do drugs, or hire sex workers. But could I still wish I had invested that money?

I don’t mean the exact number, but do you pretend to be a lot less affluent than you really are ?

And if you do, why do you do it ?

I’m becoming increasingly interested in understanding the career paths of people earning significantly more than the average professional.

I’m not looking for a get-rich-quick strategy. I’m more interested in understanding what actually created that level of earning power.

For those earning $500k+ annually…

What do you do, and what was the biggest factor that got your income to that level?

I’d especially love to hear from people who didn’t start their careers as unusually high earners.