How many self-made millionaires are there in the world, how to become a millionaire starting with nothing, how many millionaires inherited their wealth, where to keep your money if you are a millionaire, what percentage of millionaires inherited their wealth….all of these questions are addressed in this article that I have painstakingly researched.
Most people believe that millionaires are the ones who started with nothing, worked hard and created their own wealth, but this is actually not true. According to different studies, most people who became millionaires inherited their wealth. It’s easy to conclude that you don’t have to be rich or born into wealth to become a millionaire, but the truth is you are more likely to become wealthy if someone else has made it first, showing you how it can be done. W start up with some common busters about millionaires.
Millionaires just inherited their wealth.
This one might be the most common. Many people want to think of the rich as just a bunch of spoiled jerks who haven’t worked a day in their lives because they got their money from relatives.
But Dr. Tom Stanley, author of The Millionaire Next Door, found through his research that about 20% of millionaires became that way through inheritance. The other 80% are first-generation rich. That means they started from nothing and piled up money. It’s very doable.
Millionaires don’t pay their taxes.
Riiiiiiight. The best way to build wealth and not raise any suspicion from the authorities while doing it is to … jip the IRS and have a total lack of integrity. How desperate is someone who believes this? Hate to burst their bubble, but the top 1% of earners in this country pays 40% of the taxes. That number could go even higher with certain tax legislation about to expire. Rich people pay, and then some.
Millionaires all drive fancy cars.
The purpose of a car is not to make you look good, but to safely get you from A to B. And the average millionaire has figured that out; Ford is tops on the list of preferred cars of the average millionaire (9.4%).Don’t get us wrong. You can certainly own a nice car once you are rich, but not having money and taking out a car payment on a nice set of wheels means the car owns you.
Millionaires are all retired and living the good life.
This one sounds similar to the myth that millionaires just inherit their wealth. But the stats are similar, too. About two in 10 millionaires have their feet kicked up. The rest go to work each day and keep generating the income to save and build their wealth up.
They all have high-paying jobs.
Really? That’s not what Donald found out.
I was helping my dad pick up a new grill from Lowe’s this morning. We got to talking with one of the employees who was unchaining the grill for us, about the retirement program, matched contributions, etc.
He mentioned two guys who just retired, one of them after 25 years. These everyday Lowe’s employees just saved and saved and saved. The first retired with $1.1 million! The other guy was a manager for most of his 30 years and retired with $4.3 million! —Donald in Virginia
Individuals who started from nothing
Jack Ma
While hardly unknown, the average person on the street may not have heard of Jack Ma, the third-richest person in China. A former English teacher, Ma was cofounder of Alibaba, one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies.
Ma struggled throughout his early career, failing three times to get into college, and facing rejection from over 30 odd jobs after graduating. However, he eventually struck gold with Alibaba. Following the company’s IPO in 2014 it became one of the most valuable technology businesses in the world after raising $25 billion.
Patrick Drahi
Making his way in business through shrewd investments in telecoms, Patrick Drahi has amassed a fortune of $12 billion dollars throughout his career. Initially born in Israel, Drahi moved to France when he was a teenager. He worked for a number of cable and satellite TV companies after graduating from university, before co-founding two of his own in the 1990s. He eventually sold the businesses in a deal that netted him €40m.
In 2001 he set up Altice, a multinational telecommunications firm, with operations now spanning France, Israel, the USA and Portugal. In 2021, Drahi took the company private at a valuation of $7.3 billion. He has also recently become the biggest shareholder in UK-based BT, one of the world’s biggest telecoms firms.
Aliko Dangote
The wealthiest person in Africa, Aliko Dangote is the founder of Dangote Cement, the continent’s largest producer. He has diverse business interests, including oil and gas, flour, sugar, and more recently telecommunications. He was also honoured in 2009 as the leading provider of employment in the Nigerian construction industry.
Dangote got his start at the age of 21 when he borrowed $3,000 from his uncle to import and sell agricultural commodities in Nigeria. The early business venture was a success, with Dangote able to repay the loan within three months, eventually leading to him to replicate this success with other commodities throughout his career.
Sameer Gehlaut
Sameer Gehlaut is the founder of Indiabulls, an Indian conglomerate whose Housing Finance division is the second-largest mortgage lender in the country. Gehlaut founded the company in 1999 and led it through its successful IPO in 2004, with the company later expanding into real estate, consumer lending, lighting, pharmaceuticals and heavy equipment rental.
Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi
Al Moudi is an Ethiopian-Saudi billionaire who made the majority of his money in mining. However, like many of the others on this list, he has broad business interests. His companies are active in construction, energy, agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing, and hotels among other sectors.
Currently one of Africa’s richest people, he made his initial fortune in construction in Saudi Arabia. Outside of Africa, he is also the owner of oil refiner Preem, which touts itself as the largest fuel company in Sweden.
Leonardo Del Vecchio
Del Vecchio is the founder of eyewear company Luxottica. He began his career as a tool and die maker, but eventually decided to use his metalworking skills to manufacturing spectacle parts. Since its founding the company in 1961, Luxottica has become the world’s largest producer and retailer of glasses and lenses.
Zhong Huijuan
Zhong Huijuan is the Chair of Chinese drugmaker Hansoh Pharmaceutical, which produces a range of different medications for the treatment of cancer and diabetes among other illnesses. She owns over three-quarters of the company alongside her daughter, Sun Yuan.
The company went public in June 2019 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which valued Hansoh at $10.4 billion. Interestingly, Zhong’s husband is also a billionaire, and also in pharmaceuticals. That makes the pair one of the richest biopharma families in the world.
Start Small
I started with $200, sort of. $200 was all that we had in our savings account and we had about another $1 in our checking account. I borrowed the $200 from our savings, and went looking for something to buy that I could make some money on. I bought a stainless Ruger Security-Six .357 Revolver for $167 at a flea market. I guess I could have started robbing banks that same afternoon, but instead, I took it to a gun store a few blocks away, sold it for $210, gave my wife back the $167 to put back in savings, and I started buying things to resell with the $43 difference.
At first I bought more firearms. I’d go to gun shows and buy and resell all weekend. I’d buy at one table and sell a few tables away. I was buying $20 handguns up to around $200 rifles by the end of the day. I’d make $2 to $25 on each sale normally. Occasionally, I’d make a hundred or so. By the end of the day, I had normally earned an extra $200, up to $300 or $350 on a good day. That was great!
Conclusion
So, I believe we can come to a conclusion that you too can make wealth. All you need is a road map and a compass and you are free to take up your adventure.
“If you want to have a better life, you have to change your thinking. One way is to realize that most people who are self made millionaires did not start life with the same advantage you started out with.”