How long does it take for the average rich person to become rich? Ten years, twenty years?
How about thirty-two years.
That’s how long it took the average self-made millionaire, according to my data.
It took 38 years for 52% of the self-made millionaires in my study to accumulate their wealth and 42 years for 21% of them to get there.
Only a handful, 4%, became wealthy in less than 27 years.
Let me share some of my data with you.
Seventy-six percent of the wealthy in my Rich Habits Study (http://richhabits.net/rich-habits-study-background-on-methodology/) were self-made millionaires. Thirty-one percent came from poor households and 45% came from middle-class households.
What’s compelling about the data I gathered, is the age in which these self-made millionaires actually rang and bell and struck it rich.
Here’s the breakdown:
- 1% (2 out of 233) became wealthy before the age of 40
- 3% (6 out of 233) became wealthy between age 40 and 55
- 16% (38 out of 233) became wealthy between age 46 and 50
- 28% (66 out of 233) became wealthy between age 51 and 55
- 31% (73 out of 233) became wealthy between age 56 and 60
- 21% (48 out of 233) became wealthy after the age of 60
The romanticized notion of getting rich quick always finds an eager audience. We are stimulated by stories about the young and the wealthy. The immediate success of youthful billionaires like Facebook’s Mark Zukerberg or Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brinbut, play to our get rich quick desires.
It turns out, however, that getting rich quickly is a very rare phenomenon.
It’s clear from my Rich Habits research data, that accumulating wealth takes a very long time. It just doesn’t happen overnight.
In fact, 80% of the self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits Study did not become wealthy until after age 50.
What’s even more of an eye opener is that 27% of my Rich Habits millionaires failed at least once in business.
The path to riches is a long, winding and upward climb. Those few who do make it, are disciplined, gritty, persistent and patient.
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About Thomas C. Corley
That certainly fits me and most of my self made millionaire friends. Most of us made our first million by about age 50 and added more between then and 60. The only rich thirty year olds I know are from old money families who made it big in the oil business. And that’s a pretty small group.
Interesting breakdown! I have a question: what is the minimum amount of money (with respect to assets) that makes somebody a rich person in your study?
$3.2 million. Here’s a link to my study: Rich Habits Study – Background and Methodology – http://richhabits.net/rich-habits-study-background-and-methodology/