What Are the Odds of Becoming a Millionaire?

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The U.S. has 24 million millionaires. You can increase your odds of becoming a millionaire by focusing on these three key moves. 

In the United States, there are around 24.5 million people who are millionaires. The United States is home to about 39.2% of all of the millionaires in the world. This is based on the number of people who have the equivalent of $1 million in U.S. assets.

There are about 336 million people in the U.S. With 24.5 million of them being millionaires, the odds that someone in the U.S. will end up a millionaire come in at around 7.29%.

Of course, some people are more likely to be among that 7.29% than others, including those who are born rich or who earn advanced degrees and go into lucrative professions. But, you don’t have to be an heiress or a sports superstar to become a millionaire (although it helps). You can do a few simple things to increase your chances, including the following three moves.

1. Take steps to increase your income

One of the best ways to maximize your chances of becoming a millionaire is to take steps to earn more money over your lifetime. After all, the more you earn, the easier it is to invest in assets that will eventually generate $1 million or more of wealth.

You can earn more money by choosing your profession wisely, and by pursuing advanced degrees. Men who earn a bachelor’s degree earn around $900,000 more in median lifetime income compared with males who have only a high school diploma. Women with bachelor’s degrees earn $630,000 more in median income than their peers with just high school degrees. And men and women with graduate degrees will earn $1.5 million and $1.1 million more respectively, compared to high school graduates.

If you make hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars more over your lifetime, it will be a lot easier to do the things needed to achieve millionaire status — like supercharging your savings.

2. Save early and often

You can also significantly increase your chances of becoming a millionaire by saving as much as you can and saving steadily. This is true no matter how much income you make.

Let’s say you start saving at age 20. To have $1 million by age 65, you’d only have to invest $115.91 a month to achieve millionaire status (assuming a 10% average annual rate of return, the approximate 50-year average return of the S&P 500). If you waited until age 45 to invest, you’d need to invest $1,454.96 per month instead.

If you start saving at a young enough age, your odds of becoming a millionaire are increased significantly since it’s a lot more feasible to find a couple hundred dollars to save monthly than it is to find a couple thousand. You could have a great chance of ending up with a seven-figure nest egg if you make consistent investments over a long time.

3. Invest wisely

Finally, you’ll need to invest wisely. This means putting money into a brokerage account and investing some of it in the stock market so you stand a chance to earn the returns you’ll need to become a millionaire.

If you invested your $115.91 a month starting at age 20 but you earned just a 3% rate of return because you kept your money in a savings account, you’d only have $127,957.19. You need compound growth to work for you (which is what happens when you invest, earn returns, and those returns are reinvested to earn you more money).

The good news is, you don’t need to pick stocks to invest wisely. Just put your money into an ETF tracking the S&P 500, a financial index of 500 large U.S. companies that has produced 10% average annual returns over the long run.

While the overall odds of someone in the U.S. becoming a millionaire are about 7.29% based on the percentage of the population with that much money, you can increase your odds significantly if you just take these simple steps.

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