At almost 40 years old, we have $3.5 million and could hit $10 million by 50 – but how do people scale to $50 million+?

A Reddit user is 38 years old with a net worth of $3.5 million and two very young children. The poster said that it took him and his wife 10 years of saving and investing in index funds to grow their wealth to the level where they are now. If they keep going at their current pace, they expect to have a net worth of around $10 million by the time they reach the age of 50.

While this is a perfectly respectable net worth, and one that a great many people would be very happy with, the poster is confused about how people can end up growing their money from a seven-figure net worth to a high eight or nine-figure net worth within a decade. He said it is clear that the moves he is making won’t get him into that $50 million or more range, and he wants to know how other people have managed to achieve such great success. 

How do people scale into becoming multi-millionaires?

The Reddit user is absolutely right that it would be difficult, or impossible, to turn $3.5 million into $50 million over a decade or so by investing in index funds and continuing to invest at the pace that he has been investing. 

As many Redditors pointed out, it is very difficult to just save and invest your way to $50 million unless you:

• Have an insanely high income
• Take some crazy investing risks and earn an eye-popping return on investment
• Start a highly successful business that’s acquired or goes public

Outside of these situations, Reddit commenters suggested that even with very wise investments, like investing $3.5 million in one of the S&P’s performing stocks a decade ago, you’d still be “stuck” at around $30 million and not $50 million. And, predicting the next Apple or Google stock is not something that most people are necessarily going to be able to do anyway. 

Ultimately, you need to invest a lot of money to find your way to a $50 million nest egg, especially over a decade, and it’s something most people simply can’t do — which is why there aren’t a lot of people around who have $50 million. 

Is $50 million really necessary for a secure retirement?

In addition to pointing out the challenges of amassing $50 million, many Reddit posters also suggested that achieving this goal is not really necessary. After all, you can have a very comfortable life with far less.

With a $10 million nest egg, assuming you follow a safe 3.7% withdrawal rate, you’d have $370,000 to live on as a retiree. That’s a pretty good amount of money and provides a pretty lavish lifestyle. Another poster said that he personally is worth $20 million now, and he doesn’t feel like there is anything someone with $50 or $100 million could do that he couldn’t afford.

So, while the poster may want to dream of amassing $50 million, and there’s nothing wrong with strategizing to try to get there, it’s also important that he make a more realistic plan for what he wants his future nest egg — and future spending — to look like.

If the OP doesn’t think $10 million is enough, he can work with a financial advisor to decide on a number that he is comfortable with and can create a path to get there. Since he has $3.5 million already, he has a good start, and with the help of a professional, he can set a realistic goal that will allow him to enjoy his retirement, and that is actually within reach. 

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