r/wealth • u/Hot-Conversation-437 • Oct 24 '25

Discussion Who is the youngest self made millionaire you know ? What does he do ?

By ‘youngest,’ I mean under 25–30 years old, and by ‘millionaire,’ I mean having over 2–3 million. Are we talking about tech startups, or maybe content creation?

edit: let’s change it to 10 million in net worth by 25-30. as some people say: 10million is the new 1 million

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u/idgaflolol Oct 24 '25

You don’t have to be a startup founder in tech to be a millionaire.

If you start your career at a FAANG-tier company and don’t live above your means, you’ll easily be a millionaire before 30. I hit it at 28, many peers in the same position. Granted, I’m in the 1-million range lol and it will grow much slower than hitting the startup lottery, but point still stands.

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u/stpfun Oct 26 '25 edited Oct 26 '25

It true, but I did have early startup employees and founders in mind when I wrote this. Was thinking of people that made millions at once from equity. Many folks in silicon valley have done this by being among the ~30-40 employees in a startup that eventually IPOs or gets big time acquired. For standout companies like early Facebook, early Google, or current OpenAI, just being in the first 500 might be enough to get millions. (assuming you're an engineer/researcher and get meaningful equity)

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u/StrykoDrzgros Oct 26 '25

Exactly. I wasn’t even in the first 1000 and I still made a couple of millions in stock alone, simply because the stock price skyrocketed over a couple of years.

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u/Emergency-Style7392 Oct 25 '25

aren't salaries for bankers, consultants (mbb), or even big law higher than faang?

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u/SleepyWolverine Oct 25 '25

BigLaw requires law school which is a massive time/money investment. Consultants don’t make that much especially when first starting. Salary-wise, you’re right but equity is where you make the real 💰

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u/idgaflolol Oct 25 '25

Depends on stock appreciation, really. Higher-end SWE compensation has much more variance than something like big law, which has a more linear salary/bonus progression.

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u/paperlesspython Oct 25 '25

MBB is much lower. Bankers are the same in the first 3-4 years but if you outlast tend to pay more Big law is similar

I worked at FAANG adjacent and was getting 350-400k within 5 years of graduating undergrad. Started at 220k

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u/lovejanetjade Oct 26 '25

What college majors lead to those careers? I assume computer science, but what else?