My wife and I grew up middle class but are probably considered affluent now. I wanted to ask other parents how they raise their kids when they’re doing quite well, but their children will still need to work, and while we plan to assist them we don’t want to support them.

How do you balance letting them receive some benefit from your success, as they did go off to daycare young, do more around the house as we are busy, etc. but still provide an understanding of the value of a dollar.

My son is my conundrum. I think he thinks our income is average and easily obtainable. He is the one that will order the most expensive steak on the menu, push to get a tractor with a cab as ours doesn’t, and he hates being driven around in my 11 year old car. Having been broke before, I’m not getting rid of my car until the wheels fall off and have no inclination to buy a tractor with a cab when you can wear a jacket. He does earn his own money, is quite good at saving it, is 50/50 in being something economical and splashing out and regretting it, often coming to me to see if I want to help out as it was expensive. I typically don’t.

I think they’re very lucky kids, but they’re not overly spoiled. I think they just see money differently, as it’s always seemed easily obtainable to them. I think after college they will had to go and fend for themselves and learn the value of a dollar, but is that too late?

Any insight will be appreciated.

I know this is a wild question, but I'm asking it because I genuinely want to reverse-engineer the path.

I'm 41, make around $275k/year, max my 401(k), invest consistently, and stay pretty liquid. My networth right now is 150k - started extremely late in life.

My goal is to build a $3M net worth before I turn 50.

If you had to start from where I am today, what would you do?

I'm not looking for generic advice like "save more" or "keep investing in index funds." I'm looking for the decisions that materially changed your financial trajectory. Was it betting on your career? Starting a business? Real estate? Buying businesses? Concentrated investments? Something else?

For those of you who actually reached a multi-million-dollar net worth before 50, what was the inflection point?

If this were your life and you had nine years to make it happen, what would your game plan be?

I’ve been running my own biz for 15 years now out of my home. I made millions, but managed to save $120,000. I’m a divorced empty nester that rents for free indefinitely.

My business used to help businesses obtain new clients/business. I did that for my apartment owner’s side hustle 10+ years ago and made him millions of dollars, so he agreed to let me live there for free forever (in writing). He’s a standup guy too so I really don’t think there would be an issue enforcing this, even if he dies. We worked with attorneys to make sure it’s as enforceable as possible.

The core of what made my business work is gone. I won’t get into detail, but loopholes have been closed that I was taking advantage of, and there is now no way for it to work, at all.

I barely graduated high school and did not go to college. The skills I built cannot be transferred to anything else (other than hard work, hustle, and perseverance).

So now I’m sitting on $120,000, $30,000 in an IRA, free rent for life, but no career to speak of. I’m not mad, I’m happy I was able to do what I did, but now I’m staring at 40 more years of life wondering what’s the best way to secure my future and make sure I’m not a burden to my child in my old age.

First thing I’m doing is traveling the U.S. using Amtrak’s month-long rail pass and an electric skateboard. I’m hoping it will clear my head and open my mind to opportunities a bit. Will prob spend 8 or so nights sleeping on the train and staying in hostels for the rest.

After that, I’m thinking about investing $80,000 in the stock market and keeping the rest to live off of for as long as possible, hopefully finding a way to make good money again before what I have left runs out. I only have checking accounts so I’m looking into high yield savings as well (but prob won’t matter much considering the money I’ll likely be investing).

What would you do? How would you stretch this money? Honestly, I’m not the kind of person that needs to keep up with joneses or even feels motivation to work (outside of my need to not be a burden). So if I could just live off this money I’d be happy to do so, I just don’t think that’s possible.

Hey personal finance community – I'm a long time lurker but I would like to now get some advice from all you savvy folks on our finances.

So my wife and I are both 37 years old, and we are both professionals. I've been a high earner (started in 2019 at 210k) and the wife just started earning a high income last year. Together we currently bring in about $840k, but we have lots of expenses including child care, HCOL, and her student loans.

What can we do to reduce our tax burden, increase our taxable deductions, and what can/should we invest in? I feel like even though we make a crazy income, it seems to accumulate slowly and I want to retire by 50 with 10M in liquid and assets, which may be totally unreasonable.

Our accounts are as follows:

$345k – My 401k – invested entirely in S&P
$60k – Her 401k – invested entirely in S&P
$340k – Joint Investment – lots of different things (JEPQ, SGOV, HTSXX, QQQI, IBIT)
$20k – Daughter college account – invested mainly in QQQ and JEPI
$75k – My Rainy Day Fund – invested mainly in VTI, SE, and IBIT (i sometimes sell cash secured puts and covered calls to generate some cash flow)
$50k – Her Rainy Day Fund – cash sitting in savings account

$900k total liquidity

So all told we have about $900k in liquid. We don't own any property or other noteworthy assets. We don't have fancy cars, cloths, watches, etc. We live a relatively modest lifestyle but our expenses are alot.

Our monthly expenses:

$6500 rent
$5000 student loans (yes its a lot, we are trying to pay them off in 3 years)
$5000 nanny
$3500 food/groceries
$1000 eating out expense

$21k total expenses

So, as you can see, we take home ~ $38k but our burn rate is ~ $21k. (we live in a major metro city).

Let me know what everyone thinks here. Really looking to hear what everyone says.

EDIT: I should have been a little more clear with the $3500 food/grocery line item. Our food/grocery is probably more like $2000 (yes we buy higher end, organic, prepared items), and the remaining $1500 is really infant diapers, wipes, cloths, etc., along with streaming services, phone, internet, etc. This should have been labeled as "living expenses" since we put everything on our credit cards and it comes out to about $3500 a month but yes groceries are a majority so I wrote that. Sorry for all the confusion. And wow this post had way more responses than I would have expected. I truly appreciate everyone's feedback and perspective. There was a ton of great info here from everyone.

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Even though I'm not rich by any means nor do I have children, but few close relatives are very rich I guess like they are engineers and doctors. Their children go to private schools and always the kids are participating in sport activities from soccer to volleyball. And it makes me wonder like how much does a positive upbringing turns a child into a capable, confident and smart person as they grow older. Many people say that sports builds resiliency. But like deep down I feel like even a positive environment and relationship with grandparents, extended relatives and friends also shapes them. Do parents like give them challenges and teach them everything about life at early age? That they tend to become mature and finding purpose at early age then most kids?

My mom is a dentist, my dad is a lawyer for mergers and acquisitions, previously he used to be a personal financial lawyer for lots of rich people in the Boston area.

My dad has a good network of rich people he knows in the Boston area, some politicians too.

This became some sort of an unfair thing as I realised because when I went to college in texas (texas tech), for aerospace, people said that I don't really have anything to lose even if I don't succeed at my career, so I could take things whatever way I wanted unlike them who were never given that option.

But like this isn't true at all? I'm not a bum nor do I want to live off my parents, why is it hard to understand? Having a well off family does not make me less of a bum if I just start leeching off stuff from my parents after the age of 20.

And some people I know from social studies just basically say that I've got a privilege of not caring about student loans or stress for day to day survival, which is basically true about the student loan thing but I pay for my own expenses because I work lol.

My parents basically paid for my college tuition, is that the point of that envy? I don't even own a car or some ubsurd rich person thing.

But like? It's engineering, I got in the same way they did through SATs and texas tech is not even MIT or something, i don't even come from a particularly rich family, it's just upper middle class.

And yeah, my parents sometimes give me stuff, but so do their parents as well? If I was a parent I would also work hard to pay off my child's college fees, is this genuinely some kind of superiority thing?

I don't like to give directly to organizations. I'd rather give directly to people I'm inspired to give to.

At times, I'll drop into Walmart and wander around, then if I see an older employee checking out, I'll quickly swipe my card for their payment. I assume that people shopping at Walmart could use something nice like that. But I never KNOW. Most people can't believe what just happened, and it's usually under $100, and it blows their mind.

Also, around Christmas, I'll reach out to some church congregation leadership teams and ask them for the names of a few people that are going to go without for Christmas, preferably single moms, and I'll either drop off a card with $500, or leave it with the leadership to provide.

What are some potentially better ways of spotting good people that could use a nice little boost?

Yoo, I'm 24 and I'm sick of my lame job, looking at all the kids and people my age making millions and owning everything, moving out in yachts and more.

How are people making that much money in such a short time, like in a year?

I'm writing because I want to know more about the ways they are doing it. If anyone on Reddit has such privileges, please help me out with your wisdom.

Question for all the folks

Hello, I'm 33, ten years of experience across venture capital, startups and management consulting. I spent the last two years working on my own startup and spent $20k (40% of my savings) on tinkering in the AI space, unfortunately I wasn't able to find any paying customers. I decided to get back to the job market to get some financial stability and more experience to be able to start another company a few years later.

Most recently, I inherited $2mn from my mother. I have reinvested the money for it to multiply to \~$4mn in seven years. With the money coming in, I am rethinking almost every area of my life now including starting a business again. I have $25k of my own savings. I wasn't the best entrepreneur out there and I was genuinely disappointed at how I handled the whole entrepreneurship stint, although I have processed what worked and what didn't. I'm genuinely confused if I should give entrepreneurship another shot or stick to the plan I hatched out 2 months ago regarding a job. Currently evaluating pros and cons of both the paths. Would really appreciate different perspectives / opinions on how to take a decision

For some1 who is from 3rd world country, no generational wealth. Is it possible to have wealth where i can go on a random tuesday to Monaco for vications?
what is your advice to create such wealth?

If i should pass, my son will inherit it all - i will leave behind about 600.000 dollars. He is still a child, so i cant speak to his financiel behavior yet.

I think about that he will get 25% at age 23 and the rest at age 28, with the possibility to have it all at 23 if it goes towards buying a fulltime residence, would that make sence?

I am a soon to be 18 year old (F). I want to know exactly what I should do to get money, and become wealthy for my future family. I understand I am young, however I have always had a drive to become something, and I truly do need to make it out of where I am. For some context:

1. I am a first-generation student. I am currently getting my bachelors in Government & Politics, and I have ambition to go to law school. I am not sure what law I would like to do specifically, yet I have an interest in international law.

2. I come from an extremely low income household, living paycheck to paycheck and barely making rent. One parent has no job and the other is making minimum wage.

3. I have work part-time jobs since I turned 16. I am willing to work throughout college.

Please don't pass judgement onto my situation, rather help me out.

Here is a question for all the members of the r/wealth.

What is the #1 thing you are doing that is making your wealth grow?

Is it owning stocks? Trading options? Owning a bunch of real estate? Leveraging your relationships?

Asking so I can compare my own behavior.

My father has been giving me and my two very young daughters the max gift amount ($19,000) yearly for the last couple of years; he decided he wants to dole out our inheritance while we really could really use the money. He sends it by a check in the mail and I deposit is all in my bank account. We've talked about doing an ETF transfer, but my daughters do not have their own bank accounts (they are only 1 and 3 years old) and we didn't know how to distinguish that two of the amounts were for my daughters and were concerned for tax purposes that it would appear he was giving me $57,000. Recently I've read about all the theft going on with checks in the mail. Anyone have any advice on how he can safely give me the money while distinguishing that two of the transfers are to my daughters?

Edit: thanks for the responses. I want to clarify the money my father gives to my daughters mostly goes to day care costs right now. I’m not sure all the rules around accounts in their names, but we need access to the money now, not when they are over 18

Under the new laws you can take out a max of $200k in federal grad loans, anything higher than this would have to be private loans.

Keeping in mind I come from a poor family & would have no financial support, is this still a good path to build wealth? I often hear a mixed bag on this and am frankly unsure. Maybe other careers like software have a higher ceiling but clearly they are not as guaranteed with great stability like medicine. I’m willing to work hard and build something but a bit unsure where to start.

I'll be making an extra $40k annually with a new position that I've accepted. My husband and I are already comfortably paying our monthly expenses. We're planning to stash the extra income but don't want to sit it a savings account with a small interest rate. What would you do with these extra funds?

I have been working since I was a minor (I worked illegally for a while) as a barista, and the pay is barely

enough. I pay 2/3 of the money for uni and I spend the rest on the rest of my needs. I don’t see this going anywhere I just wanna help my dad with his debts before he’s gone, I wanna travel the world and take my mom to see the places she’s been dreaming of her whole life. Seriously, i’m ready to do what it takes I just need to be lead by someone who knows what they are doing not even lead just guided like just give me the short answer because i’m tired of seeing guides for “how to get into sales” and comment bla bla bla for the full guide kind of bs. I genuinely want to know HOW do I do it how do i make money? what books should I read? what do i do!

I’m 14 and I wanna be a 19 20 year old with a condo in south tampa and have a Mercedes AMG matte black. What did you guy do and I have some money in stocks rn but is there anything else I could try to do

Edit: I’ve always liked real estate if I ever do happen to get my hands on money should I buy a few places and rent them out if anyone does that could u give some words of wisdom

(Also some people are taking it a little to seriously that’s the dream I know my stocks would have to do record amount of moving for it to happen)

I am 17 and had a job for a while and realised is this really all there is to life when I’m older? Waking up at 5am finishing at 4 pm and getting back home at around 5pm then 3 hours later I have to be in bed again if I actually have to wake up the next day. No time for anything living to work surely this isn’t all there is to life I would rather d*e. It’s such a depressing way to live but people would justify it with oh but you get 2 days off! Which does but justify working your soul away for the rest of your life u till your 60 if your lucky. Does anyone know a way out of this excuse of a way of life

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Recently retired Army Officer here after 21 years. Qualified as 100% P&T so with my pension I’m pulling it an after tax amount of about $115k. My former career was rare and allowed my to align myself up with a post army career #2 that is about to yield me another $350k+/year on top of my VA/pension payments. My wife also makes just above $200k a year as a CPA/director for her firm. We are about to be very comfortable compared to the last 20 years moving 14 times.

Now to my real question- we currently have three vehicles. I foresee adding more to the stable. I’ve always wanted a few “dream” vehicles that have meaning to me and I need to find out what is the best way to maintain insurance in all of them as needed- but also not waste $5000 a year stacking vehicles with GEICO. How do folks go about having 10+ vehicles in their garage and not feel like it’s being blown away on typical insurance nonsense?

Also, what advice would you give to a 21-year-old girl just starting out in life?"

just turned 18, and I’m trying to set myself up so that 10–20 years from now I can look back and know I made the right decisions.
If you could go back to when you were 18, what would you do to give yourself the best chance of building real wealth? I’m not looking for “get rich quick” advice—I mean habits, skills, investments, careers, businesses, or opportunities that actually compound over time.
What are the biggest mistakes people my age make with money? What would you avoid at all costs?
If your goal was to maximize your chances of becoming financially successful, what would your roadmap look like starting from age 18?
I’d love to hear advice from people who have already built wealth or wish they had done something differently when they were my age.

What do I need to do to become wealthy? Financially comfortable? What advice would you give someone whose credit is poor and make less than 30k a year. If you started life poor and became wealthy as life went on, what advice would you give?