{"id":160,"date":"2021-03-10T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/how-much-do-you-need-to-invest-to-be-a-millionaire-in-15-years-or-fewer\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T16:54:49","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T16:54:49","slug":"how-much-do-you-need-to-invest-to-be-a-millionaire-in-15-years-or-fewer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/how-much-do-you-need-to-invest-to-be-a-millionaire-in-15-years-or-fewer\/","title":{"rendered":"How Much Do You Need to Invest to be a Millionaire in 15 Years or Fewer? [2025]"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

After reading The Simple Path to Wealth<\/em><\/a>, I started wondering: Could anyone<\/em> become a millionaire?<\/p>\n

And better yet, could anyone become a millionaire early<\/em> in life, regardless of income? Obviously, the answer is no: But depending on how creative you\u2019re willing to get, the payoff could be massive.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re hoping this post is going to offer some variation of, \u201cHere\u2019s how this person who makes $12\/hour and only works two days per week became a millionaire in 18 months!<\/em>\u201d, you\u2019re going to be disappointed.<\/p>\n

Because here\u2019s the truth:<\/p>\n

Long-term investing strategies are not \u201cget rich quick\u201d hacks<\/h2>\n

In fact, I think they\u2019re better than that a get-rich-quick scheme: They\u2019re \u201cget rich in a replicable, reliable, and fairly predictable way<\/strong>\u201d strategies. <\/p>\n

(I get messages a lot that sound like some variation of, \u201cWhat\u2019s the best short-term investing strategy for X?\u201d There is no \u201cbest short-term investing strategy,\u201d because investing for the short-term is no different from gambling.)<\/p>\n

Often times get-rich-quick strategies rely on that razor\u2019s edge of chance: Everything has to go perfectly, right on time, in order for your big pay day to come through. If any little piece of your scheme goes wrong, you risk losing it all.<\/p>\n

Long-term, passive index investing is not like that. In fact, most of the time, a lot will go wrong. A J.P. Morgan Asset Management study found that the 10 best days<\/strong> in the market over the 20-year-period from 1999 to 2018 accounted for half <\/strong>the growth (technically, the finding was that if you had missed those 10 days, your return would be cut in half \u2013 but functionally, these two statements mean the same thing).<\/p>\n

Because we\u2019re relying on a long-term strategy that\u2019s replicable and reliable, you\u2019re trading the off-chance of a gamble for the likely, slow and steady outcome. <\/p>\n

(I feel obligated to add the classic finance legalese here: Past performance is not indicative of future returns.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

I think there are a few common misconceptions about building wealth quickly, chief among them that only high earners can do it \u2013 after learning about a Milwaukee grocer named Leonard Gigowski who died and left a $13M donation to his former school (this article<\/a> has other amazing examples of \u201csecret millionaires\u201d), I realized it probably made sense to walk through the logistics of just how much money<\/em> you\u2019d need to invest to become a millionaire after only 15 years of working.<\/p>\n

Why so many people with high incomes don\u2019t become millionaires<\/h2>\n

It may seem like only the high earners are destined to become fabulously wealthy, but the bizarre thing about earning a lot of money is that often times it\u2019s accompanied by spending<\/em> a lot of money \u2013 it\u2019s called \u201clifestyle creep,\u201d and it\u2019s natural and pervasive (unless you\u2019re aware of it).<\/p>\n

And as we know, your income matters less than your save rate<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

To quote Morgan Housel: \u201cWhen most people say they want to be millionaires, what they usually mean is, they want to spend a million dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that is \u2013 you guessed it! \u2013 the literal opposite of being a millionaire. <\/p>\n

So what level of income does someone need to get to a million over a 15-year span?<\/h2>\n

Remember, you\u2019re not just saving <\/em>the money \u2013 you\u2019re using it to buy assets (via investing) that theoretically go up in value. Maybe not every day, or every month, or even every year \u2013 but over that 15-year period, the money you\u2019re investing is growing on its own and supercharging your timeline. Without <\/em>the power of investing, you\u2019d have to save $66,666 per year to have $1,000,000 after 15 years \u2013 and by then, $1,000,000 doesn\u2019t buy what $1,000,000 buys today, thanks to inflation. <\/p>\n

But in order to be a millionaire via investing<\/em> in 15 years, you\u2019d only have to invest $43,000 per year <\/strong>(assuming a 6% real rate of return, which accounts for inflation). I know, I know \u2013 only<\/em> $43,000 per year. No big deal.<\/p>\n

*From this point forward, the average real rate of return we\u2019ll be assuming is 6%. A \u201creal rate of return\u201d is lower than the rate of return you\u2019ll see on the stock ticker, because we\u2019re shaving off 2-3% of our return since our money loses purchasing power every year as the price of goods rises. <\/em><\/p>\n

Another way to think about this is $3,583\/mo. <\/strong>\u2013 and how much money you\u2019d have to be making<\/em> in order to be able to afford to invest $3,583 *really* depends on the person, and (I think) highlights why keeping your spending in check is crucial<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Tax-advantaged investing first<\/h2>\n

In order to max out a tax-deductible 401(k) with a contribution limit of $23,500 per year, you\u2019d be contributing $1,958 per month \u2013 which knocks a pretty convenient, tax-deferred chunk out of your monthly $3,583 obligation to your future millionaire self.<\/p>\n

That leaves a cool $1,624 of your take-home pay that\u2019s left to invest, or $812 per paycheck if you get paid twice per month. <\/p>\n

At this point, it\u2019s probably helpful to pause and remember that we\u2019re shooting for an arbitrary number in an arbitrary timespan (really, when I was writing this article, I thought, Hm, a million sounds like a nice round number, and 15 years would get you comfortably under 40 if you start investing around the same time you start working!<\/em>, but there\u2019s no real science behind either choice).<\/p>\n

What\u2019s most important<\/strong> is your ability to keep your structural expenses small, and layer on only the discretionary stuff that brings you the most joy. <\/p>\n

When your save rate is high, your timeline to FI gets trimmed tremendously. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s \u201cCoast FI\u201d?<\/h2>\n

Have you ever wondered what that person might do? Someone who has $1M invested before they\u2019re 40? <\/p>\n

What if they like their job? What if they don\u2019t want<\/em> to leave their traditional line of work? <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a principle known as \u201cCoast FI,\u201d and to sum it up, it\u2019s the amount you need \u2013 by a certain age \u2013 to have a \u201cstandard retirement\u201d amount of money in your investment accounts at traditional retirement age without ever saving another dollar. <\/em>It\u2019s simply the power of compounding and time.<\/p>\n

If someone could <\/em>reach $1M by age 40, they\u2019d never have to invest another dollar ever again.<\/p>\n

By the time they retired at the traditional 65 just 25 years later, they\u2019d have more than $4M waiting for them. <\/p>\n

This is even more staggering when you wind the clock back a few years: Pretend our 38-year-old millionaire started when they were 22, 15 years prior, and had amassed $150,000 in investment accounts by age 25.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve got $150,000 by the time you\u2019re 25 and you plan to retire at 65, you could technically already be done<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

$150,000 turns into $1.5M by the time you reach standard retirement age, which is already more than what the average 65-year-old retires with<\/a>. Of course, we aren\u2019t shooting for average.<\/p>\n

Even if you\u2019re not obsessed with hitting the magic million\u2026<\/h2>\n

Now you know what it takes. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After reading The Simple Path to Wealth, I started wondering: Could anyone become a millionaire? And better yet, could anyone become a millionaire early in life, regardless of income? Obviously, the answer is no: But depending on how creative you\u2019re willing to get, the payoff could be massive. If you\u2019re hoping this post is going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178814,"featured_media":2403,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"si-template-single-post-taxable-investing.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,35],"tags":[47,44,64],"class_list":["post-160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-financial-independence","category-investing-and-taxes","tag-401ks-and-iras","tag-taxable-investing","tag-popular-taxable-investing"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Much Do You Need to Invest to be a Millionaire in 15 Years or Fewer? 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