The simplest way I got to a $500k net worth by 28 is by saving and investing as much money as I could consistently and increasing my income to $200k+ in just my 20s. It took discipline, emotional control, and sacrifice to be in the top ~2% net worth for my age group.
The foundation of which I built my net worth with was by getting a marketable college degree. I got a degree in finance and received multiple job offers before my senior year of college was over. Although I had offers for $65k+ salary from Deloitte, Oracle, and the like, I accepted a lower paying salary of $52.5k.
It was the best decision I ever made. Miraculously, I increased my salary from $52.5k to $88k after just six months. It would’ve taken multiple years for the other offers to materialize even close to $88k. Then after another year on top, I started making $108k as a 23 year old.
I did it through this salary negotiation example. Aside from increasing my income, I had to solve the expenses side of the equation. From graduating college, I kept my expenses to at or below $25,000 as much as I could. 2022 was the only year I broke that rule and I’m never spending that much again.
The best thing about getting to a $500k net worth is THAT is when you really start to feel like you’re “making it”. $100k net worth is the beginning and every subsequent $100k net worths thereafter feels good but doesn’t feel fulfilling.
A $500k net worth made me feel fulfillment.
$500k Net Worth: How I Got There
Below was the $500k net worth mindset that I used to get there. It goes without saying that excuses doesn’t earn money. Excuses are not the way to go from broke to rich. It takes years of sacrifice and taking action to get there.
There were many times I wanted to quit but I refused to quit because building wealth is so much important to me. I have no plans to slow down and I want to move up the game as much as possible. I’m not stopping until I get to a million.
1) Personal Interest in Money
I’m South Korean. In the first birthday of any South Korean, we celebrate Doljanchi in which the baby chooses from a string of objects, such as a string, paintbrush, money and the like. Whatever the baby chooses, we are “destined” to pursue that path in the future. I chose money.
From a young age, I had a deep interest in money, wealth, income, and becoming rich. The word “finance” gave me goosebumps and I knew that money was a subject that I wanted to focus my efforts and attention on. I knew the virtue of saving from when I was a teenager.
Then in college, I stumbled across personal finance blogs and would endlessly spend hours reading and learning everything I can about money, investing, finance, and building wealth. Having a personal interest in building wealth is the first key step to getting to a $500k net worth.
Some people just can’t get excited about money and that’s OK. It’s better to know who you are early than to wait for the later years.
2) $500k Net Worth: Save and Invest Consistently
I maxed out my 401k from the first full year of working. In the first half year of my working life, I contributed a whopping 50% of my salary to a 401k. My coworkers thought I was either nuts or were getting paid more than them. Nope. We were all getting paid the same.
What I was doing was just much more different than how they spent their money. I never went a year without maxing out my 401k. I have ~$275k in my 401k’s, alone. No matter how much I was making, maxing out my 401k was a priority.
There’s no one who got to a $500k net worth who didn’t save and invest their money consistently. It hurts when you can’t spend your money when you want it and the way you want it spent. However, saving and investing is a necessary evil that can’t be ever avoided.
It’s one of the sacrifices that is completely worth it. Stressing over money doesn’t feel good.
3) Increase Income
One of my biggest regrets is not focusing on increasing my income more. My superiors all looked down on younger people who wanted to make more money and increase their income. They saw us as “greedy” or “that’s not a good reason to jump into a career”.
It’s an excellent reason to jump into a career. Deep down, I suspect the older folks are telling younger folks that because they’re jealous of the younger ones’ youth and are afraid the younger ones will outpace the older folks at their age.
I wish I ignored my superiors earlier who told me to “look at your career like a marathon” or to “wait your turn”. It’s more than possible to get to a $500k net worth through saving and investing, alone, like this millionaire secretary. However, it takes much longer when you have a low income.
There’s only so many years you can hold out on depriving yourself of joy for so long by focusing on saving money. Income is what everyone should focus on. It’s more controllable than we think. It’s also necessary to get to a $500k net worth.
4) Cut Expenses
When I first graduated college, I lived in a $640/mo apartment. I still live very cheaply, paying just ~$700/mo for rent. Even as I increased my income to multiple six figures. I don’t care. Once I finally get to the million dollar net worth, which I suspect won’t take very long, I’ll start spending more money.
Getting to a $500k net worth requires sacrifices. If you’re bad at saving money, it will be hard to build wealth.
I’m not above using coupons, shopping at Costco, and waiting until Black Friday sales come to make purchases. The last MacBook I bought in 2013 for $1,100. I finally bought another one in November 2022, waiting a full 9 years before making the plunge.
I bought it for $1,000, including taxes and fees and a Costco membership, because I waited for a Black Friday deal. There’s no need to spend more when you can get the exact same products but just at a cheaper price. I still drive a used 2017 Nissan Versa Sedan with 86k miles on it.
And I have no plans to change that whatsoever. Spending money is the enemy to get to a $500k net worth.
5) $500k Net Worth: I Ignored Others
Everybody and their mothers have an opinion on what you should do with your money. Oftentimes, they think they know how to spend your money better than you. When others found out about my 50% 401k contribution rate, others made fun of me.
“Hahaha, this guy actually thinks he can retire by 30” was a publicly known running joke from my coworkers. I didn’t care and I ignored them because they didn’t know the life I was creating for myself. What was important to me was getting to the top 1%.
And if the bottom 99% wanted to make fun of me for that, I welcomed it. I don’t respect what the bottom 99% values and the bottom 99% doesn’t respect what I value. Not a single coworker who was in my starting class can boast a net worth anywhere near mine.
To get to a $500k net worth requires carving your own path and ignoring others’ thoughts and opinions. It’ll be much easier to build wealth and get richer that way.
6) I Made Mistakes
I didn’t contribute to a Roth IRA until last year and I didn’t negotiate as hard as I should have for the jobs that I interviewed with and eventually got (missing out on $25 – $50k per year in pay). As I learned, I became more savvy with salary negotiation but I learned expensive lessons along the way.
There’s no one who got to a $500k net worth without making mistakes. It’s best to just learn from them and move on. It’s better to make the best decision from what’s going on currently than it is to dwell on the past. Mistakes are just a part of the game.
Everyone is just trying to figure the wealth game as they go. People lose money and people make money. As long as the net result to your life is a positive one, then everything is OK. Perfection is the enemy of progress. The wealth building journey will not be a perfect one.
This is one of the biggest facts I had to embrace on the journey to building wealth.
7) I Never Paid Retail Price
Only fools pay retail price. There’s many ways to get around paying full retail price. Negotiation, coupon, using credit cards for cashback, cash back websites, using discounted gift cards, buying used, and many more. Paying full retail price is the lazy way of purchasing goods and services.
When you already have all the money in the world, time is more important than money. However, getting to a $500k net worth requires work. It’s work that’s not particularly enjoyable because, I admit, it is a lot of work to find the best prices for products.
However, you’re on the rise to the top. The ones who rise to the top have to put in the work. That’s how we use our ambition and energy to our advantage to dethrone the ones who are already at the top currently. Even a $5 savings adds up over the years.
We should never be above looking for ways to save more money. There are 10 benefits of saving money.
8) Stealth Wealth
I exhibit all of the stealth wealth signs. No one knows how rich I am. I wear shorts and a t-shirt during the weekends. There’s no designer clothes that I buy or wanted to wear. Not only does it simplify my life, stealth wealth makes me richer because I have no desire to own expensive products that require maintenance.
Getting to a $500k net worth requires restraint. No one needs to know you have $100k’s of dollars in the bank. Only you need to know that. Once people know you have money, it doesn’t benefit you. They’re either going to get jealous or try to figure out how to use you for their own advantage.
Such as asking for job referrals or outright asking you for money. Stealth wealth is one of the best ways to live because it simplifies your life. There’s no upkeep and maintenance expenses to spend on every single month. The millionaire with the Lamborghini has a liability on their hands.
Not an asset. That’s not a good way to live.
9) $500k Net Worth: I Never Gave Up
Even though the bear market of 2022 decimated my net worth by a cool six figures+, I still never gave up. Even though I felt pain and questioned why I was saving so much money just to see it all gone by month’s end. I still never gave up.
A $500k net worth is not a lot of money in comparison to millionaires you see online. However, even then, it still took me a very long time to get there. No matter how much I wanted to throw in the towel, I quietly kept socking away money to my retirement accounts without fail.
No matter how much money I lost and everyone making fun of me, I didn’t care. I kept the faith and the belief that it’ll all be worth it some day. I can attest that it is completely worth it. Having money and the standing to say “no” to people I don’t like makes me feel amazing.
I don’t have to say yes to a business opportunity out of need. It’s not about the money that I care about, but the freedom and personal interest.
$500k Net Worth: Age by Age Journey
So then what’s the exact age by age breakdown of how I got to a $500k net worth? Below are the milestone ages.
1) Age 21
I graduated college at the ripe age of 21 with $40k in the bank. I saved every summer internship money, scholarship money, and lived very cheaply in my student years. When I was in high school, I worked as a Cashier at the now defunct Sears which gave me a ~$5,000 start at 17 when starting college.
My friends were going out to party and drinking alcohol. I wanted to build wealth and made choices accordingly. I wouldn’t trade my decision for anything else in the world. After graduation, I kept my lifestyle the exact same.
My first apartment out of college in Birmingham, Alabama was a studio that costed $640/month, including water. I maxed out my 401k and HSA and lived paycheck to paycheck. Even though my income increased exponentially.
I wasn’t even trying to get to a $500k net worth, I just wanted to build wealth and see what happens.
Ending net worth: $60k.
2) Age 22 – 23
This is when I increased my income to ~$108k. Even though the American work culture is toxic, I do like the high salary aspect of being a workaholic. I moved from Birmingham, Alabama to Houston, TX and life was great! I was saving money, living cheaply, and I didn’t do anything differently.
After I turned 23, I got to my first $100k and that’s when the snowball continued to happen. That’s when I started to believe a $500k net worth was possible.
Unfortunately, every weekend, I would make my way over to Lake Charles, Louisiana where I would play Blackjack to make a little extra money on the side. The plan backfired miserably and it’s where I learned a lesson and lost money gambling. A $20k setback. I never went back again.
Ending net worth: $140k.
3) Age 24 – 25
I changed jobs again and increased my income to ~$130k or so. I kept doing the same things and maxed out my 401k and HSA. All of my money got invested into the S&P 500. Nothing fancy and it was very simple. At 25, I hit around ~$225k in net worth.
However, life wasn’t that great because the new job made me more miserable than I’ve ever been in my entire life. And then COVID hit so it made it almost impossible to switch jobs in the early months. No one was really hiring until the year afterwards.
I was stuck in my miserable job and was just about ready to give up. I was just about to give up. $500k net worth seemed SO far away..
Ending net worth: $250k.
4) Age 26 – 27
However, I didn’t give up, and I started looking for new jobs again! This time, people were taking my calls and wanting to interview me. When I was 26, I received two job offers but neither were pay increases so I turned them both down.
Then just as I was beginning to lose all hope a company came calling and I got the opportunity of a lifetime.
I ended up increasing my pay to $200k+, all in (related: is $200,000 a year good?). Not to mention, the work culture was amazing. I didn’t do anything different with investments and the month I turned 27, I had a $444,000 net worth to boot. So close to the $500k net worth that I was after.
My income was the highest it’s ever been and my net worth was at all time highs. I was on top of the world!!…. And then the bear market of 2022 hit. Therefore, I was just scraping by and making sure that I didn’t lose my job. I ended up losing over $100k+ throughout the year.
It was a dark period for me. And I finished the year with a lower net worth than what I started! That didn’t make me feel good.
Ending net worth: $420k.
5) Age 28
Fast forward to 2023. This was my golden year of opportunity. After going through the bear market, I became more conservative with my investments and managed risk better. I saved 100% of every bonus and equity payout. I got a nice raise that I wasn’t expecting because we were entering a recession.
It started giving me hope again.
After becoming more conservative with my investments and enjoying the risk free 4%+ yield on the money market funds, my net worth kept going higher and higher every paycheck. Then.. it finally happened. $500k net worth at 28.
They say the first $100k is when the snowball starts. But $500k is when you really start to feel the security. That’s $20k/year you can withdraw. That is a lot of money. Especially more so because I only spend ~$15k/year now.
Net Worth at 28: $500k.
$500k Net Worth is Possible
I didn’t do anything special, I invested all of my money into the S&P 500. In fact, I even underperformed the market because I refused to invest my after-tax brokerage account for the longest time. The only investments I had was in my 401k and HSA.
Not even a Roth IRA. If someone doesn’t make any of the mistakes I made, they could even have more than a $500k net worth by 28. They could even do it by 27 or even by 26. Whatever the case is, building wealth is more than possible especially when we live in such a privileged country such as the US.
We can’t afford to not take our money seriously because then, we are at the mercy of the companies who employ us. Many Americans are one layoff away from losing their house. The layoffs of 2023 demonstrates just how fragile our jobs really are.
A $500k net worth is possible with the right amount of work and some luck. I was lucky to have graduated in the midst of the greatest bull run we would ever see, potentially in our lifetimes. However, that doesn’t mean that there won’t be more lucky situations down the road. There will be.
$500k net worth is when the fun really starts because it’s when you start to work because you love the work. NOT because you need the work. It feels great knowing that if I get laid off tomorrow, I still have enough money to live on for the rest of my life, because I live so cheaply.
Once we see money as a game, it becomes much more fun.
$500k Net Worth: How I Got There Shortlist
- Personal interest in money
- $500k net worth: save and invest consistently
- Increase income
- Cut expenses
- $500k net worth: I ignored others
- I made mistakes
- I never paid retail price
- Stealth wealth
- $500k net worth: I never gave up
