The nature of my work causes me to frequently encounter millionaires. They tend to come in two classes.
1.) the "boring" guy who has been dumping buckets of money into savings and investment vehicles, every month for 17 years. He is driving a used car that you would never notice and still living in a starter house. He hits the second million, 5 years later, and starts thinking really hard about retiring at the moment that his kid graduates from high school. He'll tell you that compounding and automatic deduction did all of the work while he slept. He'll also tell you that during the first 12 years, you can't really see that you're quietly winning the game, because all you see around you are people driving BMWs and buying ever-pricier houses.
2.) the guy who owns equity in a business and worked his ass off. He'll tell you some bull**** story about being in the right place at the right time and that he was insanely lucky. When you ask him why he is in his office on Sunday afternoons, he'll tell you that "Sunday afternoon in the office was good enough for Sul Ross. It's good enough for me."
I have no trouble pointing to examples that occupy both classes at the same time.
One other thing that I have noticed at the office, is that the guy who took his kids to Disneyland on 3 continents in the same year is always down in the CFO's office, begging to have his draw increased, no matter how much you pay him. His net worth really never starts to outrun his income, because his lifestyle outruns his income. The guys in the office who are actually HNW & VHNW look at him and think, "fortunately for the owners, that ******* will have to row like a galley slave until he dies."
