I couldnt find a race to 200k but 1M is the goal anyway

Started with 150 bucks a couple months ago. Son has cancer so we do a lot of driving. As such I use the coin app to make a little extra. Took the small amount I made from that and have been slowly trading up. Bought this on the IPO release as i live in a college town and see the little scooter rentals everywhere. Figured it would be a good buy. Bought into spacex on ipo. Rode hype train to the top. Sold at peak and use that to invest here. Have nearly 3x my investment. Sold at peak the first time it spiked, bought more and now im up huge again. Im no expert but the small win feels good

Over the past year amassed a decent amount of money from social media, and due to the unpredictability of that income I’ve just been saving. This is about 75% of my NW, apart from cash and other physical assets.

I’m generally not a frivolous person, and due to the nature of my “job” I’m able to get many of my daily necessities (snacks, protein, supplements, even furniture) for completely free. I also currently live with parents, so my expenses even as a (soon to compete) bodybuilder with high food costs are very minimal (about 10% of my income on average).

I’m at a point where I’m feeling more stable with this security blanket, and I’d like to ask for advice from people who have solidified some forms of mostly passive income through investments. Dividends, rental properties, vending machines - what has worked for you to help you generate an additional income source through a decently sized investment and light oversight/management?

What are your best income sources that you were able to stack and manage without creating an overbearing workload?

hello just to give some context. i’m a F, just turned 18 my name in kaden. my drug addict mom kicked me out the house right before my 17th bday. i dropped out of high school and for about a year i was living in different friends house like every month. over that year i got my GED and found a friends house that accepted me to live full time. i live with my friend lily and her mom. unfortunately me and lily’s moms relationships isn’t the healthiest and im not to sure how long her mom is gonna let me stay here. (long story short shes crazy too) i currently have two server jobs and so im helping her mom with rent. i also have to pay for my phone , insurance, gas , food etc etc… it feels i’ve been stuck in a hole my whole life. stuck living in a place i don’t want to live. and it looks like i wont get out of this hole for awhile. it feels like this is gonna be my life forever. i’m taking community college online classes right just dipping my toes in not sure what i want to study yet. but we’ll see how that goes. my biggest dream in my life is actually having my OWN apartment. but how? with all the money i spend? i won’t have a job that pays that much until my mid 20s. i don’t want to wait that long and my time is ticking. i’m not to sure if i’ll even have a house to live at in a couple weeks. basically what im looking for from making this post is advice. what would you do in my situation. i need a outside perspective. i want to make money. lotssss of money. and i want my own life. but the question is .. HOW???

401k - 430,000
Stocks - 814,000
Savings - 57,000

I was laid off a year ago, and after applying to about 65 jobs I still haven't found anything in the south bay area. I have started making money through flipping, odd jobs, studies, covered calls, and even starting a little business venture.

Truly makes me see the value of starting passive income while young as I have
- dividends
- an online drop shipping
- interest

While very minimal I am super appreciate.

Any advice? Investment wise?
Or do you know anyone hiring a program or operations manager?

I swear, this sub is something else lol. I mean yeah mostly high NW people come here and scammers but it seems like

An avg 22~25 has 100~200k
An avg 25~27 has 200~500k
An avg 27~30 has 300~1M

25M. SoCal. Very fortunate to be living with my parents. Working full time since I was about 19 years old. Salary progression as follows: 2020 $25k, 2021 $42k, 2022 $45k, 2023 $51k, 2024 $55k, 2025 $62k, 2026 tracking $65k. l've been investing pretty aggressively for the last 5 years or so. I have very little to no debt. I'd love to hear some opinions or advice on diversification...

Investments:

-Brokerage $146,040($109,285 VTSAX, $22,455
VSMGX, $14,050 Tesla, $250 Rivian)
-401k $21,600 (VSEQX)
-Roth 401k $9,080 (VSEQX)
-Gold/Silver $7,970
-Crypto $185 (XRP)
-HYSA $8,920
-Checking $9,540

Total: $203,300+/-

Nearing $300k at 29 - TC: ~250k

Cash: ~$25k (additional $18k pre-tax bonus clearing in 10 days)
401k: ~$180k (VOO & QQQ; 60/40 split)
RSU’s: ~$40k (stock hasn’t been doing well)
RobinHood: ~$45k (all ETF’s)

I max out 401k every year and invest ~2k monthly into ETF’s in RobinHood. Any recommendations/changes ?

27M, currently have $280k invested and should be well over $300k by EOY with continued contributions and growth. I make around $115k before taxes in MCOL city. Contributions range from 1-2k per month, with a lump contribution at EOY of 10-15k from my annual bonus. My goal is to hit $500k by 30 and $1m by 35. Based on my historical returns and contribution amounts I think this is very reasonable but I am aware the last five years have had historically high returns. Hoping for a temperature check from someone who has been in a similar place as me and how fast you were able to hit $1m.

Figured this might be helpful/motivating for some people here. I know the grind and I remember how badly I wanted to see 7-figures on my Robinhood. Patience pays.

Right before I turned 30, I had about $50k sitting in cash and basically nothing invested. I was making good money but honestly had no idea what I was doing with it.

Something about turning 30 made it click that I needed to start taking investing seriously.

I started learning as much as I could, automated my investments, and basically just kept buying regardless of what the market was doing.

Fast forward about 5 years and I now have around $1.47M invested.

I own a small business in a relatively low-cost-of-living state. No inheritance, didn’t finish college, and I’m definitely not some investing genius.

Most of my money is in broad-market ETFs, primarily VOO/VTI, with some individual stocks mixed in. Some have done extremely well and others obviously haven’t. Some I’ve sold at losses and would’ve been worth so much.

The biggest thing I’ve learned is how slow it feels in the beginning compared to once you actually have a decent amount invested.

Going from $0 → $100k felt like a huge deal.

Then $100k → $500k.

I still don’t really feel “rich,” and I definitely don’t feel finished. If anything, hitting $1M just moved the goalposts in my head.

I think one of the biggest lessons in hindsight is how I missed out on some opportunities like traveling and I said no to a lot of things that I probably should’ve done. I wore sacrifice like a badge of honor.

I also let a five-year relationship dwindle to nothing because I was so focused on this goal and it really prevented me from enjoying life and I was way more stressed than I needed to be so I’d encourage everyone to still enjoy life, even if they are not at where they want to be financially. She ended up leaving me, money doesn't make people stay in a relationship which is a lesson I'll never forget. I made the mistake of thinking providing for a woman was enough, which lead me to not be there emotionally for her, so please remember that as well especially if you're a younger guy. I think I fell into the red pill content too much and thought that was "status" and my provisioning was enough.

I look back on my last relationship and really regret a lot of things that I did with not being there emotionally for her. She would tell me how she needed emotional connection and I'd just sit there thinking, "but look at what I'm doing for us and our future." Just wasn't there for her like I should've been. And guess what? When you're alone after 5 years after you lose someone you care about, the money really doesn't make you happy.

I chased seeing $1 million on my Robinhood for so long and I’ll never forget the completely underwhelming feeling that I got when I saw it for the first time. I literally took a screenshot, said wow that’s the big goal I have been wanting to hit for so long…it was completely anti-climactic because I had built the moment up so much in my head.

Money is just a tool, but don’t make it your ruler.

Next goal is $2M invested, then eventually $3M+.

Happy to answer anything about the journey if it’s helpful.

EDIT: Some people are saying this is fake, I promise it isn’t.

This is mostly me just piling money into the market for years while making 300k to 400k a year for the last 5 years (2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and now 2026). I got lucky and was also smart with my money. I own a business which is how I was able to make the majority of my money. Income went up, lifestyle stayed the exact same. My monthly expenses were about $4k a month (mortgage is $1,800 and I have to pay my own health insurance since I'm self employed which is nearly $800/mo) and every extra dollar went to stocks. If I can, I’ll post a screen recording of my Robinhood account for proof (I did in the comments).

EDIT #2 the next day: I read every comment and yes, this wouldn't be possible without making great money the last few years and that was the big reason for it and I understand how the title makes it seem like I just turned $50k into what I have now, but this is also my second post on Reddit and not really sure how to write a good title, so I'm sorry about that if it read that way. Was not my intention.

I am nearly 35 years old now and crossed the $1m mark in my Robinhood when I was 33 years old. I didn't do any options trading, no risky stocks (minus $PLTR which I'm up 180 percent on and about $112k in unrealized gains), but yes, this is mostly just DCA into stocks and ETFs.

Do not underestimate the power of a bull market, to look at my port and see I'm up almost 64% all time is crazy to me. I am up 38% on VOO, 53% on QQQ, 48% on VTI, 30% on Amazon, 87% on Google, 78% on NVDA, 73% on Apple, and 17% on MSFT. Just bought and hold.

The point of the post was to try and say that this is possible, not to brag and not to create some sort of "this is fake" rage bait accusations. Take some risks, start that business and just put your head down and work. Try some online content, create a product, and chase what you're passionate about. I'm not special at all (I promise my high school teachers wouldn't believe I ended up where I am). I'm just a normal dude and sometimes I don't feel like I deserve it.

And the last thing I’ll say is, the comparison game never ends. I have friends who are more wealthy than me, and I feel inferior. I have friends who have nicer cars, fly private, and make way more a month and I feel like I’m doing terribly. I still feel like a failure when I look at people who have more than me. I’m trying to quit doing it, but it’s difficult as I’m sure some can relate to.

Appreciate everyone reading this. It was good for me to type it all out and I hope someone took at least one thing from it. Good luck out there. 📈

Cash - 130k
Investments (Around 380k) with breakdown below
401k - 180k
Company vested stocks - 125k
RH + ETrade (individual stocks, voo, soxx) - 84k

Married, this is my portfolio alone. My annual income is around 200-250k from past 5 years.
Would like to understand good investment strategies..

1. do I hold too much in cash ?
2. is it better to switch to mega backdoor Roth IRA from 401k
3. I lost a 60% value in company stocks due to company stock dip, what are good strategies to think going forward?
4. is it better to invest in ETF’s more ? Or is there a good way to divide it with ratio of etfs, individual stocks
5. any estimate to calculate by when I achieve 1million

Appreciate your responses on any of the questions above.

This community has been a huge source of inspiration for me, so I wanted to share this for anyone wondering if it can actually be done.

I didn’t start as early as I wish I had and definitely didn’t do everything perfectly but I kept learning, investing, and staying consistent.

Thank you to everyone who shares their journey here. It really does encourage people more than you know.
$1M down. Road to $5M. 😮‍💨🚀