85% of American millionaires are self-made.

"The Millionaire Next Door" by Stanley

In the 24 years since that book's publishing I absolutely argue that ladder has become more difficult to climb. But hey - what do I know? I'm just a lazy millennial who's now living through his second major recession, with the first one landing directly on when I was entering the work world FT. Thank goodness for my tech career because let. me. tell. you... my peers were struggling. Especially the ones who persisted in Cedar Rapids (blue collar Iowa town).

But sure - 85% of American millionaires are "self-made", whatever the heck that means. I don't doubt that's how they feel about themselves and self report!!!

I read that book when I was in my early 20's. I followed all of its advice, which basically comes down to "live below your means, save, and invest." The truth is I was already following it anyway. My parents lived below their means, and my dad taught me about investing when I was a teenager.

Every generation has recessions to deal with. By the time I was in my mid 30's, I was, indeed, the millionaire next door, though just barely. This was despite the dot-com crash and the great recession...

I'm surprised nobody's come along yet to tell you that you're not self-made because you had parents and they taught you about investing.

My definition of "self made" is not important, my point is that everyone's definition is going to be different.

Here's the thing - I have no idea who you are, what your history is, and I can't make a single comment on the validity of how you got from point A to point B... that is outside of the above compliment really.

What I will tell you is that my anecdotal experience is that no one is out there admitting, "OH YEAH, my parents totally dropped $120k on my education, bought all of my cars, paid my rent, and gave me a free-reign credit card into my 30's." and ironically... I've ran into a TON of those people who self-identify as "self made" which is why I don't take the term seriously and see it as 100% subjective.

TLDR: "self made" is subjective as all heck. I can't comment on your life man - I have no idea who you are. I stand by my original comment that things are getting more difficult in regards to building wealth from nothing. I got snarky against a comment that seemed to just posit a book from the 90's as the entire content of a reply as if that's valid to any conversation.

What if I tell you that my parents did pay for my education? And they gave me a car when I was 16? Or they were fortunate enough to be able buy a computer when I was in elementary school, which definitely contributed to my interests today, many decades later? Am I still self made? Or did that give me too much of a "head start" so I'm not? Was it so long ago now that it doesn't matter?

TLDR: I agree, it's all subjective...

I'd personally say, me too in so many ways... I had my struggles with an early death in the immediate family but it did provide the money to support me into my early start!

Here's the thing - struggle or not I absolutely have been around poverty and have actually done a bit in advocacy in the area. I don't say this for a gold star - just to qualify what I'm about to say.

Being poor is hard. Like really hard. It's expensive in sooo many ways and I freakin' wish more of us had empathy for those people that are struggling in that situation. I see WAY too many folks on HN that are comfortable in highly-paid positions like myself that don't acknowledge these things and even sound angry in regards to how people are "suppose to be"... lemme tell ya... as someone with struggles - man sometimes it's really really hard. Even with some of the insane privileges that I've been afforded.

All-in-all ... I wish more people admitted "man I had a lot of help" regardless if it's a computer in elementary school, or investments in education, etc. I know this has a negative "SJW" spin to it these days, but man... I have been privileged. holy crap I've been privileged. Doesn't diminish my accomplishments, but we need to come to terms that as a society everyone should have as equal of a playing field as possible..!

Besides, I heard the same lament in the 70s, 80s, 90's, 00's, and 10's.

> I don't doubt that's how they feel about themselves and self report!!!

Always better to guess than pick up the book and read it!

My point is that "the market did great" means investors did great; doesn't mean that everyone did great.

> The market has done even better in the last 10 years than in the 90's

is an adequate response to address the GGGGGP's claim that

> that ladder has become more difficult to climb. But hey - what do I know? I'm just a lazy millennial who's now living through his second major recession, with the first one landing directly on when I was entering the work world FT.

Nobody here is denying your claim about the market performance.

e.g. started own business, vs savings + stock market, vs investing in real estate.

But when you weigh by total wealth the Walton and Mars families skew the data in favor of nepotism. It also depends on your opinion of source of personal wealth of Ms Bezos or Ms Jobs (and anyone in similar position) - nepotism or self-made?

Evidence would be nice to have though.

As for me, I've had enough anecdotes to think it's plausible. Just recently we hired a new CTO at my company, and he got the job simply because he was friends with our CEO and he needed a job. Turns out he's completely incompetent...