Also, who, even in the high salary brackets, can save $50k/year?
http://www.moneychimp.com/features/market_cagr.htm
...over the last 40 years an S&P 500 index fund had annualized returns of 10% before inflation adjustment, 5.5% adjusted for inflation. That's, like, twice as good as my guess! And no need to invest in real estate for that: That's a Vanguard index fund.
Of course, over the last ten years the equivalent annualized return is only 1.5%, which goes to show you that (a) depressed global economies are no fun and (b) there is some rationale behind my choosing to use a more conservative number.
As for "how does one manage to save 50k per year?", the sad answer is that I don't, and most of us probably don't. But many tech workers could, in theory. The median income in San Francisco is "only" $42k:
http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2011/03/07/bay-area-tops-s...
More than half the people in SF are staying alive somehow on less than $50k per year. Figure out how to live like them and it might not be hard to save $50k per year... if you have a Bay Area developer's salary. Which, obviously, is not the case for everyone.
Also, making an additional $50k per year is a reachable goal, relative to most get-rich-quick schemes. It's $4200 per month. The OP is halfway there, with one $2k/mo product.
When I'm actually making money I can transfer into American dollars again, I'll be dumping some fixed amount of it straight into those accounts for investment.
However, I currently make far less than $50k/year due to being a grad-student, so it's not like I can save nearly that much.
The second million only takes ten more years. Nine years after that, at year 35, you get your third million, at which point you might consider retiring and living indefinitely on your $85k annual investment income.