How I’ll Become a Millionaire, Even With a 0% Savings Rate

Let’s say your goal is to be a millionaire by the time you’re 65, meaning maintaining a decent savings rate. The younger you are, the easier this is to attain – especially if you consistently get high-paying salary increases and optimize your spending. If you have this goal and want to know if you can ever take your foot off the gas, good news! It might be a hell of a lot closer than you think.

Even better news: you might not even need further savings to hit this goal. I’ve done the math, and the numbers do not lie.

Warning: several tables ahead!

How to Become a Millionaire By Age

The first table here shows how much money you need saved at every age in order to reach a million-dollar net worth at age 65. This assumes a 7% return on your index fund investments, and also assumes you keep your grubby paws off of it. No selling or liquidating here! This is your future million at stake!

Age	Amount Needed to Reach $1m at 65 (7% return)
25	$67,000
26	$71,700
27	$76,700
28	$82,000
29	$87,800
30	$94,000
31	$100,500
32	$107,500
33	$115,000
34	$123,000
35	$132,000
36	$141,000
37	$151,000
38	$161,000
39	$173,000
40	$185,000
41	$198,000
42	$212,000
43	$226,000
44	$242,000
45	$259,000
46	$277,000
47	$297,000
48	$318,000
49	$340,000
50	$364,000
51	$389,000
52	$416,000
53	$445,000
54	$477,000
55	$510,000
56	$546,000
57	$584,000
58	$625,000
59	$668,500
60	$715,000
61	$765,000
62	$819,000
63	$876,000
64	$938,000
65	$1,000,000

It’s not as out-of-reach as you’d expect.

Yep, according to this graph I’m about five years ahead of schedule for reaching a million with my current net worth. If you’re looking at this and realizing you’ve got some catch-up to do, congratulations – you now know the exact numbers you should reach for.

As you can see, the younger you are the less amount of money you need to save outright. If you’re thirty years old, you’ll know to bridge the gap to $130,000 in the next five years. If you’re younger, there’s more wiggle room. Once you hit that number, that’s it – you’re done saving for a traditional retirement. You can then use whatever extra money you have for whatever else you want to. That’s freeing.

But it gets better.

You Still Need Less than You Think

Here’s what I didn’t tell you: seven percent is actually below the historical average of S&P returns. If we take the ACTUAL historical average, which is 10%, the outlook looks a lot rosier.

Age	Amount Needed to Reach $1m at 65 (10% return)
25	$22,500
26	$25,000
27	$27,000
28	$30,000
29	$33,000
30	$36,000
31	$40,000
32	$44,000
33	$48,000
34	$53,000
35	$58,000
36	$64,000
37	$71,000
38	$78,000
39	$85,000
40	$94,000
41	$103,000
42	$114,000
43	$125,000
44	$138,000
45	$151,000
46	$166,500
47	$183,000
48	$201,500
49	$222,000
50	$244,000
51	$268,000
52	$295,000
53	$324,500
54	$357,000
55	$393,000
56	$432,000
57	$475,000
58	$522,500
59	$575,000
60	$632,000
61	$695,500
62	$765,000
63	$841,500
64	$926,000
65	$1,000,000

Compound interest is an amazing friend.

She also pays you more when you start early. If I still wanted a million at 65 I wouldn’t actually need to reach six figures in investments until after I’m forty. If I had to start this from scratch, I’d need less than $40,000 before I turn thirty. And if I wanted to know how much I should have saved at 25? That number is $22,500. If you manage to save roughly $7,500 a year after graduating college, you might be totally done saving for retirement while still in your 20s.

You could call me an overachiever. 😉 Since I have less than this saved, I’ll become a millionaire even if I never save a penny again. All I have to do is keep my hands off my investments and let it run its course.

I managed to do all of this too after starting out in my career without connections, a prestigious degree, or some high-flying work experience. And now I’ll become a millionaire even with a 0% savings rate! If this random cornfield kid can do this, so can the average person like yourself.

The Options for You, a Future Millionaire

“So you’re done saving for forever, right? Because there is zero room for saving in the budget now that you’ve hit that goal, right Darcy???”

Duh, of course not. This is in no way suggesting I’m throwing in the towel and declaring myself Never Saving Forever More. We’re all pragmatic people here, myself included. Why would I suddenly start blowing my ENTIRE salary? I didn’t put in the (easy, relaxed, simple) work of optimizing my expenses only to throw that away.

What I like about the metric is that it gives me options. If my job drastically morphs into some hateful thing, I have the option to bounce and go elsewhere at any time (yes, that includes these unprecedented times, too). If I get unlucky and can’t find something with similar/higher pay? I can take something low-paying, no problem. If I do this during a massive recession and I can’t find ANY full-time work? Fuck it, part-time it is. Stocking shelves, Instacart, whatever. I’ll manage just fine.

But those are the rainy-day scenarios while the forecast is nice and sunny. With these options I can do something radical without worrying about starvation or catastrophic failure. My options might include undertaking apprenticeships, or directing a film, or volunteering abroad without major financial repercussions. Your dreams – and therefore options – can go even further. Your options might include running for office, or extra luxuries, or starting a local organization. Both of us can play hardball during salary/benefit negotiation, or be more vocal about company/procedural issues, or publish our experiences on the World Wide Web. The world is ours to conquer, thanks to the money we keep in reserve.

My Options in Particular

I can expect at least $65,000 post-tax (and that’s if I didn’t contribute to my HSA or 401k). Even if I spent 36k a year I’d still have a post-tax savings rate of 45%. My spending is less than 30k/year already so adding THOUSANDS more to my budget would meet my definition of “lowkey living large”. I’d have to spend 3k per month to hit that. What would I even spend 3k a month on? A car, I guess. Nicer flights. Cheese for days.

But none of those things would make me SIGNIFICANTLY happier (or more healthy, I forget if doctors are saying now if cheese is good or not). I’d honestly rather just invest the difference and trust my older self to do as she pleases.

Which will be giving an incredible gift to my older self. If I maintain my savings rate and current salary, my net worth will more than double to $250,000. And if I maintain it for a decade after that, I’ll be a millionaire at 37 years old.

Age	Investment Growth (7% return + $40k yearly savings)
25	$107,000
26	$157,290
27	$211,100
28	$268,677
29	$330,285
30	$396,205
31	$466,739
32	$542,211
33	$622,965
34	$709,373
35	$801,829
36	$900,757
37	$1,006,610
38	$1,119,873
39	$1,241,064
40	$1,370,739
41	$1,509,490
42	$1,657,955
43	$1,816,811
44	$1,986,788
45	$2,168,663
46	$2,363,270
47	$2,571,499
48	$2,794,304
49	$3,032,705
50	$3,287,794
51	$3,560,740
52	$3,852,791
53	$4,165,287
54	$4,499,657
55	$4,857,433
56	$5,240,253
57	$5,649,871
58	$6,088,162
59	$6,557,133
60	$7,058,933
61	$7,595,858
62	$8,170,368
63	$8,785,094
64	$9,442,850
65	$10,146,650

This is all in today’s dollars and assumes I never get a raise, never get promoted, and never make a dollar in side income. The most amazing part is how doable this all is. I’m not eating cat food to do this or living in a van by the river. This came about from taking enough time over the course of a year to tweak my life into what I needed it to be.

Why I Don’t Have a 0% Savings Rate

And all told, I have an excellent life. I live on my own in a nice apartment, I do interesting work, the company pays me well, and I have good health. My coworkers like me, and I’ve got friends outside of work happy to spend time with me. My neighborhood is nice, my city is REALLY nice, and my state is well-run with many resources open to me. I have TWO libraries nearby that are both super nice, and I also have several grocery stores nearby which lets me get non-expensive things. The list goes on!

I don’t even need thirty grand to keep most of that, either. If I wanted to, I could get a roommate to split the rent with and bring my expenses down to $20,000. Which would mean saving $50,000 a year instead, and bringing my financial milestones much closer.

This might happen as there’s other stuff I plan to save up for besides retirement; a house and my brother’s college are the more immediate goals, with more possible the more time goes on. Maybe I’ll even go full FIRE and retire early before I’m forty years old, and can point to this site as proof of my humble beginnings.

Remember, the best way to reach it is by lowering your expenses and increasing your income. I got you covered if you’re looking for a new job. Looking for side income? Still got you covered. Believe you can’t get a better job in 2020? Guess what, I still got you! All I ask in return is you point to this site as well once you see that six- or seven-figure amount. That future is real, and it’s there for you as long as you reach for it.

Now the only question is this: what are you doing to reach your money goals?