---
title: 'How to Become a Millionaire on an Average Salary (Optimal Method)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=1vYkLXfv3_M'
video_id: '1vYkLXfv3_M'
date: 2026-08-05
duration_sec: 969
---

# How to Become a Millionaire on an Average Salary (Optimal Method)

> Source: [How to Become a Millionaire on an Average Salary (Optimal Method)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=1vYkLXfv3_M)

## Summary

This video presents a systematic approach to becoming a millionaire on an average salary, using the example of Alex, an electrician earning $62,000 a year. It outlines four key pillars: protecting the gap between income and expenses, investing aggressively, leveraging time, and avoiding leaks through fees. The video emphasizes that savings rate and time are more critical than income level, and provides actionable steps to achieve financial independence.

### Key Points

- **The Math of Becoming a Millionaire** [00:01] — Saving and investing $500 a month can make hitting a million dollars inevitable given enough time. Only 2.5% of Americans have saved in retirement accounts, highlighting the gap between knowledge and action.
- **Two Key Factors: Savings Rate and Time** [00:29] — The size of your paycheck is rarely the determining factor. The two factors that matter most are your savings rate (how much you keep) and the time you have to let your money grow.
- **Introducing Alex the Electrician** [00:43] — Alex lives in Columbus, Ohio, and earns $62,000 a year as an electrician. He never breaks six figures, but the video will show how an ordinary income can become a million dollars or more.
- **Understanding Average vs. Median Salary** [01:12] — The average salary is skewed by high earners. The median full-time salary in the US is around $62,000, which represents a normal worker. Alex's income matches this median.
- **Pillar 1: Protect the Gap** [02:19] — The gap is the difference between what you earn and what you keep. If you spend everything you earn, the gap is zero. Small, frequent expenses and lifestyle inflation are the main culprits that erode the gap.
- **Savings Rate Matters More Than Salary** [03:15] — A friend earning $700,000 a year struggles to save due to lifestyle inflation. Alex, saving 10-15% of his $62,000, keeps more dollars at the end of the day. Savings rate is the more important factor.
- **Actionable Tips to Protect the Gap** [04:23] — Write down spending vs. income to see your gap. Don't ignore small savings: use grocery digital coupons, negotiate bills, and track expenses to increase your gap.
- **Pillar 2: Invest Aggressively** [05:04] — Investing aggressively and consistently is more important than what you invest in. Alex saving $500 a month in an S&P 500 index fund can cross $1.5 million by retirement if he starts at 25.
- **The Cost of Delaying** [05:46] — Starting at 35 yields only $680,000 by 65, a $870,000 loss due to a 10-year delay. Starting early is crucial, but it's never too late; increasing savings rate can compensate.
- **Catching Up Later in Life** [06:14] — A 45-year-old with $87,000 saved can reach $1.2 million by 67 by saving $1,000 a month. Even starting from zero at 45, saving $1,000 a month yields $665K by 67.
- **Action Items for Investing** [06:39] — Open a retirement account (ideally Roth IRA), pick a low-cost broad-based index fund, and set up automatic monthly transfers. Automate to avoid relying on motivation.
- **Challenge: Save More Than 10%** [07:17] — If you already save 10%, aim for 15-20%. Alex saving 15% yields $2.4 million, and 20% yields $3.2 million. Lifestyle inflation is the biggest enemy.
- **Pillar 3: The Power of Time** [08:10] — Time is the most precious resource. The longer you stay invested, the more compounding works. Alex's balance grows modestly for 20 years, then accelerates dramatically.
- **Compounding Inflection Point** [08:37] — In year 20, Alex's balance is $283,000; by year 30, it's $718,000; by year 34, it's $1.015 million. He makes more in those 4 years than in the first 20 years of contributions.
- **Warren Buffett's Example** [09:31] — Buffett was worth $3 billion at 60, but over $146 billion today. More than 99% of his fortune was built after age 50, illustrating the power of long-term compounding.
- **Don't Interrupt Compounding** [10:14] — Withdrawing or selling during market drops interrupts gains. Missing the best 10 days in the market reduces gains by 56%, and missing 20 or 30 days reduces them by 74% and 84%.
- **Best Days Happen During Bad Markets** [11:07] — Good days often occur during bad markets. Panic selling almost guarantees you'll miss the best days. The action item is to do nothing during turbulent times.
- **Pillar 4: Avoid Leaking Returns** [11:35] — Two ways to leak returns: paying high fees and not taking advantage of free money. Expense ratios and asset-under-management fees can significantly reduce your balance.
- **The Impact of Fees** [12:01] — A 1% annual fee on a $100,000 portfolio reduces its value by nearly $30,000 over 20 years compared to a 0.25% fee. Alex with a 1% fee ends up with $350,000 less over 40 years.
- **Financial Advisor Fees** [12:56] — Advisors charging 1% of your portfolio annually can cost $5,000 a year on a $500,000 portfolio. This is a significant opportunity cost, though advisors may be worth it for complex situations.
- **Take Advantage of Free Money** [13:35] — Free money includes employer 401k match, high-yield account interest, health savings accounts (triple tax advantaged), and cashback credit cards (if you avoid interest).
- **Employer Match Example** [13:59] — 63% of retirement plans have a matching mechanism. If Alex's company matches 100% up to 6% of his salary, he gets $3,720 a year, worth about 7 months of his normal contributions.
- **The Common Thread: No Need to Earn More** [14:26] — All four pillars focus on behavior and time, not on earning more. Alex never breaks six figures, yet becomes a millionaire through his savings rate and investing habits.
- **Acknowledging Challenges** [15:07] — Living in a high-cost area on $62k makes it harder to have a gap. The first battle is to create a gap, which may require tracking expenses, cutting costs, or finding extra income.
- **Final Call to Action** [15:47] — The question is whether you want one, two, or three million or more. The video encourages viewers to implement the pillars and check out a related video on financial strategies by income.

### Conclusion

Becoming a millionaire on an average salary is achievable through disciplined saving, aggressive investing, and patience. The four pillars—protecting the gap, investing aggressively, leveraging time, and avoiding fees—are within anyone's control, regardless of income level.

## Transcript

salary isn't luck. If you start young enough and you have the right plan in The math shows you that if you're able to save and invest $500 a month, that hitting a million dollars invested is inevitable given enough time. So, why is
there? Well, quote, according to the most recent figures from the Federal Reserve's survey of consumer finances, only about 2.5% of all Americans saved in their retirement accounts. In my opinion, there are several factors as
rarely has to do with the size of your paycheck. The two factors that make you with your money, and number two, it comes down to how much time you have. Those are the ultimate determining factors in how much of a millionaire you
going to focus on the four pillars that will turn an average salary into a a little bit more concrete, we're going to use an example person the whole way call this person Alex the electrician. He lives in Columbus, Ohio, and he makes
$62,000 a year as an electrician. He's a normal everyday man, and he never will break six figures in his career, but you'll see precisely how an ordinary income will become a million dollars or even more. Now, before we get into the
have to define the starting zone of where we're at because average salary is one of the most misunderstood numbers in personal finance. If you were to Google America, you're going to see figures ranging from 66K per year or even up to
70K per year. The thing is is that's the mean, so in math terms, that's adding up everyone's income and dividing it by the number of people, but the problem with that is that a small number of extremely high earners are going to drag that
include the people that make like 10 million bucks a year, and if those outliers are included, the average income that you see on Google is much represents a normal worker is going to be the median. That's the person that's
right smack-dab in the middle where half the workers earn more and half of workers earn less. As of 2026, the median full-time salary in the United States is right around $62,000 per year, and that's Alex, the electrician from
Ohio. Now, a funny coincidence here is that the median electrician in America also earns about $62,000 a year. It's just a coincidence. Maybe I chose it on know. Now that we know the income we're looking at, let's actually build Alex
into a millionaire starting with pillar number one, which is to protect the gap. This sounds really easy, yet so many people have a really hard time with this between what you earn and what you actually keep. If Alex makes $62,000 a
year and he spends 62K per year, his gap is going to be literally zero. And the uncomfortable truth about money here is that many people won't have this gap spend because of their behavior around money. It's usually not going to be one
the gap. It's usually the small nickel-and-dime transactions that add up four times a week. Maybe there's a credit card balance accruing interest at 22%. Maybe you just opt for a slightly nicer apartment that was an extra $150 a
you could afford. These are all little decisions that add up to a lot of extra dollars that leak out of your bank account and therefore leak out of your investments. The one idea that matters the most in this entire pillar is that
much more than your salary, especially in the cases where you have an average shared this example on the channel before, but I have a friend who's a VP at a tech company right now, and as of 2025, he was making $700,000 per year.
Now, at a party, he actually shared with me that he was having a hard time making bit weird because of how much money he was making, but it really adds up when two kids going to private school, he has a mortgage that's slightly out of his
making payments on. The thing with him is that he let his lifestyle get a even told me that once he got to his current lifestyle, he could not go back. move his kids out of private school, so
where he can either earn more money and then save more of that, or he needs to reduce his expenses in order to save more, but behaviorally he's just having I'm trying to make. My friend makes about the same amount of money in a
single month that Alex, our electrician, makes all year. Yet, it's Alex who saves 10 to 15% of his $62,000 per year who actually keeps more dollars at the end of the day. And so, savings rate is the more important factor here. So, some
Number one, write down how much you are spending versus how much you are making and see what your gap is. And number two is not to ignore the small stuff. So, there are always going to be a little bit of extra ways to save money across
actually going to increase your gap and protect your gap. For example, grocery digital coupons, and sometimes you can save a lot of money if you just download their mobile app and use it when you're shopping in store. Another example is to
bill or your internet and try to negotiate them downward. And lastly, you can always track your expenses, which will help you increase your gap as well finances. So, that's pillar number one. It's not about being cheap with your
being about intentional about where the money is going and knowing that your savings rate matters. Pillar number two is all about investing aggressively and much more than what you actually invest in. Let's run Alex the electrician's
actual numbers here. Let's say he saves 10% of his income. That means he's going to probably save around $500 a month or $6,000 a year. Here's what $500 a month becomes by the age of 65 depending on what age he starts. Now, as you can see,
if he starts at the age of 25, Alex the electrician, who never earns more than six figures in his life, he'll actually cross over $1.5 million by retirement if he can invest in an S&P 500 index fund at $500 a month. So, what I want you to
an average salary is that it's the baseline outcome if you're able to start early. Now, you can see that if Alex starts at the age of 35, by the time he's 65, his balance is only $680,000. The 10-year delay essentially cost him
over 870K, so you have to start early when it comes to this. Now, if you're 40 that it's too late here. While time is Alex's superpower because he might be really young, at age 40 and up, you can still pull the savings rate lever.
First, if you're 45, you're probably not starting from zero because the median 45-year-old has around $87,000 saved in America, and that amount should be starting at the age of 45 with around
aggressive, sure, so you might have to save $1,000 a month, but if you're able to do that by 67, you can still reach $1.2 million. Even if you start from literally zero at the age of 45, if you save $1,000 a
month, by the time you're 67, you can have 665K, and by the time you're 70, it's closer to 80K. So, the genuine action item for First, you want to open a retirement account. Ideally, it's a Roth IRA,
of people. Then, you want to pick a low-cost, broad-based index fund and set up automatic monthly transfers. You want to automate this so that your portfolio doesn't depend on you remembering it or feeling motivated that day because if it
depends on those things, chances are you might not do it. The highest ROI thing you can do after this video is done is to ensure that your automatic transfer retirement account going. Now, the challenge for you is that if you're
Humphrey, I already save 10% of my income." Well, the challenge for you then is to save more than 10%. Maybe go to 15 or 20%. If Alex were to save 15 or 20% instead of 10%, let's see his numbers. So, at 15%, by the time he
reaches 65, he'll have about $2.4 million, and at 20%, that becomes $3.2 million. Therefore, his biggest enemy in life is going to be lifestyle inflation. future, he's going to face the choice between choosing to increase his
Most people like my friend who makes 700k per year and saves very little of it, people choose to inflate their life. The trap here is that it's very easy to upgrade your life, but it's very hard to
that makes around the average salary, you have to understand that your superpower is your savings rate. Every time you get a raise, you want to keep to allocate that extra money towards your investments. Now, that way you
don't just become a millionaire, you actually become a multi-millionaire. The number three and that's the concept of time. Now, we cannot make more time, nobody can buy more of, unless maybe you
machines. So, in that way time is our most precious resource. In terms of investing, it also works in your favor because the longer you stay invested, end of any compound interest graph is when exponential gains start to happen.
Let's take a look at Alex again. Say he invests $6,000 a year and earns a return the graph looks like the following. In years 1 through 20, it looks pretty modest. His money is growing, but it hasn't quite hit that escape velocity
yet. But, in year 20, his total balance is around $283,000. But, now look look at year 30. His balance has hit 718k and after four more years, so 34 years total, he'd have about 1.015 million dollars. And that's
pretty crazy because that means in the four years from year 30 to 34, he made more money in those four years than the first 20 years of him contributing to illustrate to you that compounding really hits the inflection point really
late in the curve, which means late in your time horizon. This is such a hard that takes a lot of faith and trust knowing that the math is going to work. What's even crazier though is I did this so if Alex stays invested and invests
for 54 years total, which is a little unrealistic, but let's just say he stays sake of this example, he does it for 54 years. His total balance will grow to roughly $5.9 million. The only thing that we changed here was
in modern times is Warren Buffett. He was worth around $3 billion during his 60th birthday, but today he's worth over $146 billion. And the fact that nobody brings up is that more than 99% of his fortune has been built after the age of
50. Now, he was already a successful investor at the ages of 26, 30, 33, 37. Basically, any age before the age of 50, he was considered quite successful. But, my favorite thing about him is that like any classic compound interest graph, all
one thing about time and investing is that the compounding only really works if you don't interrupt it at all. One of the ways that people interrupt their gains is by withdrawing or selling their investments when the market drops.
multitude of reasons. Perhaps they need to withdraw some money to buy a house, sell because they're panicked about how the market is going. Your portfolio growth is influenced heavily by being invested on the best performing days of
lose those best days. You can see that with this graph or table that if you miss just the best 10 days in the market, that your gains are 56% less, and missing 20 or 30 of the best days will lead to 74% and 84% less gains
respectively as well. Now, hopefully this puts it into perspective. Just 10 days out of 20 years, and you will destroy more than half of your returns. So, when do the best days actually happen? Well, the data shows that good
days usually happen during bad markets. So, roughly half the time a good day of the time it's going to happen in the first 2 months of a bull market, and 22% rest of the bull market period. So, the person who panic sells to feel safe is
almost mathematically guaranteed to be sitting in cash on the exact days that my biggest action item for pillar number three is that if the market is going through a turbulent time, it's to do nothing. If you can just make sure to
not panic sell and stay invested even during tough market times, it's probably the most attractive play long-term for your portfolio. Pillar number four is a leaking returns and it's going to be twofold. So first, we want to avoid fees
and second, we want to take advantage of free money. In terms of avoiding fees, pay attention to expense ratios when you are purchasing ETFs or index funds and the expense ratio will just tell you what the yearly fee of that fund is when
fund from Vanguard, for example, is going to charge you around 0.05% per year. Now, there are some ETFs and managed mutual funds out there with higher expense ratios of 0.5% and even up to 1%. A 1% fee on a $10,000
investment is now $100 per year and to show you how that can really affect your overall balance, take a look at this graph from the SEC of a portfolio size of 100k. You can see here that in 20 years, a 1% annual fee reduces your
portfolio value by nearly $30,000 compared to a portfolio with a 0.25% annual fee. So Alex, our electrician, if he's investing $6,000 a year and earning 8%, remember he will end up with $1.55 million.
But let's say he encounters a 1% fee over his 40-year timeline, he doesn't end up with $1.55 million anymore, he ends up with $350,000 less or about 1.2 million. Another area where you might leak fees is by hiring
an asset under management based financial advisor. These advisors will typically charge around 1% of your entire portfolio worth every single year. That means if you have 500k invested, that's $5,000 a year every
year whether or not they make you money. And the part that stings is that 1% isn't just $5,000 this year, it's $5,000 that's no longer compounding for you for opportunity cost. Now, I'm not saying every financial advisor is a rip-off, a
their money especially for complex situations like tax planning, estate planning, and more. But, if all you need is a financial advisor to buy you a low-cost index fund and hold it, then you might not need to hand over a 1% fee
just to do that. The second strategy of not leaking returns is to make sure you take advantage of free money. You can get free money many ways, but the truest forms are going to be your employer 401k match, any high-yield account interest,
a health savings account since it's triple tax advantaged, and I would even argue a cashback credit card is a form of free money so long as you can stay According to a Vanguard report, 63% of retirement plans out there have some
sort of matching mechanism. So, if Alex, our electrician, has access to one, he definitely should be taking advantage. If his company offers to match 100% of up to 6% of his salary, he will add about $3,720
contributions every year, which is worth about 7 months of his normal contributions of $500 per month. Since Alex is already contributing about 10% of his salary, he easily clears the 6% threshold and grabs the entire match.
So, in his case, if he were offered it, he should take advantage. So, let's pillars all have one thing in common, and I want you guys to play along here and try to guess what it is as we recap each one. The first pillar was to
protect the gap, making sure that you have a good spread between what you earn had to do with investing aggressively and consistently. That didn't mean investing in a low-cost index fund over a long period of time. The third pillar
Now, if you don't have enough time, you can always increase your savings rate. And the last pillar is all about not losing money to fees and taking notice the one thing that wasn't present in all of these pillars? I never told
more money. Our electrician, Alex from Columbus, Ohio, he never breaks six anyways because of his behavior and his here because I'm not going to pretend like it's completely effortless. If you
live in a higher cost of living area making 62k per year, it's going to be a lot more difficult to have a gap between what you make and what you spend. So, if pillar one just yet, your first battle isn't the investing part, it's just
means you might have to track every expense and cut some of the biggest ones or you might have to find a cheaper living situations or in this specific extra income on the side. In order to execute today, you actually need this
the question is whether or not you will not you want one, two, or even three million or more. All right, guys, thanks for being here. If you're interested in my video on the best financial
strategies by income, that'll be linked right here. It has a lot more advanced your wealth. I'll see you guys in that video or a future one on the channel. video or a future one on the channel. Thank you again. Peace.