Joining the Million Dollar Club

Million Dollar Club Icon. The Million Dollar Club was created by J Money form Budgets are Sexy. To be apart of the club, you have to pledge your intentions of reaching one million dollars!

What is the Million Dollar Club?

The Million Dollar Club is a club created by J Money from Budgets are Sexy. The intention is to create a list of realistic goals that need to be reached, for you to attain millionaire status.

The purpose behind the club is to write your millionaire goals down, to to help remind yourself why you are saving. It’s a great idea to review the list every couple of months, to help keep you motivated. I have chosen to share my list with you!

Becoming a Millionaire vs Reaching Financial Independence

Becoming a millionaire and reaching financial independence are not the same thing. Surprisingly, you don’t need to become a millionaire to be financially independent. Depending on your costs of living, and your investment returns. How much passive income do you need to be generating each year? If your able to achieve a 7.2% return, and you have only $30,000 worth of expenses per year, then you would need just over $415,000 in total to be financially free (this is based on assumptions of exchange rates, tax payments, your expenses, risk tolerance etc.). Generally, most people would need less than $1,000,000 to achieve Financial Freedom.

With $1,000,000 in the bank, your looking at a cool $72,000 each year (based on 7.2%). Not bad.

My Million Dollar Club Pledge(s)

For me, to become a millionaire, I pledge to do the following (each year):

Continue blogging
Blogging is great and it serves multiple purposes:

  1. My monthly updates keep me accountable for my finances. I am always aware of what position they are in, and always ready to re-distribute as required.
  2. I research a lot of topics before writing all of my articles. This helps with learning about financial independence and various other ways of saving money, and being frugal.
  3. The content can also be helpful to others looking for financial information.
  4. Bringing in side income. Currently the blog doesn’t make much money, however, if I keep going, I am sure I will be able to have the blog as one of my main income streams.

Continue investing in current investments
Each month I have a set amount that I distribute into various investments (P2P Platforms, Crowdlending, Dividend Stocks, Index Funds etc.). I will keep putting that set amount away each month and watch the miracle of compound interest at work.

Be open and aware of other sources of passive income
Continuing to find other sources of passive income. Currently I have passive income being generated from 7 sources:

  • Dividend payments
  • Peer-2-Peer Loans
  • Peer-2-Business Loans
  • Solar Generation
  • Fractional Real Estate
  • Litigation Funding
  • Website Advertisements
  • Affiliation Links

Spend less than I earn
I will spend less than I earn annually.

Reduce expenses
Currently, the plan is to aggressively pay off the house in 10 years. We are nearing the end of year 2.
The Bills that I can change to cheaper alternatives have been done.

Pay off current debt
Pay off current student loan in a smart and reasonable way. To do this I am using some of my dividends of my investments, to pay down the loan. Find out more here.

Never take on personal debt (excluding mortgage) 
I currently only have a small student loan that I am in the process of paying off (see above), and a loan on my current house. I do not and will not take on debt for purchases (such as a car, travel, or other unnecessary wants).

Keep household expenses low
Reduce food bill by planting and growing my own vegetables. Power bill by having heater set to low during winter. No pay TV or other music or video streaming services.

Become more sustainable
Currently, we are already producing a lot of vegetables and fruit from our garden. Our power is fully generated through renewable sources.

Always have an emergency fund available for when needed
Ensure that:

Continue learning
Continue to learn more about investing and ways of achieving financial freedom. Further learning in developing my website and writing articles

Continue to build my relationships in the financial independence community
By being involved in the Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) community, I am able to learn from the good (and not so good) experiences of others. I will keep commenting on other financial independence blogs and be apart of the wider community. It’s all about the collaboration with other like-minded individuals!

My Current To-Do List (Actionable Items)

  • Pay off my student loans (within 5 years)(~2025)
  • Pay off the mortgage for the house (within 10 years)(~2028)
  • Start accelerating savings, and socking money into dividend stocks and index funds in my Swedish ISK (tax saving account)
  • Grow my blog (side hustle) to a level that I can live off
  • (2020 addition) Create a business to transition away from the 9-5
  • Quit my 9-5 (see above)
  • Become financially independent (not the same as being a millionaire)
  • Build net worth to $1,000,000

My Progress Towards Becoming a Millionaire

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You can follow all of my progress on my returns page, through my monthly updates and through this page here. I don’t share dollar details, however, I do share exactly how much I passively earn (in percentage) from each platform, and my progress towards Financial Independence. You could always plug in your own numbers and determine how long it would take!

I know through saving, being frugal with unimportant things and by investing, I will reach 1 million dollars. Its a matter of WHEN not IF.

How about you? Are you inspired to join the million-dollar club? Head over to Budgets are Sexy by J Money and see the progress of other like-minded people also in the club!

Leave some love in the comments!

Matt

7 thoughts on “Joining the Million Dollar Club”

  1. I didn’t know this was a thing. I clicked over and maybe he’ll let me join since I’m already a multimillionaire. But I don’t have a pledge of things to do since we passed the million mark 15 years ago. But I saw a few other “already”millionaires on there and the Financial Sam who has several million even started over, to raise an additional million in cash, but he’s an uberachiever. I don’t see much point in adding to my investments at this point, except through growth.

    Reply
    • Hi Steveark,
      Thanks for stopping by!
      Congratulations on making it into the Million Dollar Club (and 15 years ago – wow)! As you can tell from my post, I am still a long way off.
      There are other things that you could pledge for, like saving 1 million dollars in a set time, or earning a million from sustainable projects, donate 1 million to charity, or even make a 10 million dollar list!
      Matt

      Reply
  2. Interesting. I think I might need to join it too!

    Is your wealth counted as combined with your spouse or separate?

    Which way are you planning to hit the million? I learned recently that J$’s wealth is combined with his wife, and that’s how others commonly count it too. I rarely do that myself and plan to hit a million by myself – hopefully before turning 40.

    Perhaps I need to accelerate that by making similar pledges, too. Great idea!

    Reply
    • Hi Eelis,

      It could be good to join and just review once every couple of years to see how you are going / if your goals have changed.

      I hadn’t thought of combining my wealth with that of my Wifes. At the moment it’s all separate. I also plan to hit that million by myself. If I do include hers I could aim for the 2 million dollar club?

      You’re doing so well! You will hit that million way before me. If I could do it before 50, I would be happy.

      Matt

      Reply
  3. Think you need to take account of inflation. If return is 7.2% but inflation is 5% then you cannot just sit back as your costs will rise while your income may not. Need to have sufficient return-inflation to be independent

    Reply

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