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0 pointsechelon4y ago0 comments

Nobody hired into Amazon now is going to become a millionaire. Their total comp packages are the smallest of the MAGMA and their stock has only 3x'd in the last seven years.

To become a millionaire, you have to get into a company where your equity will 10x or more. You'll have to pay cost of living, capital gains, and you'll probably want to diversify a bit along the way.

For this to happen with Amazon, inflation will have to be wild, or they'll have to enter and win a lot of new markets. I can't even image a $10-20T Amazon.

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6 comments · 2 top-level

bradleyjg4y ago· 3 in thread

To become a millionaire, you have to get into a company where your equity will 10x or more.

Maybe if you want to be a millionaire at 25, but a career is longer than three years.

If you start at $150k, get a raise to $250k within 3 years, and $325k by 6—-$1 million net worth should be very very achievable before retirement.

casralad4y ago

I started at $50k, never made more than $200k in a year. My net worth will be a million well before I'm 65.

A million isn't what it used to be.

bradleyjg4y ago

Right. The term millionaire lost its original meaning and nothing new has replaced it. Even if we go back to the 1820s when the term was coined, the inflation rate hasn’t been nearly high enough for billionaire to work.

Decamillionare is probably about right but it’s a mouthful.

majani4y ago

A million won't do much in maybe 10-20 cities across the world. Outside of that, a million dollars liquid is still life changing, retirement money

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posguy4y ago· 1 in thread

Take your $120k a year job at Amazon, buy a $800k house in Seattle, hold for a decade and your a millionaire with the equity in your house alone, nevermind the $1.2 million you earned at Amazon during that time (and what you chose to invest it in).

echelonOP4y ago

That's assuming 100% of everything you earn is saved. Cost of living is high in Seattle. You're also in a higher tax bracket. How much of that income will you actually be saving?

If prices remain fixed, after ten years, you have about 25% equity in your home (not including the down payment, which makes it closer to 40-50%). Assuming the housing market keeps going up, then maybe you'll be a millionaire by this point with just your home equity.

But this assumes you aren't renting. You first have to put up $200k liquid for the down payment. New hires won't have this right away, and the housing market will keep getting more expensive in a world where "home equity makes you a millionaire".

I'd still wager that only the most frugal will become millionaires within ten years.

Amazon isn't some magical entity making it happen either. You could attempt this strategy with any engineering job in Seattle.

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