My First $1 Million: Retired Middle School Teacher, 68, North Carolina

Welcome to Kiplinger's My First $1 Million series, in which we hear from people who have made $1 million. They're sharing how they did it and what they're doing with it.

This time, we hear from a retired and married 68-year-old former middle school teacher. He's from Michigan, lives in North Carolina now and has lived in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Illinois.

See our earlier profiles, including a writer in New England, a literacy interventionist in Colorado, a semiretired entrepreneur in Nashville and an events industry CEO in Northern New Jersey. (See all of the profiles here.)

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Each profile features one person or couple, who will always be completely anonymous to readers, answering questions to help our readers learn from their experience.

These features are intended to provide a window into how different people build their savings — they're not intended to provide financial advice.

THE BASICS

How did you make your first $1 million?

Our first million came over 33 years of steady investments. I started in 1985 by investing $25 a month in IRA/mutual funds with the goal of one day maxing out the $1,000-a-year limit for both my wife and me.

Every raise, location change and career change, we had a goal of never going backward financially.

Homeownership was a big part of our first million. In 1992, we bought our first house for $95,000. It was a fixer-upper.

We sold it in 2007 for $264,000 and bought our next house for $285,000. We sold that in 2022 for $674,000 and paid cash for our last house.

I kept chasing the IRA limits as they went up over time and maxed out both mine and my wife's IRA.

When workplace 401(k)s, 403(b)s and Roths came into play, we took advantage of them by saving to the match and up to 10% of our pay.

What are you doing with the money?

In 2018, when we hit our first million, our focus was on retiring and relocating.

For the next four years, we maxed out every tax-advantaged account we could and started to save more cash to deal with sequencing risk at retirement and to live off of savings — and to avoid touching our investments — till we hit 70 to take the max of Social Security.

We didn't do anything different at that point in our life other than dreaming of our next stage in life — retirement.

THE FUN STUFF

Did you do anything to celebrate?

When we hit our first million, we also had just paid off our mortgage in 11 years.

We went out to dinner, and I think not having a mortgage was more exciting for us than the million.

Does anyone know you're a millionaire?

No one knows but our children. I have tried to communicate with family and friends over the decades on the importance of saving early, but we found that most people don't want to talk about what they are doing or not doing and don't care to share.

We feel now that our wealth would only open the door for those who wouldn't listen then and want help.

What is the best part of making $1 million?

The second million comes so much faster than the first. What took 33 years for the first took only six years for the second million.

Did your life change?

I would say our life is not that much different. We have always been generous with our church and other organizations.

We never went out to eat much and still enjoy the simple things in life.

We now have a nice budget line item called "trips."

Did you retire early?

We both retired at 65. You know that Medicare thing.

LOOKING BACK

Anything you would do differently?

Start saving at age 15 when I got my first job — $5 a month and the habit developed earlier in life would have paid dividends later in life with less pain.

What financial advice would you give your younger self?

Don't wait for our education system to teach you how to manage your money. Find those who have made it and pick their brains and start saving earlier.

Did you read any financial publications that helped you on your journey?

Kiplinger newsletters, Common Sense: A Simple Plan for Financial Independence by Art Williams and The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko. I also am a big follower of Dave Ramsey.

Did you work with a financial adviser?

Not until we hit our second million. I knew that if something happened to me, my wife would need support in that area. We work with Empower, formally Personal Capital.

Did anyone help you early on?

My wife's uncle was a successful professional who was not afraid to share how he was investing his money. I showed an interest, and he opened up his world of investing to me.

His big takeaway was time and the magic of compound interest.

LOOKING AHEAD

Plans for your next $1 million?

My wife and I have already booked a 105-day cruise around the world.

Any advice for others trying to make their first $1 million?

Start now and set up your life so you pay yourself first and not put yourself at the end of the monthly bills when there is nothing left. And stay out of debt, except for a mortgage.

Do you have an estate plan?

Yes, we have an estate plan. It's a simple will because everything is in a beneficiary-designated account besides the house.

We split up the house to be donated to charitable organizations. We have powers of attorney and health care directives.

What do you wish you'd known …

Before you retired? Money can only give you peace of mind, not happiness.

When you first started saving? I wish I understood more fully the power of compound interest. We might have downsized even more in the early years so as to save more sooner.

When you first started investing? I started with front-loaded mutual funds, and I wish I had researched and started investing in no-load mutual funds first.

When you first started working with a financial professional? That it wasn't that hard to give up control to a professional, and I didn't anticipate the weight that would be lifted off my shoulders when I no longer had to micromanage my investments.

Anything you'd like to add?

I think that in order to be successful in investing, you have to believe in free enterprise and capitalism. You also have to have faith in the fact that the markets go up and down but over time continue to climb. Consentient investments over time leverage dollar-cost averaging.

My happiest times in investing were when the market went down, and my monthly investments bought more shares, and then it went up.

The naysayers in my life thought I was crazy during these periods. "Crazy like a fox!" I'd say.

If you have made $1 million or more and would like to be anonymously featured in a future My First $1 Million profile, please fill out and submit this Google Form or send an email to MyFirstMillion@futurenet.com to receive the questions. We welcome all stories that add up to $1 million or more in your accounts, although we will use discretion in which stories we choose to publish, to ensure we share a diversity of experiences. We also might want to verify that you really do have $1 million. Your answers may be edited for clarity.

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