My First $1 Million: Retired Self-Employed Attorney, 75, Coast of Washington

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THE BASICS
THE FUN STUFF
LOOKING BACK
LOOKING AHEAD

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 self-employed attorney, 75, who spent most of his life in Portland, Ore., but now lives on the Washington coast.

See our earlier profiles, including a writer in New England, a semiretired entrepreneur in Nashville, an events industry CEO in Northern New Jersey, an early retiree in Western North Carolina and an Air Force Veteran in Duluth, Ga.

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.

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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?

I made my first million by salting away any legal fees that exceeded my routine living expenses. I had a hardscrabble childhood and upbringing. I was not an outstanding student in college or law school, but I did OK.

I hung out a shingle right after law school, and I worked as a public defender for years. As the decades rolled by, I became a respected trial lawyer. Eventually, I shifted my practice to personal injury cases. Many of these cases made fees in the multiple hundreds of thousands. I organized my law practice as a professional corporation.

A man in a business suit holds law books and a judge's gavel.

Meanwhile, I bought several low-end residential rental buildings scattered around the Portland, Ore., area. These began paying me a monthly rent beginning when I was about age 55. After managing these for 20 years, I sold them all.

At about age 45, I established a defined contribution plan, which was a great wealth-building device. This is a valuable savings plan available to small-business owners. Whenever I got a few bucks up, the money went into my plan, and from there, I just kept it in an index fund with low management fees.

When I hit about age 50, the money in the plan began to noticeably add up and multiply. It eventually grew to $1 million. Now it's closer to $3 million.

Four balls of money, each bigger than the one next to it.

What are you doing with the money?

I did nothing with my first million because it was locked in a pretax retirement plan. I just read the monthly statements and watched it grow.

THE FUN STUFF

Did you do anything to celebrate?

I went on a camping trip. Notice that I have lived in the Pacific Northwest for my entire adult life.

A view of the Pacific Northwest and a tent.

What is the best part of making $1 million?

The slow but steady accretion of stock market investments.

Did your life change?

No change in lifestyle. I do not seek "prestige." I reject life in the fast lane.

Any plans to retire early?

I retired at age 72. I worked for as long as I could.

LOOKING BACK

Anything you would do differently?

I would set up a defined contribution plan at an earlier age. These plans require that a certain percentage of the money in the plan has to be paid into retirement accounts for my firm's employees.

I cheerfully made these transfers to them because those employees were instrumental to my success.

Did you work with a financial adviser?

I began working with a financial planner when I was about 35.

LOOKING AHEAD

Plans for your next $1 million?

I am now living off the payments from my retirement accounts.

Do you have an estate plan?

I have an estate plan that gives pretty much the whole estate to my only child.

A man sits in front of his coffee table and works on a laptop.

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

Find a job you like, become self-employed, keep your nose to the wheel. Set up a professional corporation or the like to qualify for special retirement and investment programs.

When you get some surplus capital into a plan, leave it there until age 65-70.

What do you wish you'd known …

Before you retired? That retirement can be kinda boring.

When you first started investing? Put money in the stock market and let it sit.

When you first started working with a financial professional? To learn about defined benefit programs and the like.

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.

TOPICS

As Contributed Content Editor for the Adviser Intel channel on Kiplinger.com, Joyce edits articles from hundreds of financial experts about retirement planning strategies, including estate planning, taxes, personal finance, investing, charitable giving and more. She has more than 30 years of editing experience in business and features news, including 15 years in the Money section at USA Today.