How Millennials Making $60K Are Becoming Millionaires (It's Not How You Think)
Becoming a millennial millionaire: Impossible dream or very attainable goal? Despite many people assuming that the path to significant wealth is attained only via inheritance, stock picks on par with the foresight of Nostradamus or a lottery windfall, there are a few proven ways to rack up a seven-figure net worth that are worth examination.
If you’re thirty-plus and making a middle-class salary, how can you reach the next rung (or two or more) to reach the lofty status of holding $1,000,000 or better in assets? Let’s take a look.
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Think Outside Your Day Job and Create Your Own Career
If you’re pulling down around $60,000 annually at your day job, no amount of simple raises are going to get you where you need to be in terms of raw income, particularly as wages are weakened by persistent inflation.
Michela Allocca is one millennial who decided she hated her nine-to-five working as a business analyst (earning less than $100,000) and decided to take matters into her own hands by launching a side project — the Break Your Budget brand. As reported by Business Insider, after expanding to TikTok in 2020, her personal finance content quickly snowballed into a huge hit with audiences worldwide — allowing Allocca to dump all that extra revenue directly into investments.
Doing so while avoiding lifestyle creep and “funky” portfolio holdings lead to Allocca hitting the $1 million in net worth mark — and the ability to quit her other job.
Eliminating lifestyle creep was also a factor for fellow millennial Katie Gatti Tassin, of Money With Katie. Her path to $1 million in wealth looks quite similar to Allocca’s: Tassin was earning about $60,000 a year in an unsatisfying role, read up on personal finance and got started. Besides cutting wasteful spending, the now-podcast host leaned heavily into automation — ensuring every dollar had a job (and that job was generating more money).
Finally, like Allocca, Gatti Tassin also launched a social media presence, creating a valued brand — and thereby, a new career.
‘Boring’ 401(k) Plans Are Millennial Millionaire Vehicles, Too
“Whenever people hear a millennial on a $60,000 salary hit a million bucks, they assume it’s a tech windfall, a crypto gamble or living off ramen in their parents' basement,” said Dominick Miserandino, CEO of RTMNexus, on the subject of the wealthier members of said generation.
“It’s none of those. It’s boring, mechanical math,” he added — emphasizing the importance of building digital side equity, setting up recurring investments and house-hacking sooner, rather than later.
That mechanical math appears to be paying off for many millennials taking advantage of one of the oldest wealth-building plays in the book: 401(k) accounts. According to 2025 Fidelity data, millennials represented the largest group among an all-time-high number of 401(k) millionaires.
According to Yahoo Finance columnist Kerry Hannon, it would be unwise to predict exactly where these retirement investors’ balances will stand by year-end, but one thing is evident: millennials have at last joined the ranks of million-dollar savers.
The famously frugal Dave Ramsey provided another case study within his book “Baby Steps Millionaires.” Profiling partners Melanie (earning $50,000 per year) and JD (earning $60,000) per year, Ramsey told readers of how these two hardworking millennials followed his Baby Steps advice to viciously attack and eliminate debt, live simply and without nice-to-haves, put down 50% on a $375,000 home — which was soon paid off — and accrue $100,000 in savings and investments alongside $575,000 in 401(k) plans and Roth IRAs.
“The Baby Steps helped Melanie and JD accelerate their goal of becoming millionaires before 40 and reach a net worth of $1.1 million dollars without receiving any inheritance or leveraging any borrowed money,” Ramsey said.
This article was provided by MoneyLion.com for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial, legal or tax advice.
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