I’m 42, A 1st Generation Immigrant, And Have $4.4m Without An Inheritance

One of the best aspects of creating wealth for yourself is the knowledge that you did it without any help from anyone. This is especially true if you come to a new country, like America, and quite literally find yourself living the American dream. 

For one Redditor posting in r/Rich, this is exactly what happened as they found themselves at 42 years old, able to say they made it. With a net worth of over $4 million, this first-generation immigrant is taking a few minutes to rightfully “brag” about their success. 

Finding Success

From this Redditor’s post, we learn that they are a 42-year-old, first-generation immigrant who has recently achieved a net worth of $4.4 million. We also learn from the Redditor that they began investing in the market slowly, starting with a few hundred dollars in various tech stocks around 2004. 

Thankfully, luck and timing were on their side, and they continued to invest and buy, all while working for companies that offered restricted stock units. As these stocks vest, the Redditor would sell them and then buy something else. Later on, they graduated to real estate, made a profit, and moved on. 

Twenty years later, this individual has achieved multi-millionaire status, and when asked about their investing strategy, it’s actually pretty simple. They admit that they invest based solely on their liking for the stocks. Does the original poster like and use Apple products? Yes, so they invested in Apple. 

This trend extends to social media stocks, as well as companies like Qualcomm, Adobe, NVIDIA, and others. With knowledge of the tech world from their day job, there is a strong belief that this sector is exactly where to go to make money. The most important thing is that this is all from investing over the years, and there is no other science behind their success. The Redditor acknowledges trying to go at it alone and starting a business, which failed, so they refocused solely on an investment strategy. 

Salary Growth

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that over the last 20 years, this Redditor has gone from earning $36,000 per year to over $600,000. This dollar amount likely indicates a smaller base salary, with the remainder being restricted stock units that they sell and reinvest. It’s this money that they have been able to utilize in a way that has allowed them to grow a significant amount of wealth. 

No Inheritance

One of the things the Redditor wanted to make absolutely clear was that they did this without any inheritance. The original poster didn’t receive any help from anyone and is entirely self-made. This isn’t entirely unsurprising, as approximately 80% of millionaires in America are first-generation, according to the Cato Institute.

More importantly, a large percentage of this number consists of either immigrants or the children of immigrants. In fact, as of 2022, 15% of billionaire wealth was held by foreign-born US citizens, with an approximate net worth of $711 billion, a figure that has undoubtedly grown over the past three years. 

At the end of the day, hard work is going to be the key to success, no matter where you are born or who you were necessarily born to. While access does help, this Redditor is all the proof anyone needs that if you invest smartly, you can make it entirely on your own.