In a world dominated by money, it’s always nice to dream about grasping true financial freedom – can any of us become billionaires, then, in our lifetimes?
Becoming a billionaire isn’t typically about making money from working the same job or sticking to the same position. Many billionaires are where they are thanks to several different factors – but two of the biggest steps to billionairehood seem to be: 1)being a wildly successful entrepreneur and 2) saving and investing all that cash!
Of course, saving and investing have their pitfalls – meaning that working your way up to a ten-figure net worth is going to take a wealth of time, effort and luck. Let’s see what steps you can take to make the kind of fortune that gets you on ‘rich lists’.
If you’re curious about how quickly you can become a self made billionaire, then please do try out the billionaire calculator below!
Billionaire Calculator
Are you curious as to how long it will take you to become a billionaire? Or how to become a billionaire from zero? Can you become a billionaire overnight? This is the place to test it out!
There are 4 inputs to this calculator:
- Target Portfolio Value: The desired value, in this case $1 billion.
- Starting Portfolio Value: Enter the current value of your portfolio
- Monthly Investment: How much money you plan to invest in to your portfolio each month
- Annual Rate of Return: The total return on your portfolio on an annualized basis. If you are fully invested in stocks, you can try 8-10%. If you are a conservative investor, you can try between 5-7%.
The calculator generates an output and tells you how many years it will take for you to become a billionaire. There is also a handy little chart that shows your portfolio growth over time. Feel free to use the controls at the top right of the chart to pan and zoom, or to save an image of the chart.
Working on your results…this might take a few seconds…Thanks for waiting!
How much do billionaires make a year?
There’s no average ‘salary’ or ‘income’ for most billionaires, with many remaining wealthy through assets. However, interest or wise reinvestment of large sums can bring tens of millions into your bank account each year.
Some billionaires don’t make new money each year at all. Instead, they retain their net worth through careful management of finite assets, choosing to sell on when they need to. Assets can include real estate, companies, and brands.
No two billionaires are quite alike in the money they earn, but they have the same attitude towards saving and investing – to be consistent, and to diversify investments.
Can I become a billionaire by investing in stocks?
You can become a billionaire by investing in stocks, but it helps to have ample amounts of liquid cash before you begin. It’s true that many billionaires we see today have achieved the status by making millions first – and then smartly investing these large sums in a variety of options.
Diversification is the key to smart investing, especially when you want to become a billionaire! A healthy attitude to risk on the markets is one that believes there is ‘no safe investment’. What’s more, the smartest billionaires are careful around percentages.
Inflation, ultimately, can compound and reduce the value of a billion pounds over the decades to come. Effectively, investors need to adjust their expectations and account for an inflation rate just higher than the average to continue building wealth. If inflation is rising at 4%, account for 4.5%.
There’s also the matter of cuts – even the smallest of slices, a 1% fee on brokerage, for example, can result in serious financial losses further down the line.
The most successful stock investors are those who take their time to research the markets and their prospective options. They’re also people who actively help businesses they buy stock in to improve and grow. This leads to fantastic yields further down the line.
Investing now, above all else, is important. Even if you start small, providing you’re willing to do your homework, you could make a healthy income just by seizing the day.
Can I become a billionaire by investing in real estate?
You can become a billionaire through real estate investing, though you’ll need a firm business plan, a talented team, and a sustainable market that can grow your money over years to come. This is a process that’s going to take the long side of many decades to come to fruition if you’re really set on making a billion!
Look for markets that benefit from growing local economies. Look around for evidence of population growth with housing rates that stay just ahead of demand. Above all, look for areas with abundant properties – but not too abundant. Again, it’s good to invest in markets where availability is just peaking ahead of demand.
You’ll need property managers, solicitors, estate agents, accountants and contractors on side to help you build the perfect real estate portfolio. Like building a fortune from stocks, real estate success relies on your due diligence, and ensuring that you have a team that’s willing to work hard for the best results. After all, they’ll be in the game to make money, too.
Real estate investment success is all about investigating what drives people to buy property, and which properties are likely to become more popular in the years to come. You can’t, sadly, expect to make billions from estate investment inside a year or two. You can learn as you go – in fact, it’s healthy not to know everything when it comes to both markets and real estate.
How can I become a billionaire in 5 years?
There’s no proven plan for anyone to become a billionaire in five years or less, and unless you already have hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank, your odds are not going to be great. However that isn’t a reason to get disappointed. The best things in life take time, and you can be firmly on you way by investing you cash in appreciating assets right away.
The best thing you can do to start on your journey to billionairedom is to read, learn from successful businesspeople, listen to podcasts, and adjust your perception of risk. Be aware that any money you invest and grow is always at risk of disappearing, and that even the ‘safest’ of ETFs or asset purchases won’t make you the big bucks.
Diversifying as much as possible over the course of five years will also ensure you have multiple pots and cushions to fall back on if you need to. Enlist the help of financial managers, too, who can guide you through the most lucrative avenues available.
Otherwise, making a billion might be as simple as writing an incredible book that launches a pop-culture phenomenon overnight – just look at Harry Potter author JK Rowling! Or, you could be discovered as the ‘next big thing’, either on the pop charts or on the big screen.
While these avenues to wealth inside five years seem very unlikely, you never know what you might make if you try. The key to all of these billionaire-making opportunities is this – if you want to make a billion, you have to start now – and you have to be willing to be uncomfortable, at least for a little while, and to stay patient.
Anyone can be a billionaire – but we all start at different difficulty levels. Unless you have millions in liquid cash ready to invest, you may have a long journey ahead of you.
